Natalia Khanenko-Friesen

Natalia Khanenko-Friesen is the Director of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, a professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies, and the Huculak Chair of Ukrainian Culture and Ethnography at the Kule Folklore Centre, University of Alberta. As a prominent scholar in oral history and cultural anthropology, she co-founded both the Ukrainian Oral History Association and the Witnessing the War on Ukraine Summer Institute, and is the founding editor of the Engaged Scholar Journal. Her research spans ethnography, contemporary Ukrainian studies, and diaspora studies. Currently, she co-leads international collaborations to develop AI-based research protocols and interpretive tools designed to track, analyze, and expose repressive language and actions in KGB files, with a specific focus on Crimean Tatars and Ukrainian activists in Canada.