Iryna Kovalchuk teaches Introduction to Ukrainian Language and Culture, an interdisciplinary introduction to the unique cultural and linguistic features of Ukraine. Her pedagogical interests are focused on enhancing and enriching student language learning by incorporating art, body movement, and cross-cultural experiences into language classes. Iryna also teaches at Harvard in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures.

Iryna Kovalchuk is a linguist, community organizer and cultural manager. Before coming to the United States, she worked at the Adam Mickiewicz Institute in Warsaw, where she managed the Eastern Partnership program, promoting Polish culture in Eastern Europe and Southern Caucasus by organizing and supporting multi-annual projects in the fields of theater, film, visual arts, and music.

Iryna Kovalchuk served as an editor of the Ukrainian editions of Czesław Miłosz’s (Велике князівство літератури. Київ: Дух і Літера, 2011) and Janusz Korczak’s (Право на повагу. Київ: Дух і Літера, 2012) essays, which she also co-translated from Polish.

Iryna Kovalchuk is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Universal Reading Foundation (Warsaw) where she supported the campaign #BooksGiveRefuge. Since the beginning of the full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war, the campaign has distributed Ukrainian-language children’s books to Ukrainian refugee families in Poland and provided emergency financial support to Ukrainian publishers. In 2024, the Universal Reading Foundation was awarded Library of Congress Literacy 2024 Award for Successful Practices.