Gästforskare 2012
Alla Varyzgina is a PhD student of the Department of Economic Sociology at Lobachevski State University of Nizhni Novgorod, Russia. Her research interests include social policy, institutional anasys, social networks, strategies in overcoming poverty. She is involved in the projest ’The Developement of Innovation Technologies In Region Social Policy’ (2012-2014). She is currently involved in the international joint research project ’Participatory approach to poverty reduction in Russia’ with UCRS and Glasgow University (2010-2012). At UCRS she took part in the workshop ’Coping with poverty in Russia, 6-7 November 2012’ (Workshop organizer: Ann-Mari Sätre). Alla is staying at the UCRS between 4 and 16 of November, 2012.
Alexander Soldatkin is a senior lecturer at the Economic Sociology Department, Lobachevski State University of Nizhni Novgorod, Russia. His research interests include socio-economic transformations in Russia, especially issues of quality of life and poverty dynamics; social aspects of information technologies development; issues of social development in urban areas. Dr. Soldatkin recently participated in a series of Russian and international research projects aimed at investigation of poverty and quality of life problems in Russian small towns, including joint research project ‘Participatory approach to poverty reduction in Russia’ with UCRS and Glasgow University. At UCRS, Alexander Soldatkin took part in a workshop ’Coping with poverty in Russia’ (6-7 November 2012) and gave a presentation discussing the results of the research.
Jukka Gronow is an emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Helsinki and the previous holder of the Torgny Segerstedt chair in sociology at Uppsala University. He is also a research fellow at the Center of Excellence at the Aleksanteri Institute at the University of Helsinki. Gronow is an expert on social theory and, in particular, on the questions of social and cultural distinctions and practices in the modern societies. He has published several articles on various aspects of the Soviet culture of consumption. His book Caviar with Champagne. The Common Luxury and the Ideals of Good Life in Stalin’s Russia came out in 2003 (Berg publishers). His new book, written with Sergey Zhuravlev (The Institute of Russian History at the Russian Academy of Sciences), on Fashion meets socialism. Fashion design and fashion industry in the post-war Soviet society is forthcoming (Yale University Press). He is currently involved in three bigger research projects: together with Sergey Zhuravlev he is conducting research on the relations between the municipality, the factory (Lada/Zhiguli car factory) and the state in1991-2010 in the social sphere in the city of Togliatti, Russia. He is a member of the research group at the University of Helsinki which is currently finishing a comprehensive report on the state of the social differentiation and cultural distinctions in present-day Finland. He is a responsible researcher in the Nordic comparative project, financed by the Nordic Council of Ministers, on the change of the everyday eating patterns and habits in the four Nordic countries. Gronow is a member, since 1997, of the International Advisory Board of the Department of Political Science and Sociology at the European University at St.Petersburg, Russia. Professor Gronow is staying at the UCRS for the whole of November, 2012.
Leonid Polishchuk is an Economics Professor at the Higher School of Economics (Moscow, Russia), where he heads the Laboratory of Applied Studies of Institutions and Social Capital. His research interests include political economy, institutional reform, and the role of culture, social networks and norms in economic development, political processes, and government performance. His present and recently completed research projects deal with Russian institutional performance; the role of social capital in government accountability and public service delivery; economics of post-secondary education and the impact of institutions on the allocation of talent; historical roots of norms and values in the Russian society; self-organization of urban and rural communities; and the role of political institutions for property rights protection. At UCRS Leonid Polishchuk is working on a collaborative project that explores social, economic and cultural factors affecting political collective action in Russia. His another project deals with the interplay between civic culture and the capacity for grassroots self-organization, and the impact of these traits for the quality of governance and economic welfare. He will present this work at the UCRS seminar series as well as at international public events organized by the UCRS. Leonid is staying at the UCRS between September 15 and January 31, 2012.
