Dr. Volha (Olga) Chykina
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Profile
Dr. Volha (Olga) Chykina’s work focuses on how politics shapes education. American political scientist Harold Lasswell famously defined politics as a fight over “who gets what, when, and how.” Chykina researches where these distributional concerns intersect with education, often determining who gets to study or say what, when, and how, and who gets to succeed.
In her research, Chykina tries to understand how exclusionary attitudes and policymaking shape the educational environments and outcomes of historically underrepresented students. To do this, she uses a range of quantitative methods, from social network analysis to conjoint experiments; develops new measures; and leverages both sub-national data from the United States and cross-national data.
Chykina received her doctorate in educational theory and policy and comparative and international education from the Pennsylvania State University. Prior to joining the Jepson School, she was a postdoctoral fellow with the Donia Human Rights Center at the University of Michigan. Her research has been published in the European Journal of Educational Research, Development, and Policy; Globalisation, Societies and Education; International Journal of Comparative Sociology; International Journal of Educational Research; Journal of College and University Law; PLOS One; and more.
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Awards
Mellon/SAR Academic Freedom Fellowship, 2023-24
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Awards
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Selected Publications
Journal Articles
Fernandez, F., Fu, Y. C., Lin, Y. C., and Chykina, V. (2026). Examining Institutional Academic Freedom and STEM Research Production in the OECD. International Journal of Educational Research, 136.
Fernandez, F., and Chykina, V. (2024). An Empirical Concern of the First Amendment: An Essay on the Benefits of Academic Freedom. The Journal of College and University Law, 49(2): 125-42.
Chykina, V. (2024). Expecting to achieve against the odds: Anti-immigrant sentiment and immigrants' educational and occupational expectations in Europe. European Journal of Education Research, Development and Policy 59 (1): 1-16.
Fernandez, F., Chykina, V., and Lin, Y. C. (2024). Science at risk? Considering the importance of academic freedom for STEM research. PLOS One, 19(2): 1-16.
Chykina, V. (2023). Pro-integration policies and the occupational expectations of immigrant youth. International Journal of Comparative Sociology, 64(2): 183-207.
Chykina, V., & Crabtree, C. (2023). Education and public support for COVID-19 mitigation measures. Socius, 9: 1-3.
Chykina, V. (2022). Trying to excel in the Golden State: Anti-immigration sentiment and immigrant educational achievement in California. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 20(5): 608-624.
Book ChaptersChykina, V., and Vourganti, S. (2024). Hypotheses and Error Types. In Translational Urology: Handbook for Designing and Conducting Clinical and Translational Research, edited by A. Eltorai, A. Arab, A. Atala, and M. M. Siddiqui. New York, NY: Elsevier.
Chykina, V. (2023). Educational Attainment. In The SAGE Encyclopedia of Leadership Studies, edited by George R. Goethals, Scott T. Allison, and Georgia J. Sorenson. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
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