Network Plus: Shifting Global Polarities

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.

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]. 

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. The scheme is not open to current PhD researchers.

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]. 

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]. 

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.

Bergit's LinkedIn

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.

Daryna's LinkedIn

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.

Mariat's LinkedIn

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.

Maksym's LinkedIn

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'.

Chiara's LinkedIn

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.

Khayyam's LinkedIn

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.

Denis' LinkedIn

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.

Yanran's LinkedIn

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.

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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.

Precious' LinkedIn

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.

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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.

Nurseit's LinkedIn

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.

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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.

Natalia's LinkedIn

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).

Vaclav's LinkedIn

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.

Koen's LinkedIn

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.

Ilya's LinkedIn

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.

Bekzod's LinkedIn

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).

Natalia's LinkedIn

Fellows

Otgontuya Davaanyam - Environmental Governance, Extractivism, and Geopolitical Dependence in Mongolia: Soviet Legacies, Chinese and Russian Influence, and the Prospects for a Just Transition

Otgontuya Davaanyam is a Business and Human Rights scholar and postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Human Rights Erlangen-Nürnberg (CHREN), Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU). Her research examines corporate accountability, access to remedy, and responsible business conduct (RBC), with particular attention to OECD National Contact Point case law, human rights due diligence, and environmental responsibility. She holds law degrees from Shihihutug University, the University of Liverpool, and Swansea University, and recently completed her PhD at FAU. Her doctoral monograph, Conceptualising Corporate Human Rights and Environmental Responsibilities: A Bottom-Up Analysis through OECD Case Law, was published by Springer in May 2026.

Otgontuya's career bridges legal practice, international development, and applied research. She has practised as an attorney at Anderson & Anderson LLP, advised UNDP Mongolia on business and human rights, and contributed to policy and advocacy initiatives with the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, OHCHR, and FiftyEight. She is co-editor of the open-access volume Exploring Corporate Human Rights Responsibilities in OECD Case Law and co-author of the National Baseline Assessment for Business and Human Rights Mongolia, produced under the Mongolian Government–UNDP NAP on Business and Human Rights project. Her scholarship has been recognised through the Hodgson Law Scholarship and the Hillary Rodham Clinton Global Challenges Scholarship.

She currently conducts the UKRI-funded research project Environmental Governance, Extractivism, and Geopolitical Dependence in Mongolia: Soviet Legacies, Chinese and Russian Influence, and the Prospects for a Just Transition. Building on this work, her research increasingly engages with the lived experiences of Mongolian nomadic herders, examining how mining, just transition, and corporate responsibility shape land, culture, and the rights of Indigenous women.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/otgontuya-davaanyam-15434679/

Zongtian Guo

Zongtian Guo is a Postdoctoral Researcher and Lecturer at the University of Amsterdam, affiliated with the Healthcare-AI group. He earned his PhD in Geography from Trinity College Dublin, funded by the Science Foundation Ireland through the ADVANCE-CRT programme. He also holds an MRes in Human Geography and Sustainable Development from the University of St Andrews, and a Bachelor's degree in Tourism Planning from Shenyang University. His academic career includes lectureships in Ireland and the Netherlands, as well as visiting research positions at Guangzhou University and the Guangdong Institute of Eco-environment and Soil Sciences in China. His international experience spans the Netherlands, Ireland, China, Korea, and the UK.

Zongtian’s interdisciplinary research lies at the intersection of digital governance, healthcare innovation, and urban transformation. His current project explores how artificial intelligence and digital technologies reshape healthcare governance and the moral landscapes of care in China and Norway. Using comparative ethnographic methods, he investigates how human–AI collaboration influences professional judgment, institutional trust, and public expectations of wellbeing. His broader interests encompass medical anthropology, ethical AI, and the socio-technical restructuring of public service systems.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/zongtianguo/

Farrukh Khakimov - The Impact of Improving Digital Infrastructure on Regional Connectivity and Integration 

Dr. Farrukh Khakimov is head of department at the Development Strategy Center (DSC), Uzbekistan.

He holds PhD in Political Science from the University of World Economy and Diplomacy, as well as International Master’s degree from the University of Glasgow and Zhejiang University.

