Professor Jonathan Oldfield
Professor in Russian Environmental Studies
Professor Oldfield's research is primarily focussed on an exploration of Russian understandings of physical natural systems.
Network Plus: Shifting Global Polarities
New research to help build a secure and resilient world
The Network Plus initiative unites leading experts and research centres from the UK and overseas to address research gaps and needs during a period of significant societal, geopolitical, and environmental change across the Eurasian landmass.
The funding was awarded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) as part of their Building a Secure and Resilient World strategic theme. UK Research and Innovation creates knowledge with impact by investing over £8 billion a year in research and innovation through the UK’s nine leading funding councils. Network partners include the Universities of Birmingham, Glasgow, Manchester and Oxford, together with the Institute of Development Studies and the Royal United Services Institute in the UK. Overseas, partners include Colgate University in the USA; the Ukrainian Catholic University; National Taiwan University; Helsinki University in Finland; and Hokkaido University in Japan.
About the project
About the project
This Network Plus brings together more than 30 academics, policymakers, and artists from leading centres of excellence, expertise, and training (7 UK and 6 Overseas) to comprehend, evaluate and address the challenges evident across a region encompassing Russia, China, Eastern Europe, the Balkans, and Central and Eastern Asia. It aims to create new syntheses, knowledge and networks, build new capacities, and train and mentor early career academics and policymakers.
More specifically, it aims to advance innovative new partnerships within academic and policy circles linked to a range of urgent thematic areas including social upheaval, geopolitics and security, environmental crisis, human rights, Russia-China relations, and post-conflict reconstruction. Through the network, open calls for new research, policy & research training, and arts-based initiatives will be funded each year between 2024 and 2028. In addition, there will be annual workshop devoted to priority emerging themes.
Network organising themes
Network organising themes
This Network Plus brings together interdisciplinary, comparative and policy-facing approaches, structured around the four following organising themes.
Orders: Understanding order in a broad sense - including both institutionalised organisations and implicit constellations of patterned practices and norms. Where are we seeing existing forms of order eroded or replaced? What new orderings — informal or formal—are we seeing emerge? To what extent are we witnessing a resurgence of spheres of influence? What norms— liberal, illiberal, or otherwise—do emerging orderings embody? What issues are they tackling, and which problems are being left unaddressed? How are relations in the region being organised, and what does this means for future trends?
Interactions: Interactions can take many forms—diplomatic, economic, legal, social, digital etc. Some are intentional and structured, others organic and inadvertent. What impact, for example, are interactions within the region having on the domestic politics of the states involved? How are movements of people or goods shaping regional relations and dependencies? How are transborder environmental effects shaping relations?
Anxieties: What are regional actors concerned about? What risks and dangers are considered most pressing? What fears/concerns are shaping domestic political environments or international political behaviours? Looking at a range of domains—security, environmental, economic, demographic etc—what issues represent salient concerns for regional actors?
Implications: What are the implications of the above for the UK? And, for the wider region and its inhabitants?
Past calls
Past calls
Cohort 1 (2025-26) - Fellows and Project Leads
Cohort 1 (2025-26) - Fellows and Project Leads
Please see below the Fellows and Project Leads together with their associated projects.
Fellows
Bergit Arends: History does not need to be as it was
Bergit Arends is a curator of contemporary art, museum professional, and academic with research interests in the intersections of material culture, art history, and environmental history within European and global contexts. Bergit’s monograph Photography, Ecology and Historical Change in the Anthropocene: Activating Archives (2024) is part of the Routledge series Photography, Place, Environment. Her doctoral research resulted among other in the award-winning publication Chrystel Lebas. Field Studies (2018).
She presents and publishes widely, including on the politics of natural sciences collections and critical engagements, such as ‘Seeing the Anthropocene through Montage: John Akomfrah’s Vertigo Sea and Elizabeth Price’s BERLINWAL’ (Environmental Humanities 2024), and in ‘Unequal Earth’ (NaturKultur 2021), The Botanical City (2020), Botanical Drift (2018), and on decolonising natural history museums (Art in Science Museums 2019). Bergit has curated many contemporary art projects for the natural history museums in London and Berlin (Art/Nature 2019).
Bergit was British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at University of Bristol, and the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, where she is now a Teaching Fellow. Bergit is Research Associate on the AHRC-funded CoastARTS project which investigates performance-based arts and local communities’ learning about and responses to the ecological crisis.
Bergit is Curatorial Research Fellow in the UK Research and Innovation Network Plus ‘Shifting Global Polarities: Russia, China and Eurasia in transition’. Her project is ‘History does not need to be as it was: Perspectives from the Ground’ (quoting from Ukrainian artist Nikita Kadan) to poetically explore the cultural complexity of the present day and its histories.
Daryna Dvornichenko: Cities of Resistance - Sustainable and Inclusive Urban Recovery in Ukraine
Dr Daryna Dvornichenko is a Ukrainian scholar, senior visiting fellow at the University of Turku (Finland) and a visiting fellow at St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford (United Kingdom). She has previously held research fellowships at the German Marshall Fund, University of Wrocław, and King’s College London.
Daryna serves on the board of the Humans for Rights Network, is a UN Women Delegate to the CSW, and a research affiliate at the Refugee Law Initiative. Her work, grounded in European integration, economic empowerment, and human rights, especially for vulnerable communities, focuses on developing strategies for resilient recovery amid crisis and displacement.
Mariat Imaeva: Critical assessment of transitional justice and enforced disappearances in the Caucasus
Dr Mariat Imaeva is a researcher specialising in enforced disappearances, transitional justice, and the Caucasus. Her PhD (Dublin City University, 2024) explored humanitarian approaches to resolving conflict-related disappearances in the Caucasus with Chechnya and Georgia as the two case studies. During her PhD research, Mariat held visiting positions at Indiana University (USA) and Caucasus University (Georgia).
Over the past decade, Mariat has worked in international human rights organisations like DIGNITY – Danish Institute against Torture, REDRESS, Amnesty International, the European Human Rights Advocacy Centre and Front Line Defenders. Committed to creating impactful research, Mariat used her findings from PhD field interviews with the families of the disappeared in Chechnya, to write the original concept note and work on the production of a short animated video on enforced disappearances in the North Caucasus, called In Limbo. The animation was screened at the first World Congress on Enforced Disappearances in Geneva in January 2025.
Fluent in Chechen, English and Russian, Mariat’s work bridges academic, policy, and advocacy spaces, ensuring that the voices of victims and survivors are central to transitional justice and peacebuilding processes.
