Ivan Prunak

Ivan comes from Khodoriv, Ukraine. He obtained his BA and MA degrees in Philosophy and Theology at the Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) in Lviv (Ukraine). During his studies at UCU, Ivan did two Erasmus+ exchanges at KU Leuven (Belgium) and Tilburg University (The Netherlands). At the time of Ivan’s program at UCU, his research was oriented on the theories of justice of John Rawls and Amartya Sen and their compatibility with Catholic Social Teaching on the questions of wealth and poverty.

Also, Ivan obtained his Research Master’s in Theology and Religious Studies degree at KU Leuven. His final research thesis was entitled “Finance Through the Prism of Catholic Social Teaching: Promoting Integral Human Development in the Financial Sphere”. Ivan’s studies at KU Leuven were funded by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

Recently, Ivan obtained an extra Master’s degree in European Studies at KU Leuven. His area of interest is the EU’s relations with Eastern neighborhoods and peace and conflict management. Thus, his final thesis was entitled “The State of Economy and the Beginning of Peace Negotiations: A Case of the Full-Scale Invasion of Ukraine by Russia”. In his work, Ivan analysed how the economic condition of a case study countries influences their decision to start peace negotiations.

Ivan likes to watch football, pro-wrestling, and sometimes MMA. Also, he is a huge fan of metalcore music. Ivan speaks Ukrainian, English, and Russian. He is also working on improving his skills in the Dutch language.