Lecturers of the Department of Economic and Social Geography

Nataliia PROVOTAR

PhD, Associate Professor

Associate Professor of Department of Economic and Social Geography

Academic Profiles

Education

1990-1993 – PhD Student, Economic and Social Geography, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv

1985-1990 – Master’s Student, Geography, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv

 

Degree

1993 – PhD (CSc) in Economic and Social Geography, Thesis titled “Spatial Organization and Integrated Development of an Agro-Industrial Enterprise”

 

Work Experience

Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv

1997 – Present – Associate Professor, Department of Economic and Social Geography

1993-1997 – Assistant Professor, Department of Economic and Social Geography

Institute of Geography, National Academy of Science of Ukraine (part-time)

2019 – Present – Senior Researcher, Sector of Territorial Organization of Society

 

Courses Information

  • “Urban Lab: Public Spaces,” “World Geography: Cities,” “Geography of Labor and Gender” (Bachelor’s)
  • “Urban Quality of Life,” “Migration and Urban Culture,” “Creative Cities,” “Theories of Spatial Organization,” “Gender and Geography” (Master’s)
  • “Regional Research in Human Geography” (PhD)

Guarantor of Bachelor’s Program «Urban Studies and Planning»

 

Research Interests

  • Urban public spaces
  • Urban quality of life, urban culture
  • Transformation of cities and suburban spaces
  • Migration
  • Gender geography

Supervising

  • 7 PhD dissertations in Geography, supervised to successful completion

Projects

  • 2025 – Thematic Papers Towards Inclusive and Resilient Urban Recovery in Ukraine (UN-Habitat, Alliance of Ukrainian Universities)
  • 2023-2026 – Labs4TwinnedResearch – Kyiv and Edinburgh Joint Research Development for the Future (Impacts of War Lab; UK-Ukraine Twinning Initiative, University of Edinburgh; Universities UK International, Cormack Consultancy Group)
  • 2022-2026 – Functional Territorial Structuring of Ukraine under russian Military Invasion (Institute of Geography, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine)
  • 2024 –  UNI-Paths ІІ: Innovation in Education for Ukraine (University of Ostrava; Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic)
  • 2023 – Contemporary Problems of Urban Development (NAWA – Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange; Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań)
  • 2019-2021 – Ambiguous Suburban Spaces: Comparative Analysis of Local Trajectories and Changing Everyday Practices (University of Salzburg; Austria’s Agency for education and internationalization (OeAD) and Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine)
  • 2017-2021 – Preconditions and Prospects of Metropolitan Region Development in Ukraine (Institute of Geography, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine)

Fellowships, Academic Mobility

  • 2024 – Eötvös Loránd University (Budapest, Hungary), ERASMUS+ staff mobility for teaching
  • 2024 – University of Ostrava (Czech Republic), Research Fellowship within the project “UNI-Paths ІІ: Innovation in Education for Ukraine”
  • 2023, 2025 – University of Edinburgh (UK), Research Fellowship within the project “Labs4TwinnedResearch – Kyiv and Edinburgh joint research development for the future”
  • 2023 – Adam Mickiewicz University (Poznań, Poland), Summer School “Contemporary problems of urban development”
  • 2019 – University of Salzburg (Austria), Research Fellowship within the project “Ambiguous suburban spaces: Comparative analysis of local trajectories and changing everyday practices”
  • 2019 – Tallinn University (Estonia), ERASMUS+ staff mobility for teaching

Professional Engagement

  • Member of the Jury for the III Stage of the All-Ukrainian Competition of Student Research Projects – affiliated with the National Center “Minor Academy of Sciences of Ukraine”
  • Member of the Ukrainian Geographical Society

Membership in Editorial Boards

Publications

  • Author and co-author of over 200 research and educational publications

Selected Publications

 Articles

PROVOTAR, N., SHCHUKA, H., & MEZENTSEV, K. (2025). Temporariness vs. Integration of Internally Displaced Persons under Uncertainty: The Case of Border Territorial Communities in Zakarpattia. Visnyk of V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, series «Geology. Geography. Ecology», Vol. 63, pp. 349-365.

PIDGRUSHNYI, G., YELISTRATOVA, L., APOSTOLOV, A., & PROVOTAR, N. (2025). The use of satellite information in the study of the spatial organization of society. Ukrainian Geographical Journal. №3, С. 51-60. 

PROVOTAR, N., & MELNYCHUK, V. (2025). Diversity of suburban spaces: the case of rural street in Kyiv’s suburbia. Czasopismo Geograficzne. Vol. 96 (1), pp. 175-199. 

PROVOTAR, N., SHCHURYK, Kh., & MEZENTSEV, K. (2024). Knowledge-based urban development: opportunities for Lviv as a knowledge city. Visnyk of V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, series «Geology. Geography. Ecology». Vol. 61, pp. 242-258. 

GARCIA FERRARI, M. S., MEZENTSEV, K., PROVOTAR, N., ILIADI, M., KARTALOU, N.-S. (2024). Displaced public spaces in Ukrainian cities: Increasing diversity and inclusion in urban reconstruction through temporary occupation. ZARCH. Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Architecture and Urbanism. Vol. 22, pp. 76-89 

PIDGRUSHNYI, G., PROVOTAR, N., & DUDIN, V. (2023). Spatial Characteristics of the Kyiv Metropolitan Region Development: The Dimensions of Polycentricity. Ukrainian Geographical Journal. №1, pp. 23-34.

ZAPOTOTSKYI, S., PROVOTAR, N., TRUSII, O., & ZAPOTOTSKA, V. (2022). Agrarian potential of Ukraine under post-Maidan crisis and armed conflict: factors and patterns of regional unevenness. Visnyk of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, series «Geology. Geography. Ecology». Vol. 57, pp. 103-120. 