In addition to her PhD diploma, Mariat holds a Bachelor and Masters degree in Law from the University of Ghent in Belgium and a Master’s degree in International Humanitarian Action from UCD.
Maksym Kolyba: Freedom of speech and freedom of religion within the legal regime of martial law and outside it in the context of the aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine
Maksym Kolyba is a Ph.D. in Law, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences of Ukrainian Catholic University for Academic Affairs, Senior Lecturer of the Department of Political Science, and Senior Lecturer of the Faculty of Law of UCU.
Chiara Lovotti: Shaping perceptions, shifting orders - Russia’s strategic use of media in conflict management. Insights from the Wider Mediterranean
Chiara Lovotti is a PhD Candidate at the University of Bologna. Her academic research explores the Soviet Union’s role and impact on the state-building processes in postcolonial Arab countries, with a focus on Egypt, Iraq and Syria. She collaborates with a number of institutes and Think Tanks by researching Russia’s foreign policy in the MENA and associated political and security issues. These include Russia’s diplomatic strategy, military power and soft power projection, questions of terrorism, energy, and arms trade.
Chiara is also an Associate Fellow for the Italian Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI). She has recently co-edited a Routledge book entitled 'Russia in the Middle East and North Africa. Continuity and Change'.
Nadezhda Mamontova: Polarities of Arctic Diplomacy in the Barents Region: The Arctic Council's Influence and Indigenous People through Regional Media (1996–2025)
Nadezhda Mamontova (PhD) is currently a Newton International Fellow at the University of Birmingham. Prior to her arrival in the UK, she was a collegium researcher at the Turku Institute for Advanced Studies in Finland and a Banting Postdoctoral Fellow with the Geography Program at the University of Northern British Columbia in Canada. In 2020, she completed a PhD at the University of Oxford in the School of Geography and the Environment. Before that, she earned a PhD in History (Social Anthropology) from the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences.
Until 2021, she served as a Lead Research Fellow at the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences. Dr Mamontova has worked with Russian Arctic and Siberian Indigenous Peoples since 2007.
Adelaide McGinity-Peebles: Russian Arctic Media
Adelaide's research focus is on contemporary Arctic, post-Soviet, and Indigenous film and media. Her recent research project (sponsored by the Leverhulme Trust) investigated the representations of the Russian Arctic in contemporary film. From this project, she is currently completing a monograph titled Russian Arctic Cinema: Figurations of the Russophone North in Contemporary Film, under contract with Edinburgh University Press. She has published on the topics of ethnicity, race, gender, sexuality, and the environment in Arctic, post-Soviet, and Central Asian film and media.
Khayyam Namazov: Digital feminist resistance in the South Caucasus
Khayyam Namazov is a PhD researcher at Humboldt University (Berlin) and writer with a focus on social movements, digital activism, and the decolonisation of knowledge. His recent research delves into the dynamics of LGBTQ+ activism and visibility in Azerbaijan.
In addition to his scholarly contributions, he is the author of the novel Monologue and has translated two books. Khayyam also works as a trainer and facilitator, collaborating with activists and beyond on related topics.
Denis Shedov: Resisting exclusion - Legal culture, trauma and adaptation among Russian human rights lawyers in a polarising world
Denis is a Doctoral Researcher at the University of Helsinki, where his dissertation examines civil society and human rights. Alongside his academic work, he is a human rights activist, serving as a board member of the Human Rights Defence Centre Memorial and as an analyst at OVD-Info.
His research focuses on the OSCE region, with a particular emphasis on Russia. His main interests include human rights and civil society in authoritarian regimes, especially issues related to freedom of assembly, the role of lawyers in human rights advocacy, and their contribution to broader civil society.
Denis is also a research collaborator in the Human Rights in Eastern Europe and Russia (HuRiEE) project at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, University of Oxford. From 2023 to 2026, he holds an international mandate as a member of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) Panel of Experts on Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.
Yanran Yao: Counterbalancing the homeland's long arm: feminist/queer art-based activism of Chinese students in the UK
Yanran Yao (PhD) is a lecturer at the Lau China Institute, King’s College London, specialising in Chinese politics, civil society, gender and diasporic politics, and international development. She is currently leading a project on feminist and queer activism among Chinese diasporas in the UK.
Her work, published in leading academic journals such as Journal of Contemporary China and China Nonprofit Review, covers topics like China’s pandemic volunteer mobilisation, environmental politics, and international NGOs in China. Before London, she worked as a lecturer and deputy director of Nonprofit Management Program of the University of Hong Kong for three years.
Project leads
Vera Axyonova: Thinking for the state, writing for the people? Kazakhstan's think-tanks in the time of poly-crises
Vera Axyonova (she/her) is Assistant Professor / Lecturer in European Politics at the University of Birmingham and founding Co-chair of the ECPR Research Network on Statehood, Sovereignty and Conflict. Her research interests span the study of international crisis and conflict management, cross-border transfer of norms and practices, expert knowledge production, and internationalisation of research and higher education. Her articles have appeared in Communist and Post-Communist Studies, Review of Policy Research, and East European Politics and Societies, among others.
Precious Chatterje-Doody: War and order - Russian communication in the global south
Dr Precious Chatterje-Doody is a Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Studies at Open University, UK. Her multidisciplinary research interests centre on questions of communication, perception, identity and security, with a particular focus on Russia.
Dr Chatterje-Doody's latest book Russia, Disinformation and the Liberal Order: RT as Populist Pariah' (co-authored with Tolz, Hutchings, Crilley and Gillespie) is available to download for free from Cornell University Press.
Ablimit Baki Elterish: How Uyghur Parents Tell Their Children the Uyghur Story
Ablimit Baki Elterish (PhD) joined the University of Manchester, UK, in August 2006, where he is teaching in the Department of Modern Languages and Cultures. His research area is in sociolinguistics in the Uyghur region, and his research interests include language contact, language attitudes, language use and identity politics. He has published several journal articles, book chapters on these topics, starting in 2001.
Bradley Jardine : Art as resistance: Role of Central Asian protest art in contesting China's policies in Xinjiang
Bradley Jardine is Managing Director of the Oxus Society for Central Asian Affairs and coauthor of the book 'Backlash: China's Struggle for Influence in Central Asia,' published by Oxford University Press. He is a former fellow at the Wilson Center and served as editor of The Moscow Times (2016-2018) in Russia. His work has appeared in Globalizations, Central Asian Survey, Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies, Journal of Contemporary China, and Europe-Asia Studies, among others.
