From student to lecturer: Danylo Shportilo’s journey into the field of anti-corruption

Danylo Shportilo’s story is a real example of how studying at ACREC’s Anti-Corruption Studies program  at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy opens new opportunities. Not long ago, he was a master’s student — and today, he is preparing to teach his own course on EU experience.

We spoke with Danylo about his career choice, his interest in research, and the role of anti-corruption education today.

After completing his bachelor’s degree in political science, Danylo faced a familiar choice: to deepen his knowledge in the same field or explore something more interdisciplinary. Everything changed after one online event:

“While preparing for the Unified Entrance Exam, I came across the Anti-Corruption Studies program at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. Around the same time, Margarita Chabanna held an online meeting for prospective students interested in the program. After attending it, I realized that I wanted to expand my political science knowledge to a more practical level,” Danylo recalls.

Graduating in 2022 was just the beginning.

After completing his master’s degree, Danylo clearly realized that his path lies in academia, which led him to pursue a PhD in political science at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.

Today, Danylo is preparing for his first major teaching experience. Together with Margarita Chabanna, he will teach the course “Institutional Mechanisms for Preventing Corruption in Party and Electoral Activities: EU Experience” for first-year students during the summer trimester.

“Since school, I’ve been interested in the idea of teaching in the future. Despite today’s challenges, I believe this work has a special educational mission. Teaching allows me to feel that I’m truly doing something meaningful and valuable for society.”

“What I enjoy most about my studies is the academic process of working on my dissertation, articles and abstracts. I’ve barely spent 30 minutes reviewing the literature before I start becoming interested in more and more new topics. And my understanding of how to develop the theoretical framework for writing articles and abstracts is constantly expanding.”

The young man is currently working on his research. His thesis focuses on political corruption in authoritarian regimes.

“I am investigating how corruption manifests itself in personalist, one-party and monarchical autocracies, with the aim of understanding the similarities and differences between these manifestations. One of my objectives is to identify the characteristic factors of corruption for specific types of autocracies, in order to confirm or refute why, in some types of autocracies, the average level of corruption—according to the indices selected for the study—is higher or lower than in other types of authoritarian regimes.”

What makes ACREC different from the rest?

According to Danil, the main advantage is its practical accessibility.

“ACREC has set itself an extremely important, yet challenging task: to elevate the subject of corruption and anti-corruption to an academic level. Given the difficulty of systematising the manifestations of modern corruption across most areas of human activity, this is a difficult but necessary task.”

Who should be fighting corruption in Ukraine?

For Danil, the answer is clear: everyone. But there is one important condition – this work must be based on a solid scientific foundation: from the state to the ordinary citizen, from business to science.