Ganna Pletnyova

I come from Kharkiv, the second-biggest city of Ukraine, sometimes called Ukraine’s city of students because it has a huge number of universities and young people studying there. I chose the University of Calgary for my Doctoral program because it is vibrant, diverse and a great place to be studying multilingualism.

In my interdisciplinary research, lying at the intersection of sociolinguistics, social psychology and political science, I apply Francophone sociolinguistic theories to the Ukrainian language situation, focusing on changes in language ideologies and practices of Russian-speaking Ukrainians in the wake of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. My supervisor is Dr. Ozouf Sénamin Amedegnato. Over the four years of my studies, I have twice received the Eyes High Doctoral Scholarship and the University of Calgary Silver Anniversary Graduate Fellowship.

I speak five languages (English, French, Russian, Ukrainian and German), finding in each of them fascinating works of literature to read, which is why it is difficult for me to name one favourite writer. As for movies, I like films starring Kristin Scott Thomas, and I also greatly respect the Coen brothers. In my spare time, I enjoy doing yoga, which I took up after going in for rhythmic gymnastics for 8 years, as well as hiking and cycling.

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