Vladimir S. Malakhov is a Leading Research Fellow of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Philosophy (Department of Social and Political Philosophy) and a Professor at the Department of Sociology and Political Sciences at the Moscow School of Social and Economic Studies (Russian-British Postgraduate University). In addition, he is Director of the Center for Citizenship and Identity Studies at the Institute of Philosophy. Vladimir’s scholarly interests range from the history of contemporary Western Philosophy to nationalism and ethnicity studies, multiculturalism, sociology of culture, and citizenship studies. The list of his publications includes: State in the Age of Globalization. Moscow, 2007; They are here: Essays on Nationalism, Racism and Cultural Pluralism; Nationalism as a Political Ideology. Moscow, 2005; Multiculturalism and the Transformation of Post-Soviet Societies. Editor-in-Chief (co-editor Valery Tishkov). Moscow, 2002. Vladimir’s teaching and research activity has been supported by several international grants. At the end of the 1990s he was Soros-Professor at various Universities of the Russian Federation (The lecture courses were supported by Open Society Institute, Moscow Department 1997, and by Budapest Department in 1998). He successfully organized some international conferences (the last of them “Nation State and Cultural Pluralism” was hold in Moscow in September 2009). He gave presentations at numerous international conferences and seminars as well including Empires and Nations. Joint Conference of the SciencePo and Association for the Study of Nationalities (Paris, July 2008), Emigration and New Nationalisms in Post Soviet Countries. - Back in Ex-USSR: Paradoxes of Postcolonial Condition. (August 2009, Parnu, Estonia.) Along with giving lectures and holding seminars he is going to continue his research on the topic “Democracy and Difference: the impact of transnational migration on nation states”. His visit to Uppsala is sponsored by Uppsala Forum for peace and Justice. Prof. Malakhov is staying at UCRS between September 18 and October 15, 2012.
Oleg Budnitskii is Professor of History and Director, Center for the History and Sociology of World War II at the National Research University Higher School of Economics; he is also senior research fellow at the Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and a member of the editorial board of Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of the annual Arkhiv evreiskoi istorii (Archive of Jewish History) and author or editor of over 200 publications (including 18 books) on the history of Russia and Russian Jewry in the second half of the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries. His major books are Russian Jews between the Reds and the Whites, 1917–1920 (2012, translation of the Russian edition of 2005), Den´gi russkoi emigratsii: Kolchakovskoe zoloto, 1918–1957 (The Money of the Russian Emigration: Kolchak’s Gold, 1918–57 [2008]); and Terrorism v rossiiskom osvoboditel´nom dvizhenii: Ideologiia, etika, psikhologiia (vtoraia polovina XIX–nachalo XX v.) (Terrorism in the Russian Liberation Movement: Ideology, Ethics, Psychology [Second Half of the Nineteenth–Early Twentieth Centuries] [2000]). He received grants and fellowships from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Fulbright Program, IREX, American Council of Learned Societies, Open Society Institute, Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism, Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, etc. Prof. Budnitskii is staying at UCRS during 17-21 September and will hold a seminar titled "Jewish Women in the Red Army, 1941-45".
Timofey Agarin is a researcher at the School of Politics, International Studies and Philosophy Queen's University Belfast, UK. His interest is with ethnic politics and the role these play in Central Eastern European societies. In the past Dr. Agarin looked at the dynamic relations between national identity, power relations and ethnic conflict across the post-communist region and particularly at institutions of the nation-state. He is particularly interested in the interplay of social and institutional changes in post-communism in the issue areas of non-discrimination, minority protection and migration. Using the cases of institutions tasked with minority protection, Dr. Agarin investigates how democratising states cooperate with one another as well as with international organisations to reduce ethnic tensions domestically and ensure peace and stability in post-communist states.Beyond his interest in ethnic politics, he keeps a keen eye upon research on civil society and analyses how voluntary organisations factor into cooperation between states and international organisations. Here, Dr. Agarin is concerned with issues as diverse as environmental sustainability, language policy and planning, representation in democratic politics and participation of minorities, especially of Roma.The aim of his visit is among other things, enhancing cooperation between the Centre of the Study of Ethnic Conflict (Queen’s Belfast), Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Hugo Valentin Centre and the Uppsala Centre for Russian and Eurasian Studies. Dr. Agarin has a standing cooperation with Dr. Matthew Kott (UCRS) and would like to use the opportunity of a visiting fellowship to develop institutional links. During his stay at UCRS Dr. Agarin will hold a seminar at Uppsala Centre for Russian and Eurasian Studies. Partial funding for Dr. Agarin’s stay at UCRS has been granted by the guest researcher programme of Uppsala Forum on Peace, Democracy and Justice. Dr. Agarin is staying at the UCRS between 5-20 September, 2012.
