OLHA KORNIIENKO
Historian of Fashion and Material Culture: Ukraine and USSR
About Me
I hold a Ph.D. in History from the Institute of History of Ukraine, National Academy of Sciences. I am the founder of the Digital Archive of the History of Ukrainian Fashion and am currently a visiting fellow at the Leibniz Centre for Literary and Cultural Research (ZfL) in Berlin, Germany. I specialize in the history of modern Ukraine with a particular focus on fashion and culture. I am working on my book titled “Fashioning Freedom: Ukrainian Soviet Fashion from World War II to Independence.”
I combine approaches and methodologies from various disciplines, including sociology, anthropology, and digital humanities. My research interests include Soviet fashion, Ukrainian culture and identity, visual and material culture, Cold War culture, socialist consumer culture, and late Soviet everyday culture. I also have experience in organizing fashion exhibitions.
My research has been supported by numerous international organizations, including the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute (HURI), Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History (ZZF), Leibniz Center for Literary and Cultural Research (ZfL), Volkswagen Foundation, European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grants, Institute for Human Sciences (IWM), and the Center for Urban History of East Central Europe in Lviv.
Education
B.A. and M.A. degrees awarded by Karazin Kharkiv National University, Ukraine
2010-2014
B.A. degree
B.A. in History, graduated: June 2014
2014-2015
M.A. degree
M.A. in History, awarded: June 2015
Ph.D. degree awarded by the Institute of History of Ukraine, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
2015-2020
Ph.D. degree
Ph.D. in History
Thesis title: A Fashion Phenomenon: State Policy and Everyday Life in
Ukrainian SSR, 1956–1985
My current project
The project disentangles the many strands that make up the history of Ukrainian fashion production, products and consumption, casting Ukrainian fashion as a colonizing as well as colonized actor within the Soviet Union and as an agent of Ukrainianness acting on a global stage. It draws and impacts on a variety of on-going discourses including Soviet cultural and nationality politics, the role of art, design and consumption under authoritarian rule, Cold War soft diplomacy, and the role of the Ukrainian diaspora. The examination of Ukrainian Soviet fashion reveals the mechanisms of inter-republican relations, the pivotal role played by the Ukrainian SSR within the community of Soviet republics, the influence exerted by the West, and the negotiating potential of consumers. In essence, fashion pertains to a number of questions that have shaped Ukraine into what it is today while offering clues about the factors that guided Ukraine along its path toward independence.
Selected Academic Writings
2021
Ukrainian Fashion Houses as Centers of Soviet Fashion Representation. The Hungarian Historical Review. Vol. 10. Issue 3. 2021, pp. 495–528 (got the award “The Hungarian Historical Review’s Editors’ Special Mention”)
2018
Periodicals of the Ukrainian SSR in the 1950s-1980s as a Tool for Influence on Fashion and Everyday Life. Journal of Karazin Kharkiv National University “History of Ukraine. Ukrainian Studies: Historical and Philosophical Science”. Vol. 27. Kharkiv, 2018. pp. 77–89 (in Ukrainian)
2018
Structure and Peculiarities of the Fashion Industry Functioning in the Ukrainian SSR in the Second Half of the 20th Century. Scientific Notes of V. I. Vernadsky Taurida National University “Historical Sciences”. Vol. 29 (68). Kyiv, 2018. pp. 18–23 (in Ukrainian)
2016
In Search of Soviet Fashion: Foreign Business Trips to the “Fashion Trendsetters” Countries in 1950s–1960s. Journal of Karazin Kharkiv National University “History of Ukraine. Ukrainian Studies: Historical and Philosophical Science”. Vol. 22. Kharkiv, 2016. pp. 49–55 (in Ukrainian)
2014
Soviet fashion through the lens of the satirical magazine Perets’ (1964–1991): database, content analysis of caricatures. Historical information science. Vol. 4 (10). Barnaul, 2014. pp. 50–67 (in Russian)
2014
Organization and management system of French fashion enterprises through the eyes of Soviet fashion designers (based on archival materials from the 1950s–1960s). Journal of Kharkiv National University V.N. Karazin. “History”. Vol 49. 2014. pp. 218–229 (in Russian)
Academic Scholarships and Awards
July 2024
EUROPAST Summer School, Luxembourg