Agnieszka Kubal: Mobilising human rights and resistance - Ukrainian media, lawyers and accountability in war
Agnieszka is Associate Professor at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies (CSLS), Law Faculty and a Research Fellow at Green Templeton College. She completed her DPhil at University of Oxford (2011). Upon post-doctoral spells at International Migration Institute (Oxford), CSLS (Oxford) and Davis Centre for Russian and Eurasian Studies (Harvard), she was based at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES) at UCL, where she held an Associate Professorship in Sociology.
Agnieszka's primary research interest is in human rights in everyday life, particularly on legal consciousness and comparative legal cultures, using ethnographic and qualitative methods to explore these issues. Her work has a particular regional focus on Eastern Europe and Russia.
Dani Madrid-Morales: Russo-Chinese narrative alignment in external propoganda channels
Dani Madrid-Morales is a Lecturer in Journalism and Global Communication at the School of Journalism, Media, and Communication of the University of Sheffield. He studies global political communication, with a focus on the impact of new digital technologies on the production of State-sponsored news, global public opinion, and misinformation in the Global South, particularly in Kenya and South Africa.
His most recent book, co-edited with Herman Wasserman, is Disinformation in the Global South (Wiley-Blackwell, 2021). He is also Co-Lead of the Disinformation Research Cluster at the University of Sheffield, and co-founder of disinfoafrica.network. He holds a PhD in Media and Communication from City University of Hong Kong and MA degrees in International Relations from Free University of Berlin (Germany), and in East Asian Studies from Autonomous University of Barcelona (Spain). Before pursuing an academic career, he worked as a broadcast journalist covering world affairs.
Nurseit Niyazbekov: Russian anti-war resistance among Russian citizens in exile following 2022 military mobilisation
Nurseit Niyazbekov (PhD) is Assistant Professor in the Department of International Relations at KIMEP University in Almaty, Kazakhstan. He undertakes research and consulting for various international media and think tanks in the areas of post-communist transitions, democratisation, Central Asian state-building and protest mobilisation. He was a visiting research fellow at the University of Michigan and Sciences PO.
Nurseit obtained his PhD and MSc degrees in Politics and Sociology from the University of Oxford.
Hanna Oliinyk: Mobillising human rights and resistance: Ukrainian media, lawyers and accountability in war
Hanna Oliinyk is a Researcher in the Sociology of Human Rights for the UKRI-funded 'Human Rights in Eastern Europe and Russia' (HuRiEE) project and a DPhil student at Oxford University's Centre for Socio-Legal Studies. She holds an MA in Russian and Post-Soviet Politics from University College London's School of Slavonic and East European Studies (2022) and an MA in Political Science from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (2016). She holds an ESRC grant for doctoral training (2025–2028) and was awarded the prestigious Chevening Scholarship (2021–2022).
Her research interests span the sociology of human rights, memory politics, democratic transitions in post-communist countries, and cognitive warfare. Hanna also has diverse professional experience, including consulting for NGOs, research institutions, and media organisations.
Natalia Ryzhova: Patient choice on the move - Digital platforms, social media and self-medication
Natalia is affiliated with the Department of Asian Studies at Palacký University (Czech Republic). Currently (April 2025 – May 2026), she is a visiting researcher at Ruhr University Bochum. From 2019 to 2022, she was a researcher in the project “Sinophone Borderlands: Interaction at the Edges” (Palacký University; supported by the European Regional Development Fund).
As an economist who values anthropological perspectives, Natalia focuses on post-socialist transformation and lagging economic development. She has studied cross-border economic migration and practices such as shuttle trade, Russia–China smuggling, and the Chinese presence in agriculture in the Russian Far East. Most strands of her research stem from an interest in the relationship between centres and peripheries in a post-socialist context, particularly as these relationships pertain to everyday life.
Vaclav Stetka: Unpacking the Impact of Russian Disinformation in Eastern Europe - A comparative study of Poland, Romania and Serbia
Václav Štětka is Professor of Media and Political Communication at Loughborough University. His research sits at the crossroads between media and democracy, exploring the role of media in the rise of polarisation, populism and illiberalism, as well as contemporary challenges to media freedom and pluralism, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe. He has been long-term contributor to several international research projects and networks, including Digital News Report (University of Oxford) and Media Pluralism Monitor (European University Institute, Florence). He is the author of The Illiberal Public Sphere: Media in Polarized Societies (Palgrave, 2024, with S.Mihlej). His most recent project, funded by the UKRI, concerns the perception and impact of Russian disinformation in Eastern Europe (2025).
Koen Slootmaeckers: Caught in the middle? Anxieties of belonging and integration among queer Russian immigrants in Serbia
Koen Slootmaeckers is a Reader in International Politics at the Department of International Politics at City St George’s, University of London. He has a multidisciplinary background and engages in work that sees to understand the international political sociology of the Other.
His award-winning research focusses on gender and sexuality politics in Europe and is particularly interested in analysing hierarchies within the international system. More specifically, Koen has studied the EU accession of Serbia and how this process affects LGBT politics and activism.
Koen is the author of "Coming in: Sexual politics and EU accession in Serbia (Manchester University Press, 2023; winner of 2025 EUSA Best Book Prize) and his work has been widely published, including a (co-)edited volume ‘EU Enlargement and Gay Politics’ (Palgrave 2016; with Heleen Touquet and Peter Vermeersch), and articles in, amongst others, International Political Sociology, East European Politics, Politics, Contemporary Southeastern Europe, and Europe-Asia Studies.
Ilya Yablokov: Russo-Chinese narrative alignment in external propoganda channels
Ilya’s research interests are the state disinformation strategies in Central and Eastern Europe, with a particular focus on the Russian government, as well as the sociology of news production in Russia. As Lecturer in Digital Journalism and Disinformation and founder of the University of Sheffield’s Disinformation Research cluster Ilya studies how the Kremlin uses mis/disinformation and conspiracy theories to shape social cohesion and influence public opinion across Russia and beyond.
After the war in Ukraine started, Ilya explored the support required by Russian media professionals and ways of resisting Kremlin-led disinformation. Ilya currently mentors several grassroots initiatives that explore and combat Kremlin-led computational propaganda and supports media initiatives to make Russian exiled media more sustainable and capable of negotiating state-led disinformation.
