KINGSTON, R.I. – Aug. 27, 2026 – Olga Fert—lecturer and research associate at Technische Universität Braunschweig (TU Braunschweig) in Germany and a professor of special education at Ivan Franko National University in Lviv, Ukraine—will present at the University of Rhode Island on Thursday, Sept. 24, at 5:30 p.m. in Room 100 of the Beaupre Center on the Kingston Campus.

Fert will discuss “A Scholar Displaced, a Mission Continued: Inclusive Education During the War in Ukraine.” Her talk, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the University’s Office of Global Initiatives and the Feinstein College of Education. URI Vice Provost for Global Initiatives Kristin Johnson remarked, “We are honored to host Dr. Fert’s visit to Rhode Island, where she will be speaking to groups across the state about inclusive educational practices in Ukraine.”

Fert will discuss her personal journey fleeing Ukraine during the war with Russia and her work with Ukrainian mothers of children with disabilities and refugees living in Germany.

Disability work through displacement

Fert’s research focuses on inclusive education policy and the development of comprehensive systems of educational and social support for people with special educational needs and disabilities. She is coming to URI as part of URI’s continuing collaboration with the Technische Universität Braunschweig, through a DAAD-funded project which aims to help teachers learn how to respond to the needs of diverse student populations through hybrid shared experiences.

Fert began her career as a teacher in a general education school in Lviv, Ukraine, and later worked within a large Ukrainian-Canadian initiative focused on advancing inclusive education for children with special educational needs in Ukraine. She led Ukraine’s first Inclusive Resource Center and conducted doctoral research examining how civil organizations help shape inclusive education policy in both Ukraine and Canada. Fert also coordinated education initiatives at the center, supporting teachers across the city of Lviv, and taught at the Ukrainian Catholic University and Lviv Regional Institute of Postgraduate Pedagogical Education.

In 2022—displaced by war—Fert moved her academic career to Germany. At TU Braunschweig Fert’s work includes teaching and international collaboration with colleagues from the United States, as well as the development and organization of joint workshops and international summer schools in inclusive and special education. Alongside her academic work, she is engaged in supporting Ukrainian refugees in Germany, particularly families of children with special educational needs. Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Fert has expanded her research to incorporate the inclusion of Ukrainian refugee children and families within the German education system and the resilience of teachers and students in teacher education programs during wartime. She is also a research associate at the Institute of Special Education at Leibniz University Hannover, coordinating a partnership project fostering cooperation between education programs at Leibniz University and Ivan Franko University in Ukraine.

Prior to her talk, Fert will visit classes in URI’s Feinstein College of Education, speaking with URI students about inclusive education, Ukraine, and her personal and professional journey.

Fert’s lecture is sponsored by URI’s Feinstein College of Education with URI’s Project SUSTAIN program, a $1.1 million U.S. Department of Education funded program that aims to address critical shortages in qualified special education personnel across Rhode Island.

Registration for her presentation is requested.

For more information, contact Adam Moore, URI associate professor of special education, at adam_moore@uri.edu.