Ioulia Shukan is a sociologist and professor at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS, Paris), and a researcher at the Centre for Russian, Caucasian, East European and Central Asian Studies (CERCEC). She is also a member of the organizing committee of the annual Danyliw Seminar in Ukrainian Studies (University of Ottawa, Canada), and a participant in the Research alliance "War and Society: Central and Eastern Europe in the 20th–21st Centuries," hosted by EHESS and implemented in partnership with Charles University (Prague) and the Center for Urban History of East Central Europe (Lviv).

Ioulia Shukan’s research focuses on forms of civic solidarity, care, and embodiment during the Russian-Ukrainian war. Her ethnographic study of women's volunteer work and care for wounded soldiers at the Kharkiv Military Hospital between 2014 and 2022 was published in June 2025 under the title Citoyennes soignantes. Guerre, femmes et fabrique du commun en Ukraine (Caring Citizens. War, Women, and the Making of the Common in Ukraine) by Éditions de la MSH. 

Since the beginning of Russia's full-scale military invasion of Ukraine, Ioulia Shukan has been researching, in real time and in dialogue with the history of armed conflicts and injuries of the 20th century, the relationship between war, its bodily implications, and forms of solidarity with military personnel and civilians who have experienced traumatic limb amputation. She analyzes this connection ethnographically—both from the perspective of the individual experience of traumatic amputation and the rebuilding of life after the biographical rupture it causes, and from the perspective of structural transformations in care and inclusion policies, as well as possible articulations of civic solidarity and state responsibility in these areas. Her research resonates with global issues of rebuilding life after amputation, constructing sustainable healthcare, prosthetics, and rehabilitation systems, and rethinking social inclusion in extreme times.

As an affiliated researcher, Ioulia Shukan contributes to the research and educational projects of the Center for Urban History. She participates in the development of the new research direction "Body, Care, and War" within the seminar "Body, Care, and Wellbeing in Eastern Europe: A Socio-Historical Perspective". 

Ioulia Shukan is also a member of the Academic Advisory Board of the book series "Stories of War: A Series on Documentation and Archiving".