Oxana Bischin

Department of Modern Languages
Community Engagement Officer - Post Socialist Britain project

Contact details

Address
Department of Modern Languages
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Oxana Bischin graduated with a BA in Fashion Design from the University of Leeds in 2016. Since then she has focused on community engagement work and her creative practice. She has exhibited her work internationally including in the UK and Austria (INK Gallery 2019 ; Centrala Gallery 2020). Most recently she was awarded a DYCP grant from Arts Council  to explore, via the intersection of textiles and photography, identity alienation in the Romanian and Roma communities of Birmingham.

Oxana is the community engagement worker for the Post Socialist Britain project led by Professor Sara Jones.

Qualifications

  • BA (Hons) Fashion Design, University of Leeds.

Biography

Oxana Bischin is a Birmingham based, Romanian, community engagement worker and creative. Since 2019 she has worked on different projects funded by Birmingham City Council, Home Office and Arts Council dedicated to engaging and integrating Central and Eastern European migrants with local communities in the areas of Erdington, Handsworth, Acocks Green and Balsall Heath.

Currently she works as community engagement worker for the University of Birmingham's research project - 'Post Socialist Britain' lead by Professor Sara Jones.  For this project she leads on the delivery of the photography workshops in the ‘Communities’ strand and, in collaboration with Centrala and the Artist in Residence, on the production of the exhibition emerging from the research.

In her creative work Oxana focuses on themes of identity, migration and isolation. In 2016 she documented the Kalderash Roma community of Brateiu, Transylvania and later showcased this project in exhibitions at INK Gallery in Berndorff, Austria and Centrala in Birmingham, UK. Currently, with the aid of a Develop your Creative Practice grant, she is exploring the subject of identity alienation in Romanian and Roma migrants through photography documentation and textiles art installations.