Galyna Ivanivna Zelenko

Deputy Director of the Institute, Head of the Department of Political Institutions and Processes, Doctor of Political Sciences, Professor, Correspondent Member of NAS of Ukraine.

In 1993, she graduated with honors from the Faculty of History of the Kyiv State Pedagogical University named after M. P. Drahomanov, qualifying as a history teacher and coordinator of extracurricular educational activities. She pursued her postgraduate studies at the Institute of Political and Ethnonational Studies of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) of Ukraine. In 2001, she defended her candidate dissertation titled “Ukraine – Poland: Models of Political Modernization” (specialty 23.00.02 – Political Institutions and Processes) and earned her PhD (Candidate of Political Sciences) degree. In 2005, she was awarded the academic title of Associate Professor by the Department of Philosophy and Political Science.

In 2007, she defended her doctoral dissertation titled “Institutionalization of Civil Society in Post-Socialist Countries (on the Example of Ukraine and the Visegrad Group Countries)” (specialty 23.00.02 – Political Institutions and Processes). She was awarded the academic title of Full Professor in the same specialty in 2014.

She has been working at the Kuras Institute of Political and Ethnonational Studies of the NAS of Ukraine since September 2000. Throughout her tenure, she has held the positions of Junior, Assistant, Senior, Leading, and Chief Research Fellow. She also served as the Academic Secretary of the Specialized Scientific Council for doctoral and candidate dissertation defenses in political sciences at the Kuras Institute of Political and Ethnonational Studies of the NAS of Ukraine.

From 2019, she headed the Department of Theoretical and Applied Problems of Political Science; from 2022, she has been the Head of the Department of Political Institutions and Processes; and since 2025, she has served as the Deputy Director for Research. She is a member of the Academic Council of the Kuras Institute of Political and Ethnonational Studies of the NAS of Ukraine.

She serves as the Deputy Chairperson of the Specialized Scientific Council for doctoral and candidate dissertation defenses at the Kuras Institute of Political and Ethnonational Studies of the NAS of Ukraine. Until 2022, she was a member of the Specialized Scientific Council for doctoral dissertation defenses at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. Since 2022, she has also been the Deputy Chairperson of the Specialized Scientific Council for doctoral dissertation defenses at the Kuras Institute of Political and Ethnonational Studies of the NAS of Ukraine.

She is the Editor-in-Chief of the journal “Political Studies” (“Політичні дослідження”), which ranked 1st among political science publications and 11th in the human development journal cluster according to the latest attestation results (2026). She is also a member of the editorial board of the journal “Wschód Europy” (Poland).

She is a member of the International Political Science Association (IPSA) and has been a member of the IPSA Council since 2007. From 2004 to 2010, she served as the Academic Secretary of the Political Science Association of Ukraine. She is a member of the Commission on European Integration of the Presidium of the NAS of Ukraine, and since 2019, she has been a member of the expert group of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine for evaluating the performance of scientific institutions in the field of Social Sciences.

She has repeatedly completed research fellowships and internships at foreign academic institutions, including:

Warsaw University (Summer School of Eastern European Studies program, 2001, Poland);
Central European University (Faculty Development Program, 2004, Budapest, Hungary);
Institute of Political Sciences of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (Grant of the Presidium of the NAS of Ukraine for Young Scientists, 2005, Bratislava, Slovakia);
Institute of Scientific Information for Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Grant of the Presidium of the NAS of Ukraine for Young Scientists);
European Parliament (Executive Training Program for Civil Servants, 2007, Brussels, Belgium);
Institute of International Relations of Warsaw University (Erasmus exchange program, 2018, Poland).

She is a laureate of the Award of the Presidium of the NAS of Ukraine for Young Scientists “For the Best Scientific Work” for her monograph “Catch-up Modernization: The Experience of Poland and Ukraine” (2003) and was a fellow of the Presidium of the NAS of Ukraine for Young Scientists (2005–2006). She has received research grants from the Presidium of the NAS of Ukraine for the project “Ukraine and Visegrad Group Countries: Cooperation within the Framework of Eastern Partnership” (in cooperation with the Institute of Political Sciences of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, 2011–2013) and from the National Agency for Innovation Development for the project “Public Organizations as Civil Society Structures: Dynamics of Changes in Post-Soviet Countries (on the Example of Ukraine and Moldova)” (in cooperation with the Institute of Philosophy of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova, 2010–2011). Her recent international projects include Erasmus+ (Warsaw University), “Insight Israel” (2026), and “Political System in Action” (funded by the Ministry of Education and Science of Poland, 2025–2026). She has actively participated in the IPSA World Congresses of Political Science (2014, Montreal; 2016, Poznan; 2018, Brisbane; 2021, Lisbon; 2023, Buenos Aires; 2025, Seoul). She represents the Political Science Association of Ukraine as a member of the IPSA Council.

She was honored with the awards of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine “For Professional Achievements” (2016) and “For Training the Next Generation of Scientists” (2021).

She combined her research work at the Institute with teaching activities—from 2005 to 2016, she worked as an Associate Professor and later as a Full Professor at the Department of Political Science of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. She taught courses in “Political Science”, “Political Conflict Resolution”, and “Political Extremism”.

She has successfully supervised 9 PhD candidates (Candidates of Political Sciences) to completion. She is fluent in English and Polish.

Her h-index is 27, which is one of the highest among Ukrainian political scientists.

Research interests: political transformation and political modernization in post-communist countries, political institutions of post-communist countries, parliamentarism, specific features of civil society development, and the impact of exogenous factors on post-communist transitions.