Ilya’s most recent monograph Russia Today and Conspiracy Theories: People, Power, Politics on RT (with Precious Chatterje-Doody) explores how Russian international broadcaster uses traditional and new media environments to spread disinformation on subnational, national and international levels. This work was spawned by Ilya’s previous research into conspiracy theories in Russia. His monograph Fortress Russia: conspiracy theories in the post-Soviet world (Polity, 2018) studied how political elites in post-Soviet Russia use conspiracy theories for political purposes and to boost social cohesion under Vladimir Putin. Its Russian version had three editions and was included in a long list of best non-fiction books of 2020.
Currently, Ilya is working on a monograph about the Kremlin’s strategic disinformation narratives. Ilya has published research in leading academic journals in the field of media and Russian studies, including Journalism, European Journal of Communication, Russian Review, Politics, Participations and Democratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization. Ilya’s media appearances include CNN, BBC World Service, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Forbes, Politico, Eurozine , Al-Jazeera, Meduza, Open Democracy Russia, The Moscow Times and The Conversation.
Bekzod Zakirov: Cultural Narratives and Media Framing - China’s Economic Presence in Central Asia
Bekzod (PhD) is the Director of the Center for Policy Research and Outreach (CPRO) at Westminster International University in Tashkent. He holds a Ph.D. in Public Policy from the University of Tokyo, where he specialised in political economy of economic decision making in Russia and China. His research focuses on bridging academia, industry, and government to drive impactful policy changes in Uzbekistan and the broader Central Asian region.
Artistic Fellows
Keti Chukhrov: Staging and Filming of the dramatic poem Metropoema
Keti Chukhrov is a guest professor in Philosophy of Art at the Academy of Fine Arts, Stuttgart. She was guest professor at the University of Arts and Design in Karlsruhe, in 2022-2023 and 2024-2025. In 2023-2024 she was a Tage Danielsson guest professor at the Linkoping University. Until November 2022 she worked as a professor at the School of Philosophy & Сultural Studies at the Higher School of Economics (Moscow). In 2012-2017 she was the head of Theory and Research department at the National Center of Contemporary Art, Moscow. In 2017-2019 she has been a Marie Sklodowska Curie fellow in UK, Wolverhampton University.
Her latest book Practicing the Good. Desire and Boredom in Soviet Socialism (University of Minnesota Press, 2020) deals with the impact of socialist political economy on the epistemes of historical socialism. Her full-length books include: To Be—To Perform. ‘Theatre’ in Philosophic Critique of Art (European Un-ty, 2011), and Pound &£ (Logos, 1999), and a volume of dramatic writing: Merely Humans (2010). Her research interests and publications deal with 1. Philosophy of performativity 2. Сomparative epistemologies and political economies of capitalist and non-capitalist societies 3. Art as the Institute of global Contemporaneity. She authored the film plays “Afghan-Kuzminki” (2013), “Love-machines” (2013), “Communion”(2016), Undead (2022) which were featured at the Bergen Assembly (2013), the Specters of Communism (James Gallery, NY, 2015), the Ljubljana Triennial U-3 (2016, cur. Z. Badovinac, B. Groys), (Steirischer Herbst 2022). etc. Her latest video-play “Undead” was premiered at the Steirischer Herbst 2022 show “War in the Distance”.
Shona Illingworth: Art, Peace and the Future of War
Shona is an artist filmmaker whose major works take the form of immersive gallery based multi-screen video and multi-channel sound installation. Her work combines interdisciplinary research (particularly with emerging neuropsychological models of memory and amnesia, critical approaches to memory studies, media sociology and human rights law) with socially engaged practice. Her work has been exhibited internationally, with shows at the Imperial War Museum, London; Museum of Modern Art, Bologna; FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology), Liverpool; UNSW Galleries, Sydney and the Wellcome Collection, London.
She has received commissions from Film and Video Umbrella, Hayward Gallery, London, and Channel 4 Television. Solo exhibitions include the Bahrain National Museum 2020 and The Power Plant, Toronto, 2021. Shona was shortlisted for the 2016 Jarman Award and is an Imperial War Museum Associate, Trustee of Project Art Works and sits on the editorial board of Digital War (digital-war.org).
Aurelia Mihai: Liquid matter / Flowing stories
Aurelia Mihai is a visual artist and filmmaker, who lives and works in Hamburg, Germany. She studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Bucharest, at the Academy of Fine Arts, Düsseldorf and at the Academy of Media Arts, Cologne (Profs. Valie EXPORT and Jürgen Klauke). From 2009 to 2021 she was a professor at the Braunschweig University of the Arts, Germany.
In her research-based, cross-media artistic practice and her films, which blur the boundaries between documentary and fiction, Aurelia Mihai frequently explores built or imagined monuments, reconsidering their significance and contemporary socio-cultural value.
Aurelia Mihai is the recipient of numerous prizes and has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including MNAC (National Museum for Contemporary Art) Bucharest, Rumania, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin, Germany, “The Worldly House“, Documenta 13, Kassel, Germany (2012), Museo Nacional Reina Sofia, Madrid, Cobra Museum in Amstelveen, The Netherlands, Chelsea Art Museum, New York, USA, Museo Nacional Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain (2005), Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art, Riga, Latvia (2008), Bruno House of Arts, Czech Republic (2006), Futura, Prague, Czech Republic (2009), Landesgalerie Linz, Austria (2011), Salzburg Museum, Austria (2013), MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art, Krakow, Poland (2016), Kunstmuseum Thurgau, Ittinger Museum, Switzerland (2016), Deichtorhallen Hamburg - Falckenberg Collection (2019), Museum Cinema, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Canada (2019), Les Abattoirs - Musée - Frac Occitanie Toulouse, France (2024), MAXXI National Museum of 21st Century Arts, Rom, Italy (2025).
Natalia Pershina: Carnival of the Monsters
Natalia Pershina-Yakimanskaya (artist name Gluklya) lives and works in Amsterdam.
Gluklya is considered as one of the pioneers of feminist performance after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s.She is working with installations, texts, videos, watercolours, performances, workshops , interventions to the political demonstrations and conceptual clothing.
Gluklya navigates the complex interplay between personal experience and political
realities, weaving narratives of marginalised communities :garment workers, migrants, caregivers —into various art productions and social activities.At the 56th Venice Biennale Gluklya presented forty-three Clothes for Demonstration Against False Election Of Vladimir Putin (2011 – 2015) in the exhibition All the World’s Futures, curated by Okwui Enwezor. The installation documents hopes, dreams and traumas of people who went into the streets of St-Petersburg and Moscow to demonstrate against the oppressive government. From 2019 to 2022 in the context of her research Two natures of Colonialism: Russian and European’ / Lives and work of oppressed women, Gluklya visited Indonesia and Kyrgyzstan.
