Polina is a PhD researcher in Political Studies at the University of Milan, Italy, where her research focuses on Big Data Analytics, Statistics, and Methods of Qualitative Research in Social Sciences. Her PhD thesis "The Evolution and Impact of Russian Newspeak in State Media," examines the manipulation of language in Russian state media, focusing on how linguistic techniques are used to downplay the consequences of war. By analyzing and comparing descriptions from pro-government and opposition media, the study aims to uncover the extent of Newspeak's influence on public perception.
Prior to her doctoral studies, Polina earned a Master of Data Analytics for Politics and Society from the Higher School of Economics in Russia, where she specialized in Natural Language Processing and the methodology of social and political research. Her master's thesis utilized sentiment analysis to explore Russian public opinion on mobilization, as reflected in comments on the social network Vkontakte.
Polina has also worked as a Research Assistant on projects such as "Governor's Voice" and "Map of Responsibility," where she analyzed regional elite actors and developed analytic tools to study center-regional relations in Russia.
Her research interests lie at the intersection of political science, data science, and social sciences, with a particular emphasis on how computer vision and Natural Language Processing can be used to analyze current political trends in modern autocracies.