Oleksandra Kokhan has a Master’s degree in Sociology and Social Anthropology at Central European University in Vienna. From 2022 to 2023, she studied at the University of Helsinki as part of a solidarity programme with Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv. She has worked as a mentor for the Invisible University for Ukraine (IUFU) and as a research assistant in the Finnish Network for Birth and Childbearing Research (BIRRES), a research group affiliated with the University of Helsinki.  

Kokhan has been a fellow in the Ukraine Research Network@ZOiS since September 2025. Her current research project – Wrinkles on the Face of War: Elderly Women’s Experiences of the Russo-Ukrainian War – looks at unpaid care work performed by women over 60 in small Ukrainian settlements during the war. By zooming in on commonalities and differences in their care work practice, the project sheds light on how older women contribute to the resilience of local communities. The overarching aim is to map diversity and foster social cohesion.