Iryna Bekeshkina

In 1974, Bekeshkina graduated from the Taras Shevchenko University of Kyiv with a degree in philosophy.[3] She then completed her graduate studies at the Institute of Philosophy within the Soviet Academy of Sciences.[3]

Bekeshkina was a scientific editor of Філософська думка (Philosophical Thought, uk), one of the leading philosophy journals of the Ukraine.[3] In 1977, she became a researcher at the Soviet Academy of Sciences, and beginning in 1990 she worked as a researcher at the Institute of Sociology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.[3]

Bekeshkina began to work at the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation in 1996.[3] There she conducted research, publishing papers largely on the sociology of politics and elections.[2] She particularly focused on the politics of the Ukraine.[4]

Bekeshkina became the head of the Democratic Initiatives Foundation in 2010, and remained the head of that organization until her death.[5] She was also a member of the board of the Ukrainian Think Tanks Liaison Office,[6] and was affiliated with the Media Director NGO, a Ukrainian media watchdog organization.[7]

Bekeshkina was named the 38th most influential woman in the Ukraine by Focus Magazine in 2007,[8] and in 2008 she was named 51st most influential woman in the Ukraine.[9] In explaining these rankings, the magazine cited her public-facing work in the study of political information and Ukrainian foreign policy.[8][9] In 2018 and 2020, she was included in lists of the 100 most successful women in the Ukraine compiled by the magazine HB (uk).[10][11][12]

• Senior Fellow, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine[13]