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Christina M. Paschyn: Faculty Experts

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Christina M. Paschyn

Northwestern University in Qatar

Assistant Professor of Journalism & Strategic Communication in Residence

About

Areas of Focus

  • Media, journalism and mass communication
  • Documentary film
  • Marginalized populations in the Middle East
  • Muslim ethnoreligious groups in Eastern Europe
  • The Crimean Tatars
  • Russo-Ukraine War

Work/Research

  • Portrayals of the Gulf's marginalized populations (women & LGBTQ people) in Middle Eastern and Western media
  • The Crimean Tatars — history and current political activism in Ukraine and Russia
  • Women's representation and symbolic annihilation in mass media
  • Ukrainian female soldiers' portrayals in Global South and Global North media

Career

Christina M. Paschyn, MFA, MSJ, is an international journalist, academic, and award-winning documentary filmmaker. She has reported for major news outlets around the world, with work appearing on Euronews, CNN, ETV, and in publications such as The New York Times, Chatham House, The Christian Science Monitor, The Markaz Review, Time Magazine, the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, Women’s eNews, Al-Fanar Media, Harper’s Bazaar Arabia, Cosmopolitan Middle East, and the Chicago Journal, among others. In 2025, Paschyn completed her feature-length documentary debut, “Etched in Memory,” which follows Crimean Tatar activists as they continue their fight to liberate their homeland, Crimea, amidst Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The film is currently being submitted to festivals and is seeking distribution. She is also the writer, director, and cinematographer of the 2015 short documentary “A Struggle for Home: The Crimean Tatars.” The film traces the rich and often tragic history of the Crimean Tatar people, from their ancient origins to the aftermath of Russia’s 2014 annexation of the Crimean Peninsula. It premiered at the Al Jazeera International Documentary Film Festival and screened at several other venues, including the European Parliament in Brussels and the Wilson Center’s Kennan Institute in Washington, D.C. It received multiple accolades, including Best International Film at the DC Independent Film Festival, Best Documentary at the Poppy Jasper International Film Festival, and First Place Short Foreign Documentary at the Indie Gathering International Film Festival. It was broadcast by Al Jazeera and Axess TV and is streaming on Amazon Prime Video. As a journalist, Paschyn has reported on a wide range of under-reported issues, including women’s and LGBTQ rights in the Gulf, education policy in the GCC, press freedom in Ukraine, net neutrality, and the ongoing legacy of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster in light of the Fukushima crisis. Her academic research focuses on media representation and the symbolic annihilation of women and other marginalized populations. Paschyn earned simultaneous Bachelor's and Master of Science degrees in Journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism through its Accelerated Master’s Program. She also holds a Master of Arts in Middle Eastern Studies from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. She earned a Master of Fine Arts in Film from the Vermont College of Fine Arts, an affiliate of the California Institute of the Arts.