Intersectional Trap of (in)Visible Identities and Belongings. Between Engagement and Entrapment of Displaced Ukrainian Women Scientists

Abstract The displacement of Ukrainian women scientists due to the war has created a liminal state of multilocal entanglements, where they sustain emotional and professional ties to Ukraine while navigating the precarious realities of host countries. Despite contributing to Ukraine’s resistance through science diplomacy and advocacy, they face existential dilemmas around return, employment, and family care. EU-based temporary protection and funding schemes offer Ukrainian (women) scholars short-term relief but rarely lead to long-term institutional embeddedness. Instead, these scholars are caught in an intersectional trap, where gender, nationality, and non-hegemonic academic backgrounds hinder access to long-term or tenure-track positions. Based on interviews, autoethnography, and participatory observations in Germany and Italy as contrasting examples, in our study, we explore three coping strategies: engaging with and managing multiple transnational workload shifts, prioritizing professional self-actualization, and exercising a political voice for civic engagement internationally. The findings highlight the need for institutional responses that recognize the structural hierarchies shaped by epistemic injustice and the (in)visible burden of sustaining professional identities across intersecting axes of inequality.