Based on this research, she produced a body of work and an exhibition titled To Those Who Have No Time to Play. (Framer Framed, Amsterdam, 2022–23).
New Calls - Cohort 3
Conducting Contemporary Research on China, Eastern Europe & Eurasia. Deadline 2 November 2026 (5pm UK time)
Background
Background
Background
The Schemes are funded by the UKRI Network Plus ‘Shifting Global Polarities: Russia, China, and Eurasia in Transition’. This funding initiative brings together a network of leading expertise and centres of excellence from across the UK and overseas to address gaps and needs in research during a period of major societal, geopolitical, and environmental transformation spanning Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central, East & Pacific Asia. The funding was awarded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) as part of their Building a Secure and Resilient World strategic theme.
The initiative aims to advance innovative new partnerships within academic and policy circles linked to a range of urgent thematic areas including social upheaval, geopolitics and security, environmental crisis, human rights, Russia-China relations, and post-conflict reconstruction. The network’s activities aim to assist understanding and identification of global risks and help inform better decision-making.
Partners include the Universities of Birmingham, Glasgow, Manchester and Oxford, together with the Institute of Development Studies and the Royal United Services Institute in the UK. Overseas, partners include Colgate University in the USA; the Ukrainian Catholic University; Helsinki University in Finland; and Nagasaki University in Japan.
UK Research and Innovation creates knowledge with impact by investing over £8 billion a year in research and innovation through the UK’s nine leading funding councils.
Fellows
Fellows
Fellowships at a glance:
- Number: Maximum of 8 fellowships per year
- Amount: Up to £18,000 per Fellow
- Duration: Activities should take place over a period of up to 12 months max. (shorter periods are permissible) – fellowships should begin no earlier than 1 March 2027 and no later than 1 April 2027
- Eligibility: Fellows will be from diverse backgrounds including academia, policy, curatorial, NGOs. The scheme will prioritise the funding of early career applicants
- Focus: Activities should fit with the Network’s regional focus, priority theme for that round, and main organising themes
- Application deadline: 2 November 2026 (5pm UK time)
Aim of the Fellowships
The Fellowship scheme is distinct from the Research Projects scheme and aims to support a programme of focused research activities and associated output(s). These might include the production of publication(s) or policy outputs supported by specific research or related activities (e.g. institutional visits etc.). In addition, it aims to facilitate the development of the fellow through training and networking activities. Fellows will therefore (i) expand the Network’s capacity through original work, (ii) build links with a range of institutions within and beyond the Network, (iii) benefit from mentoring by Network members, (iv) play an active role in Network events/ contributing research, policy and related findings.
The fellowships are designed to further the reach of the Network and will engage with one (or more) of the Network’s main organising themes (see below) and help to further the priority theme for that round. The priority theme for the Network this round is Conducting Contemporary Research on China, Eastern Europe & Eurasia. We welcome proposals from across the social and political sciences, particularly those that engage with innovative methodologies and/or approaches.
Each fellow will be allocated a mentor(s) from the Network (see below for main contact details and website). Applicants should contact Network members prior to submission of an application to discuss their activities and focus. There is scope for an applicant to have more than one mentor and from different Network institutions.
Fellowship activities should support the development of the early career fellow in achieving the aims of the fellowship and align with the fellow’s long-term career aspirations. Fellows are encouraged to engage with non-academic organisations as part of their fellowship if there is scope.
Eligibility
We invite early career academics as well as professionals (e.g. policy, media, curatorial etc.). For academics, applicants should have received their PhD* no more than 8 years prior to the application deadline. For non-academics, applicants should have up to 10 years professional experience. The above timeframes should exclude career breaks and periods of maternity, paternal and adoption leave.
*Date of formal awarding of the degree. We will also consider applications from those who have passed their viva but awaiting their formal degree ceremony.
Costs
You should provide a clear breakdown and justification of how the requested funds will be spent. Eligible activities include: research costs (travel/subsistence), workshop/seminar attendance, institutional visits, small consumables necessary for fellowship activities (e.g. batteries, memory cards) and research support (e.g. translation costs) up to a maximum of £18,000.
Payment will be made on receipt of acceptable reports of expenditure.
Bids for the cost of child or parent care can be considered if the carer is conducting research away from home and it is not possible to make alternative arrangements. The costs of normal regular childcare whilst at home are not eligible for support.
Ethics of research activity
Applicants will be responsible for ensuring they receive relevant ethical approval for any research activity from their home institution. This should be confirmed with the Network at least 4 weeks prior to any research activity being carried out.
Independent researchers and/or those without access to formal ethical scrutiny and approval should describe any special ethical issues and explain how they will be addressed on the application form. Successful applicants will be required to seek ethical approval via the University of Birmingham’s ethics process.
Applicants must also submit their institutional ethics application and approval to the Network’s Ethics Committee (ethics-polarities@contacts.bham.ac.uk), which is designed to support and enable cross-institutional research. You are responsible for following the data management procedures at your host institution. If your research involves processing personal data, it is important to consider any additional actions you may need to take to comply with privacy legislation, such as the GDPR or the 2018 Data Protection Act. We may seek additional information/clarification following a review of your institutional ethics application.
The Network requires the research it funds to be conducted in an ethical manner. The following considerations apply to all proposals: accurate reporting of findings; fair dealing in respect of other researchers and their intellectual property; proper employment conditions for research staff having respect for the provisions of the 'Concordat for Contract Research Staff' and subsequent amendments; honesty to research staff and students about the purpose, methods and intended and possible use of the research and any risks involved; confidentiality of the information supplied by research subjects and anonymity of respondents (unless otherwise agreed with research subjects and respondents); and independence and impartiality of researchers to the subject of the research.
Additionally, proposals may raise one or more of the following considerations:
- The involvement of human participants.
- The involvement of human remains (e.g. traceable to living descendants).
- The use of non-human animals.
- Destructive analysis of historic artefacts.
- Research that may result in damage to the natural or historic environment.
- The use of sensitive social, economic or political data.
Wherever necessary, applicants should secure appropriate consent from or on behalf of participants or others affected by the research. Applicants should indicate whether their proposed research raises any special ethical issues.