Since June 2024
Leibniz Centre for Literary and Cultural Research (ZfL), Visiting Research Fellow, Berlin, Germany
Since May 2024
Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History (ZZF), Associated Researcher, Potsdam, Germany
October 2023
German-Ukrainian Historical Commission Award for Archive Services in Ukraine
February 2023 - April 2024
Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History (ZZF), Postdoctoral Scholar, Potsdam, Germany
October 2022–January 2023
April–September 2022
Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History (ZZF), Postdoctoral Scholar, Potsdam, Germany
September-October, 2015
Trier Digital Humanities Autumn School, Germany and Luxembourg
October 2013– June 2014
Lomonosov Moscow State University, Faculty of History, Historical Informatics Department, Research Fellow, Moscow, Russia
Membership in Professional Associations
Since 2024
British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies
(BASEES)
Since 2023
The Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES)
Since 2023
The Canadian Association of Slavists (CAS) / The Canadian Association for Ukrainian Studies (CAUS)
Since 2018
The International Association for the Humanities (IAH)
Since 2014
The International Association “History and Computing”
Selected Conferences and Public Talks
2024
Fashioning Freedom: Making Ukrainian Fashion in the Era of Change (1985-1991)
Leibniz Centre for Literary and Cultural Research (ZfL), Berlin, Germany
2024
Fashion Through a Satirical Lens: Perception and Influence in Soviet Ukraine
EUROPAST Summer School, Luxembourg
2024
Fashion Across Borders: Soviet Ukraine’s Soft Power and Diplomacy
BASEES Annual Conference, University of Cambridge, the UK
2023
‘Kyiv Fashion is More American than Cossack’: (Re)discovering Ukrainian Heritage through Fashion in Late Socialism
ASEEES (Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies) Annual Convention at Philadelphia, USA
2023
Social Media, Memes, and Other Born-Digital Sources on the War in Ukraine: From Collecting and Archiving to Academic Research and Teaching (discussant and chair)
ASEEES (Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies) Annual Convention at Philadelphia, USA
2023
‘From Fabrics to Fashions: Production and Labor in Soviet Ukraine’s Fashion Industry’
Loom and Labor workshop at Slavs and Tatars Pickle Bar, Berlin, Germany
2023
Ukrainian Folklore and Historical Heritage:
Efforts to Build a National Brand Through Fashion in the 1940s-1980s
The International Conference «Ukraine: History, Culture, and Politics» organized by the Havighurst Center for Russian and Post-Soviet Studies at Miami University, Cuma, Italy
2023
Ukrainian Identity Through the Lens of Fashion (Based on the Montreal Expo-1967)
Canadian Association of Slavists Annual Conference, Toronto, Canada
2022
Soviet Ukrainian Fashion During the Cold War
Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA
2021
Under the Western Brand: Official Portrayals of Soviet Fashionistas in the Satirical Magazine Perets”
The International Conference “Consuming and Advertising – Eastern Europe Revisited”, Marburg, Germany
2021
Ukrainian ‘haute couture’ of the 1940s-1980s: from sketch to masterpiece
The International Fashion Exhibition “Kyiv Fashion”, Kyiv, Ukraine
2019
Industrial Espionage or Cultural Cooperation? Fashion Tourism under Iron Curtain: Organization, Process and Samples Adaptation
ASEEES (Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies) Summer Convention, Zagreb, Croatia
2018
Constructing the Image of a Modern Woman in the Soviet Woman Magazine (1956–1991)
The International Conference “Exploring the Past: New Social History at the Crossroads of Methodological Trends” at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Kyiv, Ukraine
2017
Satire as a Tool for the Formation of Views on Fashion in Soviet Society
Kharkiv Historical and Philological Society, Kharkiv, Ukraine
2017
Flipping through pages of the Perets’ magazine: Soviet and Western fashion in quantitative terms
The International Conference “Soviet Heritage Through the Prism of Modernization” at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine
2017
Under the Western Brand: Soviet Dandies and Ladies in the 1950s-1980s
The International Conference “Exploring the Past: Methodological Update of Historiography in Ukraine” at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Kyiv, Ukraine
Academic and Public Activities
Organizations that supported my research
