Introducing a new Committee Member: Yaroslava Bukhta

Hello! I’m Yaroslava Bukhta, and I’m thrilled to join the Women’s Leadership Programme committee as one of the new co-presidents.

I’m a current DPhil student in Anthropology at St John’s, researching how knowledge about contemporary warfare is constructed and distributed. I previously completed an MPhil in Social Anthropology here at St John’s, dedicating two years to exploring how journalists choose which stories to report — and why it is that we see what we see when we open the news on our phones.

Before Oxford, I worked in media and communications for over five years—leading campaigns for the Council of Europe and USAID in Ukraine, and reporting on EU agri-food policy as part of the EURACTIV team in Brussels. My work has always circled around stories, power, and public understanding. These threads now run through my academic research and, in many ways, through the kind of leadership I care about: honest, curious, and deeply collective.

Women’s empowerment, to me, means sisterhood, support, and full acceptance — starting with ourselves, and extending outward. As someone researching Ukrainian journalism under the full-scale war, I’ve seen how media outlets transform overnight: from watchdogs to partners in documenting war crimes, training prosecutors, and preserving truth. Most of the people I interview are women — brave, relentlessly competent, often carrying emotional burdens in silence, and not less often shut down by the pressure of male environments and societal expectations.

My reason for stepping into this role is simple: I want young women — like myself — to know they’re not alone in all the little and big fights. I come from a culture where I was told women can't be real friends, that we’re all in competition. And yet, time and again, I’ve been proven wrong. Every step of my journey has been shaped by women who supported me, mentored me, challenged me, and made me believe I belonged. Without them, I wouldn’t be here.

So, I want the Women’s Leadership Programme to be a place where that kind of support becomes the norm. A space where we can be vulnerable without fear, ambitious without apology, and honest without performance.

Together with my co-president, Rachel, we are looking forward to welcoming even more experiences in the rooms of St John’s. My main aim is to bring together women from different backgrounds, disciplines, and walks of life—and help us all break out of our bubbles. I’m hungry for real conversations, for advice from those who’ve walked the path before, and for building something lasting that will keep evolving with each new generation that joins this programme. Just like it did for me.

Let’s talk, and let’s build something bigger together!