Christopher S. Swader is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the National Research University – Higher School of Economics. Trained in interdisciplinary social sciences and sociology, his research centers on problems of individualization, modernization, and normative regulation. He has written extensively on post-socialist economic-cultural change and the link to social-psychological transformation (e.g. The Capitalist Personality, forthcoming 2012, Routledge). In addition to this and the Russian dating project, he is currently researching: normlessness in connection with modernization processes in post-socialist societies, the determinants and effects of loneliness in large cities, the implementation of 'broken windows theory' in Moscow, sociological understandings of shame in relation to the display of the body, and post-socialist elites. Dr. Swader is staying at the UCRS 1-30 September, 2012.
Partial funding for Dr. Swader's stay at UCRS has been granted by the guest researcher programme of Uppsala Forum on Peace, Democracy and Justice.
Dmitry Strovsky is Professor at Ural State University (Ekatirenburg, Russia), he has been lecturing at Ural State University, and numerous universities across the Russian Federation on the theme of journalism for many years. He has recently (2010) had published a textbook on the history of journalism. One of his publications appeared in the prestigious European Journal of Communication (on censorship in the Russian war on terrorism, 2006). In addition to his work at the university he is actively involved in journalistic work as a consultant to media outlets and writing a column for the Ural Region variant of the famous newspaper Novaya Gazeta. Strovsky has also been actively involved in conferences and research in the United Kingdom, United States (Fullbright scholar), Poland and a regular visitor to Finland.
Olga I. Vendina is a Leading Research Fellow in Institute of Geography Russian of Academy of sciences. Olga is a human geographer with broad experience in urban studies and researches. For more than 20 years, Dr. Vendina has led analysis on socio-economic transition and development in Moscow, she is known for her research on growing ethnic and cultural diversities, change in social structure and residential segregation in Moscow. The other fields of her scientific activities relate to migration studies, socio-economic development of the Russian regions, civil society development and the border studies. She is interested in public policy making studies - both in regional policy and politics, the changing identities. Dr. Vendina works with government officials and public servants included analyses of the social and economic results of the some Russian region joining, numerous projects on regional development, and Moscow transformation under influence of the new political and economic conditions, including the ongoing project of the Moscow extension. She has authored over 70 publications. The most recent books she has co-authored are: Immigrants in Moscow (2010) and Russian-Ukrainian borderland: twenty years of the split unity (2011). At the Uppsala Centre for Russian and Eurasian Studies Olga has conducted research on contradictory relationship of Moscow (city), National (state and civic) and ethnic identeties.
Mykola Ryabchuk (Rjabtjuk) is a Senior Research Fellow at the Ukrainian Center for Cultural Studies in Kyiv. He got his degrees from Lviv Polytechnic Institute (1977) and Gorky Literary Institute in Moscow (1988). He published a number of books and many articles on state/nation building, nationalism and national identity in Ukraine and on postcommunist transition in Eastern Europe. Three of his books were translated into Polish and one into French (De la petit Russie a l’Ukraine, 2003) and German (Die reale und die imaginierte Ukraine, 2005). Mykola Ryabchuk was a co-founder and co-editor, since 1997, of the Krytyka monthly, a leading Ukrainian intellectual magazine. As a visiting lecturer, he taught in a number of Polish, American, and Canadian Universities and at various International Summer Schools.