Freya Proudman has been a proud fixture of UCL’s School of Slavonic and East European Studies since 2018. She has dedicated the last eight years to advancing human rights and social justice.

My work is all about giving voice to marginalised people, to help them tell their story.

In 2022, while Freya Proudman was completing an MA in Russian and post-Soviet Politics, the full-scale war in Ukraine began. Profoundly affected by what she saw, Freya shifted the focus of her dissertation to explore the experiences of LGBTQ+ Ukrainian refugees. This work, building on her undergraduate research about LGBTQ+ rights in Poland, won the National Student Pride Award for Academic Contribution of the Year.   

Immediately afterwards, Freya began her PhD, where she continues to explore how people fight for justice in the face of discrimination and displacement, often after lengthy battles at the European Court of Human Rights.  

Hearing the things I have through my research, I can't walk away. I can't pretend that I haven't seen those things. UCL instilled in me both the responsibility and the ability to do something about them.

Freya’s activism extends beyond her research. As SSEES Student President, she led the department’s year-long donation drive for Ukraine. She was astounded by people’s generosity:


I showed up the first day of the donation drive with two containers, thinking we’d get a couple of food cans. But we got 1,600+ boxes! Our team of 40 students sent truckloads of aid to Ukraine - first aid kits, food, sanitary items, all kinds of necessities. I remember seeing photos of one of our bright pink boxes in Kharkiv. Seeing that was an incredible feeling.

As a result of this work, Freya was selected as the UK Youth Delegate to the Council of Europe’s Youth Department at the World Forum for Democracy, Europe’s largest human rights body. Later, she produced a major report on UCL’s support for students from forced migration backgrounds, which was instrumental in reinvigorating UCL’s application for the University of Sanctuary. 

Freya is also a Postgraduate Teaching Assistant and a longstanding Senior Student Ambassador. Her involvement in the Students’ Union, such as establishing the UCL Welsh Society and captaining the Dance Society competition team, earned her the Union’s Honorary Life Membership. She also remains active in LGBTQ+ work, including helping to establish her town’s annual Pride parade in Massachusetts. 

“My story is not a story about me”, she says. “It’s about community and what we can achieve when we come together.” A community she has uplifted in countless ways.