Environmental Humanities Fellow 2026

ERSTE Foundation - Summer-Autumn 2026 1 July – 30 September 2026

Direnko's main project as a fellow is a comparison of environmental legacies between parts of Ukraine divided by two empires during late XIX - early XX centuries: the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the forest zone and the Russian Empire in the forest-steppe and steppe zones. It will examine how different forms of extractivism led either to the disappearance of species or to the artificial expansion of others, reshaping biodiversity and ecological perception. Direnko is particularly interested in the dichotomies: two parts of Ukraine under two empires; two types of landscapes — mountains with forests and plains with wetlands and steppes; and two types of pine— one that disappeared due to imperial demand for resources (yew, stone pine), and another that became a tool for transforming biodiverse landscapes into industrial forests (Scots pine). She will also examine how these histories extend to the present moment, as independent Ukraine's dealing with these plants continues to reproduce resource-oriented practices inherited from imperial governance, highlighted by conditions of war which demand such approach.

Nina Direnko

Nina Direnko is a researcher and educator working at the intersection of environmental humanities, political ecology, and artistic practice, with a focus on war, landscape, and ecological transformation in Ukraine. Direnko’s work explores how war reshapes relationships between humans, non-human life, and territory — particularly through themes of occupation, ecological loss, protection, and extractivism. She combines research, writing, and artistic formats (texts, exhibitions, audio, educational projects) to investigate environmental violence and imagine the best possible postwar futures.

Direnko works at the Askania-Nova Biosphere Reserve (currently under occupation), where she directly engages with a protected landscape affected by war, and which informs both her research and creative practice. She is also developing an artistic research project for Stockholm Architecture Triennial 2027, focusing on landscape, war, and ecological futures. In the past, Direnko exhibited her projects at Tbilisi Architecture Biennale, 2024 as well as Architecture Biennale in Venice, 2023 (Ukrainian Pavilion), where she co-authored a programme focused on ecology and the ways war reconfigures opportunities and threats for nature protection in Ukraine.