Alina Bykova

Alina is a PhD candidate in Russian and East European History. Her research interests include Arctic and Soviet environmental history with a focus on energy and industry. Alina is writing her dissertation on the history of energy and extraction on Svalbard, Norway. In 2025-2026, Alina was a predoctoral fellow at the Clements Center for National Security at the University of Texas at Austin. She also works as a senior research associate and editor-in-chief at The Arctic Institute, an interdisciplinary think tank.

Alina earned her masters in European and Russian Affairs from the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto in 2019. Her masters thesis was about the rise and fall of Soviet mining settlements on Svalbard. Prior to her work in academia, she completed a Bachelor of Journalism at Toronto Metropolitan University and worked as a breaking news reporter at the Toronto Star, Canada’s largest newspaper.