The fourth lecture in the Havighurst Center's spring 2026 colloquium series, "Democracy in Post-Communist Eastern Europe."
Popova's work explores the rule of law and democracy in Eastern Europe. Her first book Politicized Justice in Emerging Democracies, which won the American Association for Ukrainian Studies book prize in 2013, examines the weaponization of law to manipulate elections and control the media in Russia and Ukraine. Her recent articles have focused on judicial and anticorruption reform in post-Maidan Ukraine, the politics of anticorruption campaigns in Eastern Europe, conspiracies, and illiberalism. Her new book with Oxana Shevel on the roots of the Russo-Ukrainian war entitled “Russia and Ukraine: Entangled Histories, Diverging States” is available from Polity Press.