Application process
Application deadline: 2nd November 2026 (5pm UK time)
1. Online Application form
Note that the Fellow is expected to commit to attend the following core activities during the year. Costs to support travel and accommodation for these events will be provided by the Network and do not need to be included in the breakdown of costs:
- Welcome Event (UK) – date TBC (1 day)
- Research/Policy training (UK) – dates TBC (3 days)
2. Applicant CV (no more than 2 sides of A4) – uploaded via the Online application form.
The CV must include the date of the PhD award or the scheduled date for the viva voce* (for academic applicants), brief details of education to date, any awards received for work or training, employment history, conference papers or publications, and any other relevant information for the fellowship.
*We will also consider applications from those who have passed their viva but are awaiting their formal degree ceremony.
Contact: polarities@contacts.bham.ac.uk (Martha Holmes)
Assessment of applications
Each application will be assessed using the following criteria:
- Fit to the overall Network regional focus, priority theme for that year, and main organising themes
- Programme of activities and outputs, including overall relevance and coherence of the work proposed, as well as feasibility for a fellowship
- Personal development opportunities
- Ethical considerations
- Value for money
Incomplete applications or applications outside the scope of the scheme will not be considered. The decision of the assessment committee is final.
If you are interested in applying for Cohort 3, the full details are available on the Fellowship information document, [DOCX, 114KB].
Projects
Projects
Research projects at a glance:
- Number: Up to 10 funded projects per year
- Amount: Up to £14,000 per project – to enable original research, policy analysis, synthesis of knowledge
- Duration: Activities should take place over a period of up to 12 months max. (shorter periods are permissible) – should begin no earlier than 1 March 2027 and no later than 1 April 2027
- Eligibility: Applicants will be from diverse backgrounds including academia, policy, NGOs
- Focus: Activities should fit with the Network’s regional focus, priority theme for that round and main organising themes
- Application deadline: 2 November 2026 (5pm UK time)
Aim of the Research Projects
The Research projects should focus on a discrete piece of research activity and are intended to further the reach of the Network and will engage with one (or more) of the Network’s main organising themes (see below) and help to advance the priority theme for that round. The priority theme for the Network this round is Conducting Contemporary Research on China, Eastern Europe & Eurasia. We welcome proposals from across the social and political sciences, particularly those that engage with innovative methodologies and/or approaches.
Each project will be allocated a mentor(s) from the Network (see below for main contact details and website). Applicants are encouraged to contact Network members prior to submission of an application to discuss activities and focus. There is scope for an applicant to have more than one mentor and from different Network institutions.
All applications should advance a clearly defined, discrete piece of research or policy-related activity, which will have an identifiable outcome(s) on completion of the funded component of the research. This can include: original research, policy analysis, or synthesis of knowledge.
Eligibility
We invite academics as well as professionals (e.g. policy, media, etc.) to apply. The competition is open to all career stages. We will consider applications involving a Primary Investigator and Co-Investigator(s) from other institutions where there is clear justification.
Costs
A clear breakdown of how the funds will be spent, up to a maximum of £14,000 must be provided.
Eligible costs to cover the direct expenses incurred in planning, conducting, and developing the research/activity, include:
• project planning and development costs (cost of travel for discussion; initial workshops with potential partners)
• travel and maintenance costs; including travel to disseminate results of the research at workshops/conferences held either in the UK or abroad
• research assistance (based in UK or abroad)
• small consumables required for research purposes
• costs of interpreters in the field
Payment will be made on receipt of acceptable reports of expenditure.
Request for the cost of child or parent care can be considered if the carer is conducting research away from home and it is not possible to make alternative arrangements. The costs of normal regular childcare whilst at home are not eligible for support.
Ethics of research activity
Applicants will be responsible for ensuring they receive relevant ethical approval for any research activity from their home institution. This should be confirmed with the Network at least 4 weeks prior to any research activity being carried out.
Independent researchers and/or those without access to formal ethical scrutiny and approval should describe any special ethical issues and explain how they will be addressed on the application form. Successful applicants will be required to seek ethical approval via the University of Birmingham’s ethics process.
Applicants must also submit their institutional ethics application and approval to the Network’s Ethics Committee (ethics-polarities@contacts.bham.ac.uk), which is designed to support and enable cross-institutional research. You are responsible for following the data management procedures at your host institution. If your research involves processing personal data, it is important to consider any additional actions you may need to take to comply with privacy legislation, such as the GDPR or the 2018 Data Protection Act. We may seek additional information/clarification following a review of your institutional ethics application.
The Network requires the research it funds to be conducted in an ethical manner. The following considerations apply to all proposals: accurate reporting of findings; fair dealing in respect of other researchers and their intellectual property; proper employment conditions for research staff having respect for the provisions of the 'Concordat for Contract Research Staff' and subsequent amendments; honesty to research staff and students about the purpose, methods and intended and possible use of the research and any risks involved; confidentiality of the information supplied by research subjects and anonymity of respondents (unless otherwise agreed with research subjects and respondents); and independence and impartiality of researchers to the subject of the research.
Additionally, proposals may raise one or more of the following considerations:
- The involvement of human participants.
- The involvement of human remains (e.g. traceable to living descendants).
- The use of non-human animals.
- Destructive analysis of historic artefacts.
- Research that may result in damage to the natural or historic environment.
- The use of sensitive social, economic or political data.
Wherever necessary, applicants should secure appropriate consent from or on behalf of participants or others affected by the research. Applicants should indicate whether their proposed research raises any special ethical issues.
Application process
Application deadline: 2nd November 2026 (5pm UK time)
1. Online Application form
Note that the applicant (Primary Investigator in case of a team application) must commit to attend the following core activities during the year. Costs to support travel and accommodation for these events will be provided by the Network and do not need to be included in the breakdown of costs:
- Welcome Event (UK) – date TBC (1 day)
2. Applicant CV (no more than 2 sides of A4) – uploaded via the Online application form.
The CV must show the date the PhD was awarded or the scheduled date for the viva voce (for academic applicants)*, brief details of education to date, any awards received for work or training, employment history, conference papers or publications, and any other relevant information for the proposed project.
*We will also consider applications from those who have passed their viva but are awaiting their formal degree ceremony.
Contact: polarities@contacts.bham.ac.uk (Martha Holmes)
Assessment of applications
Each application will be assessed using the following criteria:
- Fit to the overall Network regional focus, priority theme for that year, and main organising themes
- Research activities and proposed outputs, including overall relevance and coherence of the work, as well as feasibility of the proposed research
- Ethical considerations
- Value for money
Incomplete applications or applications outside the scope of the scheme will not be considered. The decision of the assessment committee is final.
