Olga Kuchinskaya
Biographic Data
| ID | 137789 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Olga Kuchinskaya |
| GIVEN NAMES | Olga |
| FAMILY NAME | Kuchinskaya |
| SIGNATURE | KUCHINSKAYA O |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Pittsburgh |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6678-8262 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 9 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 25 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 9 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Expert Patients and Networks of Expertise and Ignorance
Patients with rare or understudied diseases often encounter a lack of medical answers about diagnosis or treatment and might seek new ways to obtain answers. The conceptual framework of “networks of expertise” helps analyze such encounters with a lack of medical answers as situations of medical ignorance, which are not necessarily accidental and have been shown to reflect the bias and organization of related networks of expertise. In this context…
Chernobyl and the Production of Ignorance
What is the number of casualties from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster? Historian Kate Brown's important book grew out of apparent frustration with the controversy surrounding the accident. Brown was frustrated with the position of United Nations agencies—often repeated in the media—that only thirty-one to fifty-four died as the result of the accident, most of them emergency responders. The only recognized effect for the general population was…
Citizen Science and the Politics of Environmental Data
In this commentary, I reflect on the differences between two independent citizen approaches to monitoring radiological contamination, one in Belarus after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident and the other in Japan following the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi accident. I examine these approaches from the perspective of their contribution to making radiological contamination more publicly visible (i.e., publicly recognized as a hazard). The analysis is gro…
Connecting the Dots
Air pollution and other environmental hazards are often imperceptible and need to be made publicly visible. The paper argues for the importance of visualizations in drawing public attention to imperceptible hazards and in providing the public with access to empirical data describing the risks. It also argues for critical inquiry into hazards’ selective visibility as it is produced by visualizations. The impact of visualizations and their selectiv…
Recurrent losers unite
The Politics of Invisibility
Lessons from the massive Chernobyl nuclear accident about how we deal with modern hazards that are largely imperceptible. Before Fukushima, the most notorious large-scale nuclear accident the world had seen was Chernobyl in 1986. The fallout from Chernobyl covered vast areas in the Northern Hemisphere, especially in Europe. Belarus, at the time a Soviet republic, suffered heavily: nearly a quarter of its territory was covered with long-lasting ra…
Twice invisible
This article examines the politics of formal representations of environmental hazards. Certain environmental hazards are made publicly invisible when their formal representations are misaligned with what can be measured in practice under the existing socioeconomic and technoscientific conditions. Conversely, better aligning formal representations and measurement capabilities helps reveal the scope of such hazards. Such (mis)alignment of formal re…
Articulating the signs of danger
This essay examines lay experiences of radiation—the hazard imperceptible with unaided senses—and how these experiences are shaped. Analysis is conducted on the basis of participant observation and interviews in Belarusian rural areas affected after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident. I argue that radiation risks and health effects are not always obvious or immediately observable for those experiencing them, and they should be articulated. The p…
Communism And The Nuclear Core
Twice invisible
This article examines the politics of formal representations of environmental hazards. Certain environmental hazards are made publicly invisible when their formal representations are misaligned with what can be measured in practice under the existing socioeconomic and technoscientific conditions. Conversely, better aligning formal representations and measurement capabilities helps reveal the scope of such hazards. Such (mis)alignment of formal re…
Citizen Science and the Politics of Environmental Data
In this commentary, I reflect on the differences between two independent citizen approaches to monitoring radiological contamination, one in Belarus after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident and the other in Japan following the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi accident. I examine these approaches from the perspective of their contribution to making radiological contamination more publicly visible (i.e., publicly recognized as a hazard). The analysis is gro…
Recurrent losers unite
Chernobyl and the Production of Ignorance
What is the number of casualties from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster? Historian Kate Brown's important book grew out of apparent frustration with the controversy surrounding the accident. Brown was frustrated with the position of United Nations agencies—often repeated in the media—that only thirty-one to fifty-four died as the result of the accident, most of them emergency responders. The only recognized effect for the general population was…
Communism And The Nuclear Core
Articulating the signs of danger
This essay examines lay experiences of radiation—the hazard imperceptible with unaided senses—and how these experiences are shaped. Analysis is conducted on the basis of participant observation and interviews in Belarusian rural areas affected after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident. I argue that radiation risks and health effects are not always obvious or immediately observable for those experiencing them, and they should be articulated. The p…
Twice invisible
This article examines the politics of formal representations of environmental hazards. Certain environmental hazards are made publicly invisible when their formal representations are misaligned with what can be measured in practice under the existing socioeconomic and technoscientific conditions. Conversely, better aligning formal representations and measurement capabilities helps reveal the scope of such hazards. Such (mis)alignment of formal re…
The Politics of Invisibility
Lessons from the massive Chernobyl nuclear accident about how we deal with modern hazards that are largely imperceptible. Before Fukushima, the most notorious large-scale nuclear accident the world had seen was Chernobyl in 1986. The fallout from Chernobyl covered vast areas in the Northern Hemisphere, especially in Europe. Belarus, at the time a Soviet republic, suffered heavily: nearly a quarter of its territory was covered with long-lasting ra…
Connecting the Dots
Air pollution and other environmental hazards are often imperceptible and need to be made publicly visible. The paper argues for the importance of visualizations in drawing public attention to imperceptible hazards and in providing the public with access to empirical data describing the risks. It also argues for critical inquiry into hazards’ selective visibility as it is produced by visualizations. The impact of visualizations and their selectiv…
Recurrent losers unite
Citizen Science and the Politics of Environmental Data
In this commentary, I reflect on the differences between two independent citizen approaches to monitoring radiological contamination, one in Belarus after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident and the other in Japan following the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi accident. I examine these approaches from the perspective of their contribution to making radiological contamination more publicly visible (i.e., publicly recognized as a hazard). The analysis is gro…
Chernobyl and the Production of Ignorance
What is the number of casualties from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster? Historian Kate Brown's important book grew out of apparent frustration with the controversy surrounding the accident. Brown was frustrated with the position of United Nations agencies—often repeated in the media—that only thirty-one to fifty-four died as the result of the accident, most of them emergency responders. The only recognized effect for the general population was…
Expert Patients and Networks of Expertise and Ignorance
Patients with rare or understudied diseases often encounter a lack of medical answers about diagnosis or treatment and might seek new ways to obtain answers. The conceptual framework of “networks of expertise” helps analyze such encounters with a lack of medical answers as situations of medical ignorance, which are not necessarily accidental and have been shown to reflect the bias and organization of related networks of expertise. In this context…
Political science (7 works) · Law (6 works) · Computer Science (5 works) · Sociology (5 works) · Engineering (4 works) · Medicine (4 works) · Nuclear Issues and Defense (4 works) · Politics (4 works) · Epistemology (3 works) · Law (3 works)