Prior to joining the DSC, Dr. Khakimov lectured at the University of World Economy and Diplomacy and also worked as a research fellow at the Academy of Public Administration and at the Institute for Strategic and Regional Studies under President of Republic of Uzbekistan during 2010-2016.

Dr.Khakimov’s areas of research interest are regionalism and regional integration in Central Asia, geopolitics of Central Asia, digital transformation, digitalization processes, public administration and digital government.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/farrukh-hakimov-0327b544?utm_source=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=member_ios

Anya Kuteleva - Infrastructures of Belonging: Energy, Identity, and Connectivity in Atyrau, Kazakhstan

Anya Kuteleva is a Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Wolverhampton, UK. Her research sits at the intersection of international relations, energy politics, and feminist-informed approaches to power, with a particular focus on how geopolitical identities and narratives are constructed, contested, and transformed. She is the author of China's Energy Security and Relations with Petrostates: Oil as an Idea (Routledge, 2021) and co-editor of China in the Global South (Springer, 2022), and has published widely in journals including Europe-Asia Studies, Eurasian Geography and Economics, Problems of Post-Communism, European Journal of International Security, and Energy Research & Social Science. Her current research examines energy knowledge production and the cultural politics of fossil fuel dependency in oil-producing nations and regions.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-kuteleva/

Aleksandra Piletić - Corridors of Power: Energy Infrastructures and Geopolitical Entanglements in the Western Balkans

Aleksandra is a Lecturer in International Political Economy at King's College London. Her research is interested in contemporary transformations in capitalism under the weight of multiple overlapping crises, with a particular focus on the green and digital transitions. She works at the intersection of international political economy and economic geography, exploring transformations of capitalism across spaces and scales.

Her current research centres on the political economy of renewable energy infrastructure in Southeastern Europe, with a focus on EU-led energy transition and infrastructure initiatives. This project builds on previous research on small hydropower projects in rural Serbia, which examined the tensions between renewable energy expansion, local resistance and authoritarian governance across scales. In addition to this research, Aleksandra has worked on the political economy of digital platforms as part of the ERC-funded 'Platform Labour' project, where her work analysed how digital platforms adapt to and reshape existing institutional landscapes and state forms.

Giulia Sciorati - Becoming Agents of the Chinese Dream: Family Networks and Affective Infrastructures of Transnational Entrepreneurship

Giulia Sciorati is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Her research theorises how performance shapes the construction, reception, and contestation of intersubjective meanings in international politics, with an empirical focus on Global China. She previously held a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Trento, and her work has appeared in the European Journal of International Relations, the International Journal of Cultural Policy, The International Spectator, and other outlets.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/giulia-sciorati/

Research Projects

Elena Borisova - Visualising Care: Masculinity, Environment, and Infrastructures of Repair in Central Asia

Dr Elena Borisova is a social anthropologist specialising in migration, (im)mobility, citizenship, gender, and care in Central Asia. She is a Research Associate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Sussex, where she previously held a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship. She holds a PhD from the University of Manchester and has conducted long-term ethnographic fieldwork in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Russia. Her research examines how mobility, immobility, and care shape moral personhood, family life, and ideas of the good life in times of social transformation. She is the author of Paradoxes of Migration in Tajikistan: Locating the Good Life, 2024, UCL Press. Her current project, Visualising Care: Masculinity, Environment, and Infrastructures of Repair in Central Asia, uses ethnographic documentary filmmaking to examine how environmental care practices in post-Soviet Central Asia become forms of ecological and social repair amid contemporary uncertainty.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-elena-borisova-6b002432/

Ceren Ergenc - The Divergence-Convergence Nexus of Rival Connectivity Initiatives in Eurasia

Dr. Ceren Ergenc is a Research Fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) and an affiliated researcher at the East Asian Studies and Research Centre, Autonomous University of Barcelona. She holds a PhD in Political Science from Boston University and has built a distinguished academic and research career focusing on China Studies and the European Union’s external relations, with a particular emphasis on Asia. Her expertise lies in examining China's domestic and international policy processes, its investments across the greater European region, and the intersection of industrial policymaking with participatory governance and urban politics.

