Nataliia Shuliakova

Nataliia Shuliakova is a History major at with a focus on Central and Eastern Europe and is pursuing a certificate in Human Rights. Her research sits at the intersection of social theory, state formation, and knowledge production, examining how collective trauma and memory become contested in socio-political contexts and how varying discourses on liberation from violence shape political possibilities in post-conflict societies.

Nataliia's work theorizes collective mobilization and dissent, investigating how states consolidate authority through psychological governance and how resistance movements contest official knowledge about violence and its aftermath. She is particularly interested in how knowledge about trauma, subjectivity, and collective memory is produced, weaponized, and reclaimed—whether through state institutions, international human rights mechanisms, or grassroots movements.

Her current work focuses on resistance movements in Serbia, Georgia, and Ukraine, tracing varying discourses on liberation from violence as interconnected struggles across post-conflict and post-Soviet spaces. By examining how these movements navigate competing knowledge frameworks—from transitional justice mechanisms to trauma narratives to revolutionary politics—she analyzes how communities organize resistance through cultural practices, commemoration rituals, and grassroots mobilization. By examining how these movements navigate competing frameworks—transitional justice, trauma narratives, revolutionary politics—she analyzes how liberation discourses shape political possibilities and how memory becomes foundational to both state formation and challenges to sovereignty.

Department: History