Associate Fellow

ERSTE Foundation - Winter 2026 2 – 27 February 2026

Project: Couples at war: a micro analysis of Ukrainians’ private life in times of war

Dr Coline Maestracci’s research project offers a micro-analysis of the private lives of Ukrainians during the ongoing war. The study positions the family as a focal point for understanding broader social upheavals, viewing it not just as a sphere of emotional attachment but as a mediating institution between the individual and society. By bridging political science with sociology and history, the project aims to address the 'blind spot' in war studies regarding the effects of conflict on the private sphere.

The research is structured around three core objectives:

Transformation of the family institution: an analysis of how war-induced upheavals, such as separation and loss, reshape conjugal bonds and social norms, including the legalisation of digital marriage.
Individual politicisation: an exploration of "ordinary politics," demonstrating how the intimate, subjective experience of war and the resulting emotions shape an individual’s relationship with traditional politics from the bottom up.
Procreation and filiation: a study of the challenges of procreation during active war, examining both the micro-level decisions of couples and the macro-level state discourses on demography and cryopreservation.

This project will use a methodology resulting from sociology and history. It is an original combination of four main qualitative tools: discourse and content analyses, individual semi-directive interviews with couples, non-participant observations, artefacts analysis. These tools aim to delve into the nuances of individual and collective experiences within the family sphere during the Russian war in Ukraine.

Through her association with INDEX, Maestracci seeks to offer fresh insights into Ukrainian resilience by examining the informal networks and relational dynamics that sustain society during the active phase of the war.

Coline Maestracci

Dr Coline Maestracci holds a PhD in political science from the Université libre de Bruxelles in Belgium. She is currently an associate at the Harvard Ukrainian Research institute and a lecturer at Université libre de Bruxelles. Her thesis focused on the engagement and disengagement trajectories of Ukrainian volunteer combatants in the Russo-Ukrainian war. Her postdoctoral research focuses on the effects of war on combatants’ families. Her qualitative research is characterized by an ethnographic and micro sociological approach.