PROVOTAR, N., OLISHEVSKA, Y., MEZENTSEV, K., & KRAVCHENKO, K. (2021). Street art in urban space: location and perception in Ukrainian cities.  Visnyk of V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, series «Geology. Geography. Ecology». Vol. 55, pp. 216-231. 

PARENYUK, V., PROVOTAR, N., & MEZENTSEV, K. (2021). Youth migration in Ukraine: regional dimension. Visnyk of V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, Series «Geology. Geography. Ecology». Vol. 54, pp. 240-253. 

GNATIUK, O., MEZENTSEV, K., & PROVOTAR, N. (2021). From agricultural station to luxury village? Changing and ambiguous everyday practices in the suburb of Vinnytsia, Ukraine. Moravian Geographical Reports. Vol. 29(3), pp. 202-216. 

PIDGRUSHNYI, G., MEZENTSEV, K., DUDIN, V., PROVOTAR, N., & BONDAR V. (2020). Commercial suburbanization in Kyiv metropolitan region: uneven development and polycentricity. Ukrainian Geographical Journal. №4, pp. 19-28.  

SMIGIEL, CH., MEZENTSEV K., & PROVOTAR, N. (2020). From exception to norm? Analysing gated housing in Sofia and Kyiv since 1989. Mitteilungen der Österreichischen Geographischen Gesellschaft, Mitteilungen der Osterreichischen Geographischen Gesellscaft. Vol. 162, pp. 91-121. 

MEZENTSEV, K., PROVOTAR, N., & PALCHUK, M. (2020). Public Spaces through the Lens of Participatory Urban Planning – The Case of Kyiv. Ukrainian Geographical Journal. №2, pp.  30-37. 

MEZENTSEV, K., GENTILE, M., MEZENTSEVA (PROVOTAR), N., & STEBLETSKA, I. (2019). An island of civilization in a sea of delay? Indifference and fragmentation along the rugged shorelines of Kiev’s newbuild archipelago. Urban Affairs Journal. Vol.41 (5), pp. 654-678. 

PROVOTAR, N., & BOHELSKA, O. (2025). The labor market of Ukraine during the war: Regional aspects and challenges. Constructive Geography and Rational Use of Natural Resources. Vol. 6(2), pp. 39-49.   

PROVOTAR, N., & KOTSIUBA, Y. (2024). Planning cities based on gender equality principles: Approaches and experiences. Bulletin of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Series in Geography. № 3-4(90-91), pp. 7-13. 

PROVOTAR, N., & OHIICHUK, N. (2024). Urban activism and tactical urbanism: The case of Zhytomyr in the context of integrated city development. Ekonomichna ta Sotsialna Geografiya. Vol. 92, pp. 14-25. 

PROVOTAR, N., & YERKIEIEVA, A. (2023). Past in the contemporary city: Challenges and prospects in conserving Kyiv’s cultural heritage. Ekonomichna ta Sotsialna Geografiya. Vol. 89, pp. 62-73. 

PROVOTAR, N., & SHCHURYK, K. (2023). City-forming role of universities: Impact on the socio-economic and spatial development of cities. Ekonomichna ta Sotsialna Geografiya. Vol. 90, pp. 34-46. 

PROVOTAR, N., KUTOVA, K., & DIBRIVNYI, E. (2022). Social and spatial differences in Inclusive infrastructure development in a large city. Bulletin of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Series in Geography. № 3-4(84-85), С. 8-15. 

Books

PIDGRUSHNYI, G., & PROVOTAR, N., eds. (2023). Development of Metropolitan Regions in Ukraine: The Experience of Kyiv. Kyiv: Institute of Geography, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. 209 p. 

NIEMETS, L., & MEZENTSEV, K., eds. (2019). Social Geography. Kyiv, 304 p. 

MEZENTSEVA (PROVOTAR), N., BATYCHENKO, S., & MEZENTSEV, K. (2018). Morbidity and Health in Ukraine: A Socio-Geographical Perspective. Kyiv, 136 p. 

MEZENTSEV, K., OLIYNYK, Ya., & MEZENTSEVA (PROVOTAR), N., eds. (2017). Urban Ukraine: At the Epicenter of Spatial Changes. Kyiv, 438 p. 

MEZENTSEV, K., PIDGRUSHNYI, G., & MEZENTSEVA (PROVOTAR), N. (2014). Regional Development in Ukraine: Socio-Spatial Inequality and Polarization. Kyiv, 132 p. 

MEZENTSEVA (PROVOTAR), N., & KRYVETS, O. (2013). Gender and Geography in Ukraine. Kyiv, 194 p. 

 

Book Chapters

MEZENTSEV, K. PROVOTAR, N., & GNATIUK, O. (2023). Courtyards, parks and squares of power in Ukrainian cities: planning and reality of everyday life under socialism. In: J. Mariotti, K. Leetmaa, eds. Urban Planning During Socialism. Views from the Periphery. London: Routledge, рр. 153-175. 

MEZENTSEV, K., NEUGEBAUER, C., & MEZENTSEVA (PROVOTAR), N. (2017). Civil Society. In: I. Brade, C.S. Neugebauer, eds. Urban Eurasia. Cities in Transformation. Berlin: DOM publishers, pp. 274-283.

MEZENTSEV, K., PIDGRUSHNYI, G., & MEZENTSEVA (PROVOTAR), N. (2015). Challenges of the Post-Soviet Development of Ukraine: Economic Transformations, Demographic Changes and Socio-Spatial Polarization. In: S. Henn, T. Lang, W. Sgibnev, K. Ehrlich, eds. Understanding Geographies of Polarization and Peripheralization. Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 252-269.