DrOlga Boichak

Dr Olga Boichak is an ARC DECRA Fellow, Westpac Research Fellow, and Senior Lecturer in Digital Cultures at the University of Sydney. Her research explores how communities can build resilience when digital technologies are weaponised. She is the author of over 40 research articles that lay the groundwork for new directions in the studies of information warfare, particularly in the areas of media literacy, civilian resilience, and humanitarianism. Currently, she is working on a project that maps colonial topographies of digital sovereignty in Ukraine, as well as chief investigator on a suite of research projects that explore digital and social media in a geopolitical context.

Boichak is a media sociologist with a rich track record of interdisciplinary collaboration. She holds an interdisciplinary PhD in Social Science (2019) and a Master of Public Administration (2015) from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University (USA). Before joining the University of Sydney in 2019, she was a visiting scholar at the Toronto Metropolitan University (Canada) and a research assistant at the Center for Computational and Data Sciences (Syracuse University), where she contributed to the development of tools and analytic techniques that support social listening, orchestrated manipulation detection, and decision-making in complex scenarios. Prior to becoming an academic, she had a decade of professional experience in Ukraine, with roles spanning strategic communication, survey research, social entrepreneurship, and youth advocacy.

Boichak is one of the leading international commentators on the role of digital media in witnessing, representing, and challenging the course and outcomes of wars. Having served as an editor of the Digital War journal (2020-2023), she regularly appears on ABC, BBC, CNN, SkyNews, Channel24, CNA, Bloomberg, and has written for the Conversation, Foreign Policy, Sydney Morning Herald, The Strategist, and many others. The Missing Chapter documentary on Ukraine (Vox, 2022), based on her auto-ethnographic essay and original research materials, has amassed over 2 million online views, been translated into multiple languages, and is now a permanent exhibit at the Victims of Communism Museum in Washington, DC.

Boichak is a recipient of prestigious competitive fellowships and awards, including the Fulbright Fellowship (2014), Young Generation Will Change Ukraine Award (2014), International Communication Association's Best Paper Award (2019), the Vice Chancellor's Award for Outstanding Early Career Research (2022), and the Max Crawford Medal (2024), Australia's most prestigious award for the achievement and promise in the Humanities. She currently serves as Director of the Ukrainian Studies Foundation in Australia, Executive Committee member of the Ukrainian Studies Association of Australia and New Zealand, and is on the list of prominent Australians personally sanctioned by the Kremlin.