Dr Antonina Puchkovskaia is a cultural historian specialising in digital humanities methods. She joined the Department of Digital Humanities in 2022 as Lecturer in Digital Humanities and has since taken up her current post as Lecturer in Digital Products & Industries.

Prior to joining King’s, she was Associate Professor of Digital Humanities at ITMO University in Saint Petersburg, where she founded and led the Digital Humanities Centre. She completed her PhD at Saint Petersburg State University in 2016 and held the Willard McCarty Fellowship at King’s College London in 2018-2019.

Her research applies computational methods to cultural history, with a particular focus on network analysis and feminist digital humanities approaches to recovering marginalised narratives. She develops methodologies that enable cultural institutions to enhance the accessibility of their collections by combining traditional archival scholarship with contemporary service design principles.

She also serves as Library Lead for the Department of Digital Humanities and as Chair of the Library Liaison & Technology Enhanced Learning Committee for the Faculty of Arts & Humanities, contributing to institutional strategy for the development of library services.

Research interests and PhD supervision

Her current research explores creative women and music leadership in early twentieth-century London through collaboration with the Royal College of Music. Using social network analysis, the project maps female networks in London’s music scene between 1900 and 1950, revealing how women navigated professional barriers and established alternative spaces for artistic leadership. The research brings together archival materials from multiple institutions with computational methods to visualise and analyse these cultural networks.

She welcomes doctoral supervision in computational approaches to cultural history, with particular interests in:

• Feminist digital humanities
• Women’s intellectual and cultural history
• Social network analysis
• Cultural heritage data representation

She especially encourages projects that use digital methodologies, network analysis, cultural geography, or archival research to recover and reinterpret marginalised histories.

Teaching

Dr Puchkovskaia integrates interdisciplinary design approaches into her teaching, with particular expertise in developing digital projects for the GLAM sector. Her courses cover digital humanities research methods, user-centred research methodologies, digital collections development, digital storytelling, and the representation of cultural heritage data.

In 2025, she was among the first recipients of the King’s COLLAB! Curriculum Change Projects grant, a student-staff initiative supported by King’s Academy, through which she co-created with students a role-based toolkit for project-based modules.

Expertise and public engagement

Dr Puchkovskaia connects academic research with public engagement through international collaborations with GLAM institutions. She has delivered public lectures at universities including Oxford, Princeton, NYU, and Glasgow, where she addresses computational approaches to cultural heritage. Her workshops introduce wider audiences to methods such as social network analysis, heritage data visualisation, and archival research.

In 2025, she was awarded Arts & Humanities Research Culture funding to support culture change around user experience, fostering collaboration and community across King’s.

She has also contributed to the Governance Working Group of the UK-Ireland Digital Humanities Association, where she played an active role in shaping its governance proposal and strengthening the community’s collective voice.