Role
Dr Kushnir is involved with a range of research, UG and PG teaching and supervision, leadership and administrative responsibilities within the Nottingham Institute of Education, the School of Social Sciences and beyond, cooperating with colleagues from other universities in the UK and internationally. She is a qualitative researcher with an interdisciplinary research background.
Career overview
ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS: PhD (University of Edinburgh, UK), MA (Central European University, Hungary/Austria), PSCert (Ball State University, USA), BEd Hons (Ternopil National Pedagogical University, Ukraine), BA Hons (Ternopil National Economic University, Ukraine)
CAREER MOBILITY: Dr Kushnir joined the Nottingham Institute of Education in 2018. She previously worked at the University of Sheffield as a University Teacher in Social Policy and a Research Associate on the EU funded Jean Monnet MIGRATE project. She also taught at Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools in Kazakhstan. Prior to that, Dr Kushnir had been teaching and supervising students on UG and PG Programs in Education and Social Policy at the University of Edinburgh.
Research areas
RESEARCH EXPERTISE: higher education, education policy and politics, Europeanisation, post-Soviet transition, social justice.
FUNDED RESEARCH PROJECTS:
- 2023-2024 - 'The quest of Ukrainians in England for inclusion in the local higher education sector in the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine'
- 2022-2024 - ‘Europeanisation agenda and membership in the European Higher Education Area post-2020: stakeholders’ perspectives from the UK, Germany, France and Italy’
- 2020-2021 - ‘Strategic significance of UK’s membership in the European Higher Education Area for the UK: the perspectives of key UK HE actors’
- 2020 - ‘Towards social justice in the European Education Area’
- 2019-2020 - ‘Re-introducing the homeless in Nottingham to education’
- 2019-2020 - ‘Education and the UN Developmental Goals Projects (MDGs and SDGs): definitions, links, operationalisations
- 2018-2019 – ‘Free University Nottingham’
- 2018-2019 - ‘A growing voice of ‘inclusion’ in the neoliberal context of the Bologna Process'
DOCTORAL SUPERVISION:
- Jennifer Swineheart
- Clare Allen
- Sara Bdeir
- Kelly Winfield
External activity
Dr Kushnir has co-founded a national-level non-for-profit research organisation the Ukrainian Educational Research Association (UERA) in 2015, acting as a communication officer. UERA has become the biggest and most influential national research association in Ukraine, evidenced by the fact that it has gained full membership in the European Educational Research Association (EERA).
Dr Kushnir is an executive editor of Sciendo's Journal of Pedagogy and a member of the British Education Research Association (BERA) working group of six academics across the UK for reviewing and recommending updates to the latest version of BERA Research Ethics Guidelines (2018). She has also reviewed for a range of journals and edited volumes by different publishers: Social Policy and Society, European Journal of Higher Education, European Educational Research Journal, Scientometrics, Journal of Sustainable Development, Cambridge Open-Review Educational Research e-Journal, book content for Emerald Ltd, Springer, etc.
Dr Kushnir is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA).
Sponsors and collaborators
Dr Kushnir is the PI on the two-year project funded by Spencer Foundation ($50,000) 'Europeanisation agenda and membership in the European Higher Education Area post-2020: stakeholders’ perspectives from the UK, Germany, France and Italy'
Publications
Please check the list of Dr Kushnir's publications by clicking on the relevant link in the top right corner.