Coming from a largely interdisciplinary background spanning social psychology, human geography, and peace studies, I am interested in questions of belonging and hopes of return among forced migrants. My doctoral dissertation examined the sense of belonging and place-based identities of internally displaced people from Donbas. My most recent project explored the permanent temporariness and sense of (non-)belonging experienced by Ukrainian refugee women in Germany.

Drawing on perspectives from urban sociology and the sociology of emotions, my current research within PROMISE RP5 explores how life is envisioned within rebuilding and recovery projects in Ukraine, and what Ukrainian cities can promise to those who see their future in their homeland.

Since 04/2026 Postdoctoral researcher, DFG Research Unit 5870 “PROMISE: The Promise of Security in the Catastrophic Times”, Research project 5 “Life under Pressure. Political Intervention in the Face of Urbicide”

• 2023-2025 Postdoctoral researcher, Georg Simmel Center for Urban Studies, Humboldt University of Berlin, “Urban Futures at Risk” research group, funded by Einstein Foundation
• 2023 Visiting Fellow at University of Gothenburg, Sweden, Department of Sociology
• 2022-2023 Researcher at the Leibniz-Institute for Research on Society and Space (IRS), Erkner, project “Spatialized Decision-Making of Ukrainian Refugees in Germany” funded by Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung
• 2021-2022 Senior researcher, Policy analyst, Research coordinator at Cedos think tank in Kyiv, Ukraine
• 2020 PhD in Social Psychology, Institute for Social and Political Psychology, Kyiv, dissertation title: “Re-constructing spatial identities of internally displaced people using mental mapping approach”
• 2018-2019 Visiting Fellow at University of Bayreuth, Germany, Department of Cultural Geography, funded by DAAD
• 2018 Visiting Fellow at UiT – The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Center for Peace Studies
• 2016-2020 Research fellow at Research Institute for Social and Political Psychology in Kyiv, Ukraine
• 2016 M.Sc., Social Psychology, Kyiv National Taras Shevchenko University

Book chapters and edited volumes:

• Lazarenko, V. (2026). Belonging, Identity and Home. In The Oxford Handbook of Internal Displacement. Eds: David Cantor, Megan Bradley, Winifred Ekezie, Utz Pape, Natalia Baal, Melissa Weihmayer. Oxford University Press. 301–310
• Lazarenko, V., Rabinovych, M. (2025). Collective protection for Ukrainians in the EU: Laws, practices and implications for EU and Ukrainian policies. In: Ukraine’s Thorny Path to the EU. From “Integration without Membership” to “Integration through War”. Eds: Maryna Rabinovych, Anne Pintsch. Springer. 

Peer-reviewed journal articles:

• Hoefsloot, F. I., Zaporozhets, O., Haase, A., Lazarenko, V., & Kasper, M. (2026). Reclaiming Disruption: Pathways to Hopeful Urban Futures. Urban Planning, 11, Article 11708. 
• Lazarenko, V., & Haase, A. (2026). Refugees as Urban Stakeholders: Lessons From Reception of Ukrainians in German Cities. Urban Planning, 11, Article 11706.
• Lazarenko, V. (2025) “I simply cannot live like a guest forever…”: the limits of solidarity in the private hosting of Ukrainian refugees in Berlin. Journal of Housing and the Built Environment (2025).   
• Lazarenko, V. (2024) “Let the State Decide It All for Me”: The Role of Migration and Integration Policy in the Decision-Making of Ukrainian Refugee Women in Germany. Journal of International Migration & Integration (2024). 
• Howlett, M., Lazarenko, V. (2023) How and when should we (not) speak?: Ethical knowledge production about the Russia–Ukraine war. Journal of International Relations and Development 26, 722–732 (2023). 
• Haase, A., Arroyo, I., Astolfo, G., Franz, Y., Laksevics, K., Lazarenko, V., Nasya, B., Reeger, U. & A. Schmidt (2023) Housing refugees from Ukraine: preliminary insights and learnings from the local response in five European cities, Urban Research & Practice.
• Haase, A., Allsopp, H., Arroyo, I., Franz, Y., Laksevics, K., Lazarenko, V., Nasya, B., Raubisko, I., Reeger, U., Saadeh, B., Schmidt, A. and U. Stevens (2022) Refugee migration from Ukraine to other parts of Europe: Challenges to the housing-integration intersection at the city level, Radical Housing Journal, 4(2), pp. 211-216. 
• Lazarenko, V. (2021). Renaming and Reclaiming Urban Spaces in Ukraine: The Perspective of Internally Displaced People. Nationalities Papers 1-20. 
• Lazarenko, V. (2020). Mapping identities: Narratives of displacement in Ukraine. Emotion, Space and Society 35, 100674. 
• Lazarenko, V. (2019). Conflict in Ukraine: multiplicity of narratives about the war and displacement, European Politics and Society, 20:5, 550-566.

Policy briefs, reports, and blog posts:

• Lazarenko, V. (2024). The role of Ukrainian diaspora in crisis response, future return and reconstruction of Ukraine: Case study from Germany, Czech Republic and Poland. Vienna, Austria: International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD).
• Lazarenko, V. (2022, June 10). Kriegserfahrungen in der Ukraine: „Solidarität kann anstrengend sein“. ZEIT Online.
• Lazarenko, V., Bobrova, A., Khassai, Y., Filipchuk, L., Syrbu, O., Lomonosova, N., Nazarenko, Y. (2022). The First Days of Full-Scale War in Ukraine: Thoughts, Feelings, Actions. Initial research results. Cedos think tank.