Olga Zeveleva's work tackles militarization, violence, and human rights. She explores these themes by turning to two traditionally “non-military” settings: the media and the prison. Her past research dealt with the militarization of the media in Crimea during and after Russia's annexation, and forms the basis of her book project. Her latest research turns to militarization in the context of the prison, and is carried out within the framework of the ERC project "Gulag Echoes in the Multicultural Prison" (2019-2024) and a KONE Foundation project (2024-2030, see below).
Title: "Polycrisis of violence: Ecofeminist perspectives on the war in Ukraine and the military-prison nexus (PUMP)"
Funder: KONE Foundation
Duration: November 2024 - November 2030
Role: PI
Description: This research addresses the uneven effects of violence in the context of global crises, with a focus on prison-military connections in light of Russia’s war on Ukraine. The project zooms in on two institutions, the military and the prison. It answers the question of how varying levels of prison militarization shape inequalities in prison and in society along gender, class, and ethnic lines. It is based on an analysis of four most-different country cases that vary by level of prison militarization: Russia, Kazakhstan, Estonia, and Finland. The research is conceived as a multi-sited ethnography of prisons and prison towns.