Polina Sadovskaya, Ph.D., joined the PEN America team in 2016 as the first Free Expression Programs coordinator for Eurasia. She came to New York from Paris, where she was with UNESCO’s Division of Freedom of Expression and Media Development. She organized various international and global forums, and managed a project empowering local communities in Africa with radio and new digital technologies. She is an active supporter of women’s and youth’s rights around the world, and is a member of the IFEX Council. Prior to joining PEN America, Sadovskaya worked for Habitat Pro Association, an NGO advocating for the rights of indigenous peoples in Peru, particularly those of indigenous women and youth. She was also a radio correspondent for a national radio, and a marketing and communications manager with a major bank in her native Russia. She is fluent in Russian, French, and English, and has degrees in marketing from Grenoble Graduate School of Business and in journalism from South Ural State University.
Publications
Art Activism, Beyond Governments
Documenta, September 2022
Georgia needs EU membership — despite its government
euobserver, December 2023
Belarus’ capture of journalist Roman Protasevich on a Ryanair plane threatens us all
NBC News, May 2021
Florida’s War on Public Ed Looks a Lot Like Russia’s
The Hill, August 2022
Freedom of Artistic Expression Through the Lens of the Sustainable Development Goals
Springer, November 2020