If you are interested in applying for Cohort 3, the full details are available on the Projects information document [DOCX, 111KB].
Artists
Artists
Polarities Arts Programme
The Polarities Network casts its net across a vast geographical region encompassing the Eurasian steppe, the mountain ranges of Europe, the Caucasus and the Himalaya, through forests, Arctic tundra, prairies, peatlands, rivers, seas, lakes, glaciers, and many other ecotones.
The emphasis of the Polarities Arts Programme is on thinking across or outside categories and political borders, on seeing and listening at different scales, and from multiple perspectives.
The Polarities Arts Programme invites artists whose practices are attuned to the intertwined environmental, cultural, psychosocial and geopolitical upheavals playing out around them, and on their radar. They may be filmmakers for whom a landmass suggests the form of their work, or who record a polyphony of voices at dusk to tell a story. ‘Radical empathy’ (Galina Rymbu) may be called for, not post-apocalyptic imaginings, when people are living with catastrophe now. The artists may be activists, for whom art is activism; or their art may resist in more understated ways. They may well move between genres and will probably invent their own methods. They may be artists who conduct their own kind of fieldwork, or search through archives, or walk into forests, or sit still and record the changing light, or wait for the right moment to take a single shot
The purpose of the artist fellowships is to give the selected artists – filmmakers, photographers, poets, writers – the time and financial support to research and make their work, either developing an existing project, or beginning a new project.
The artist fellows are encouraged to take part in conversations and activities with the Network, and potentially to collaborate on interdisciplinary research with other Network fellows and partners. There are opportunities for in-person networking at the Welcome event in 2027 (date TBC). The priority theme for this Network cohort (2026-27) is Conducting Contemporary Research on China, Eastern Europe & Eurasia.
The ethos of the Arts Programme is to enable, stimulate and nurture collaborative and individual research, to share experiences and knowledge within the network and with diverse audiences. The Lead artist will work with artist fellows to develop and support exhibition opportunities, public events, and publications. The Lead artist aims to develop an ongoing forum for artists, fellows and curators, to discuss themes, work in progress, curatorial strategies, etc. as part of the Polarities Arts Programme.
The Polarities Network would like to make use of images and documentation from the artists’ projects for the purposes of documenting the network activities and promotion.
Applicants will retain all and any intellectual property, copyright, or other form of ownership generated during the preparation of their application.
Artists’ Fellowships at a glance:
- Number: Up to 4 per year
- Amount/Stipend: Up to £11,000 per Fellow – to support research (including travel), production, and subsistence costs.
- Duration: main activities should take place over a period of up to 12 months – fellowships should begin no earlier than 1 March 2027 and no later than 1 April 2027. Links with the Network will continue beyond the fellowship, with ongoing opportunities to participate in exhibitions, screenings, publications and other network activities.
- Eligibility: The artist fellowships are open to artists from the regions of the Polarities Network, artists working in or on these regions, artists from migrant and diasporic communities and refugees. Artist fellows can be at any stage in their career, although students are not eligible to apply. They may work as individuals or collectives. Artist collectives are encouraged to apply, and fellowships may be awarded to two people working together where it can be demonstrated that each applicant would benefit from the fellowship, and each contribute to the Network.
- Focus: The fellowships are aimed at artists whose practice is research-driven, who work with lens-based media, poetry and/or combined with performance. These parameters are understood broadly, and other forms of practice may be considered too. The focus is on experiences and storytelling from the region, thinking environmentally and critically, on views from the ground, resistance and hope.
- Support: The artist fellows receive a stipend, to cover expenses, production costs and an artist’s fee. They will have a mentor during the period of their fellowship.
The Polarities Arts Programme is intended to further the reach of the Network, and therefore the artist fellows are invited to engage with one (or more) of the Network’s main organising themes (see below) and help to further the priority theme for that round. The priority theme for the Network this year (2026-27) is Conducting Contemporary Research in China, Eastern Europe & Eurasia. Overlap with the priority theme is desirable but not essential for this particular application. Each project will be overseen by the Network’s Lead Artist, Dr Ruth Maclennan.
Aim of the Artists’ Fellowships
The Artists’ Fellowships give artists a key role in the Polarities Network, recognising the importance and urgency of artistic responses to climate change, biodiversity loss, war, conflict and the other risks and anxieties being addressed by the Polarities Research Network. The Artists Fellowships bring practice-based research in the creative arts into the Network, inviting and facilitating interdisciplinary collaboration among participants and partners, visiting fellows and host institutions, and presenting the outcomes to wide audiences in the UK and abroad.
Artists have the ‘capacity to sit comfortably with unknown and uncertain terrains’ (introduction to Fieldwork for Future Ecologies, Bridget Crone, Sam Nightingale, Polly Stanton, Onomatopee 2023). Artists often ask unexpected or unwanted but important questions, they move between disciplines, invent new methods, and their work often speaks to and connects people from different backgrounds.
The aim of the Artists’ Fellowships is to enable artist fellows to:
(i) research and develop a new project, or to expand or deepen an existing project that engages with one or several of the themes and geographic areas of the Polarities Network
(ii) critically engage with and contribute to the intellectual debates of the Polarities network
(iii) foster links with a range of art and academic institutions, and reach non-academic audiences
(iv) benefit from mentoring by and exchange with Network members (i.e. Lead artist, academic partners, Network Fellows, Research leads)
(v) play an active role in Network events, disseminating/presenting artistic research/artworks at public events (exhibitions, screenings, publications, the website, etc.).
Applicants are encouraged to contact the Lead Artist, Ruth Maclennan, prior to submission of an application to discuss activities and focus. Each fellow will be allocated a mentor from the Network (see below for details). There is scope for an applicant to have more than one mentor and from different Network institutions.
Exhibition opportunities and expectations
Opportunities to exhibit and present work through the Polarities Arts Network will be developed during the fellowship, and are likely to include exhibitions and publications after the end of the fellowship. It is expected that the artist fellows will contribute to these.
Costs
You should provide a clear breakdown and justification of how the requested funds will be spent. Eligible activities include: research costs (travel/subsistence), workshop/seminar attendance, institutional visits, materials, small consumables necessary for artist’s activities (e.g. hard drives, batteries, memory cards) and research support (e.g. translation costs, assistance) up to a maximum of £11,000. The breakdown can include an artist’s fee.
