In 1993, Nikitenko defended her candidate's thesis Historical problems in the frescoes of Sophia of Kyiv (Institute of Universal History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, scientific supervisor, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Gennadii Lytavrin), and in 2002 - a doctoral dissertation Rus-Ukraine and Byzantium in the monumental complex of Sophia of Kyiv: historical, social and ethnic-confessional aspects (Institute of Ukrainian Archeography and Source Studies named after Mykhailo Hrushevsky, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv).
