Natalia Varabyeu Kancelova is a predoctoral researcher within CeSCoS and is currently working on her dissertation, developing the concept of “unsolidarity”. Specifically, she is conducting a comparative study of the urban spaces of Vienna and Bratislava, exploring how refugees experience solidarity and unsolidarity in their everyday lives, and how these experiences influence their inclusion in the host societies.

Natalia earned her Bachelor’s degree in Transcultural Communication and pursued additional studies in Slavonic Studies as well as Political Science. In 2022, she graduated from the Master’s programme in Interdisciplinary Eastern European Studies (with a specialization in social sciences) at the University of Vienna. For her master’s thesis, she conducted field research in several Slovak villages with an above-average percentage of radical voters.

Before her current predoctoral position, she worked as an organisational assistant at the Department of Political Science and as a research administrator for the Research Platform Governance of Digital Practices. She also previously held a position as a student assistant within the FWF SFB German in Austria. Variation – Contact – Perception at the Department of Slavonic Studies, University of Vienna. In addition to her academic roles, she gained experience in the field of political education and policy research through her employment as a programme assistant at the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung office in Slovakia, where she was involved in both organisational and research-related tasks over several years.

Research interests

• Unsolidarity
• Local inclusion processes in the context of displacement from Ukraine
• Right-wing extremism/populism in rural areas
• Inclusive policymaking and social divisions
• Political developments in Slovakia

Publications

• Radhuber, Isabella M., Katharina Kieslich, Katharina T. Paul, Gertrude Saxinger, Sebastian Ferstl, David Kraus, Stephen Roberts, Natália Varabyeu Kancelová, and Barbara Prainsack (2025). Why ‘inclusive policymaking’ is needed during crises: COVID-19 and social divisions in Austria. SSM - Qualitative Research in Health, 7, 100539. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmqr.2025.100539 
• Varabyeu Kancelová, Natália (2024). Radical Voters in Rural Areas of Slovakia and Their Role in the Rise (and Fall) of the ĽSNS Party. Studia Politica Slovaca, 17, 1, p. 5-19. https://doi.org/10.31577/SPS.2024-1.1