Payment will be made on receipt of acceptable reports of expenditure.
Costs of child or parent care can be considered if the carer is conducting research away from home and it is not possible to make alternative arrangements. The costs of normal regular childcare whilst at home are not eligible for support.
Ethics of research activity
Where applicable, applicants will be responsible for ensuring they receive relevant ethical approval for any research activity from their home institution. This should be confirmed with the Network at least 4 weeks prior to any research activity being carried out. Applicants should submit their institutional ethics application and approval to the Network’s Ethics Committee (ethics-polarities@contacts.bham.ac.uk), which is designed to support and enable cross-institutional research.
Independent artist researchers and/or those without access to formal ethical scrutiny and approval should describe any special ethical issues and explain how they will be addressed on the application form. Successful applicants will be required to seek ethical approval via the University of Birmingham’s ethics process.
Fellowship applicants should indicate on the application form whether their proposed research raises any special ethical issues.
Additionally, proposals may raise one or more of the following considerations:
- The involvement of human participants.
- The involvement of human remains (e.g. traceable to living descendants).
- The use of non-human animals.
- Destructive analysis of historic artefacts.
- Research that may result in damage to the natural or historic environment.
- The use of sensitive social, economic or political data.
You are responsible for following the data management procedures at your host institution. If your research involves processing personal data, it is important to consider any additional actions you may need to take to comply with privacy legislation, such as the GDPR or the 2018 Data Protection Act. We may seek additional information/clarification following a review of your institutional ethics application.
The Network requires the research it funds to be conducted in an ethical manner. The following considerations apply to all proposals: accurate reporting of findings; fair dealing in respect of other researchers and their intellectual property; proper employment conditions for research staff having respect for the provisions of the 'Concordat for Contract Research Staff' and subsequent amendments; honesty to research staff and students about the purpose, methods and intended and possible use of the research and any risks involved; confidentiality of the information supplied by research subjects and anonymity of respondents (unless otherwise agreed with research subjects and respondents); and independence and impartiality of researchers to the subject of the research.
Wherever necessary, applicants should secure appropriate consent from or on behalf of participants or others affected by the research. For example, filmmakers should supply participants with waiver forms to explain and allow the use of their images and words.
The Polarities Arts Programme is committed to addressing the climate emergency and being environmentally responsible, by supporting artists, partners and exhibitors to do so too. The Gallery Climate Coalition has suggestions for how to go about this. Artists are expected to consider and mitigate the environmental impact of their activities.
Application process
Application deadline: 2nd November 2026 (5pm UK time)
1. Online Application form
Note that the Fellow is expected to commit to attend the following core activity during the year. Costs to support travel and accommodation for these events will be provided by the Network and do not need to be included in the breakdown of costs:
- Welcome Event (UK) – date TBC (1 day)
2. Applicant CV (no more than 2 sides of A4) – uploaded via the Online application form and including education, exhibition/publication history, awards.
Contact: polarities@contacts.bham.ac.uk (Martha Holmes)
Assessment of applications
Each application will be assessed by a panel including the Lead artist, and partners from the Network institutions using the following criteria:
- Originality of the proposed project, and examples of previous work.
- Relevance to the themes of the Polarities Art Programme and Polarities Network themes.
- Programme of activities and outputs, including overall relevance and coherence of the work proposed, as well as feasibility for the fellowship.
- Personal development opportunities
- Ethical considerations
- Value for money
Incomplete applications or applications outside the scope of the scheme will not be considered. The decision of the assessment committee is final.
If you are interested in applying for Cohort 3, the full details are available on the Projects information document [DOCX, 115KB].
Timeline
Timeline
- Call announced – September 2026
- Closing dates for applications – 2 November 2026
- Decisions confirmed to applicants – By end of 2026
- Fellowships and Projects commence – between 1 March 27-1 April 27
Mentor contacts
Mentor contacts
The contacts listed below will be able to put the applicant in touch with relevant individuals to discuss their application.
- Institute of Development Studies (IDS) – Lewis Husain, l.husain1@ids.ac.uk
- University of Birmingham – John Round, j.round@bham.ac.uk
- University of Glasgow – Luca Anceschi, luca.anceschi@glasgow.ac.uk
- University of Manchester – Elena Barabantseva, e.v.barabantseva@manchester.ac.uk
- University of Oxford – Paul Chaisty, paul.chaisty@politics.ox.ac.uk; Todd Hall, todd.hall@politics.ox.ac.uk
- Ukrainian Catholic University – Volodymyr Turchynovskyy, volodymyr.turchynovskyy@ucu.edu.ua
- Colgate University - Jessica Graybill, jgraybill@colgate.edu
Additional Mentor contact for Artist Fellowship:
- Network Artistic Lead - Ruth Maclennan, r.maclennan@bham.ac.uk
Application form for all schemes
Application form for all schemes
If you are interested in applying for Cohort 3, please apply on the following Network Plus Shifting Global Polarities Cohort 3 Application Form.
Project Leads
Dr John Round
Senior Lecturer in Human Geography
Dr John Round studies how people navigate socio-economic marginality in everyday life.
Project Team (University of Birmingham)
Dr Irina Kuznetsova
Associate Professor
Dr Irina Kuznetsova, is a sociologist and social geographer researching migration, religiosity, health, disabilities studies, social policy and accessible cities.
Dr Cerwyn Moore
Associate Professor in International Relations
Cerwyn teaches and writes on terrorism and insurgency linked to the North Caucasus, particularly suicide attacks, foreign fighters and mass hostage-taking.
Dr Paul Richardson
Associate Professor in Human Geography
Dr Paul Richardson studies borders, sovereignty, and identity in Russia and Eurasia within a global context.
Professor Chris Thornhill
Professor of Law
Profile of Professor Chris Thornhill, Professor of Law at Birmingham Law School, University of Birmingham
Network partners and contacts
Other Universities and Institutions involved in Network Plus
Project Officer
Project Officer
Colgate University
Colgate University
Glasgow University
Glasgow University
Institute of Development Studies (IDS)
Institute of Development Studies (IDS)
Manchester University
Manchester University
Oxford University
Oxford University
The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI)
The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI)
Ukrainian Catholic University
Ukrainian Catholic University
- Volodymy Turchynovsky
- Maksym Kolyba
- Nataliya Yakymets
Network Artistic Lead
Network Artistic Lead
Network partners
Supported by Economic and Social Research Council