Ceren’s research portfolio is diverse, covering key topics such as China's Belt and Road Initiative, the dynamics of local governance in China, and the broader geopolitical implications of China’s rise as a global power. Her work has been featured in leading academic journals and think tank publications, including Asia Europe Journal, Journal of Chinese Governance, and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, contributing significantly to scholarly discourse on China’s role in global affairs.

Fluent in English and proficient in Chinese, Ceren’s linguistic abilities have enabled her to engage deeply with Chinese primary sources and conduct field research across Asia and Europe. Her insights into China’s strategic ambitions and the European Union’s evolving relationship with Asia have been instrumental in shaping policy discussions on these critical issues.

In addition to her research work, Ceren has an extensive teaching background. She previously served as an Assistant Professor of International Relations at Middle East Technical University in Turkey and later as an Associate Professor of China Studies at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University in China.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/cerenergenc/

Irna Hofman - The geopolitics of rural infrastructure: (dis)connecting and (dis)integrating markets

Irna Hofman is a rural sociologist specialising in agrarian and social change in Central Asia. She is a lecturer at the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology of Leiden University, and a Research Associate of the School of Geography and the Environment, of the University of Oxford. Irna has conducted extensive ethnographic fieldwork in rural Central Asia, with a focus on agrarian transformation, lived geopolitics, and Global China. She obtained a Ph.D. in Humanities from Leiden University in 2019 and undertook post-doctoral research at the University of Oxford between 2019 and 2022. Her research interests are broad and sit at the intersection of political economy, political ecology, and political geography. Irna has published in, amongst other outlets, Journal of Agrarian Change, The Journal of Peasant Studies, and Development and Change.

www.linkedin.com/in/irnahofman

Jessica Neafie - Bridging Green Orders: Kazakhstan's Dual Engagement with EU and China's Energy Frameworks.

Jessica Neafie is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Nazarbayev University (Kazakhstan). Dr. Neafie studies issues related to China’s foreign policy in developing and emerging economies, as well as how middle power states balance China’s rise and the shift to multipolarity, particularly in the realm of environmental politics.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jneafie/

Igor Rogelja - TIDES: Time in Infrastructures, Democracy, and Extraction in Serbia

Dr Igor Rogelja is an Associate Professor in Global Politics, working mostly on international infrastructure and global China. He is interested in the politics of space and is involved in several research projects examining the effects of Chinese infrastructural investments in the so-called ‘Belt and Road Initiative’. He is also one of the editors at the The People's Map of Global China, a qualitative mapping project tracking China's global imprints.

Apart from empirical work, Igor works on bringing insights from the anthropology of infrastructure into global politics to better conceptualize how large infrastructural projects interact with political and physical space. He has published on the role of materials such as coal or concrete in shaping international politics, particularly within a multi-scalar perspective that rethinks statist explanations in favour of more nuanced work. His recent methodological interests include walking as an experimental and interdisciplinary method in the study of politics.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/igor-rogelja-008255b8/

Natalia Savelyeva - Infrastructure of War: From Hybrid Governance to Full-Scale Invasion

Natalia Savelyeva is a sociologist and a lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is also a researcher at the Public Sociology Laboratory. She earned her PhD in Social Sciences from the Institute of Sociology, Russian Academy of Sciences. Her research primarily focuses on the violent conflict that began in Ukraine in 2014 and the Russian society's response to the ongoing war in Ukraine. Her articles have been published in numerous international academic journals, as well as in Russian and international media.

Charlie Walker - Changing infrastructures of care in post-Soviet Eurasia: social resilience and looked-after children in Kyrgyzstan

I am a comparative sociologist and language-based area specialist with more than 20 years’ experience conducting research on a wide range of topics relating to social change in former Soviet Union countries, including Russia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Estonia, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan. My academic and consultancy work has addressed transformations relating to gender (in particular masculinities), social stratification, employment change, education, internal migration, social protection, youth transitions, and civil-military relations.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlie-walker-799978351/

Arts Fellows

Lala Aliyeva - The Deep That Dreams Itself

This interdisciplinary collective brings together different methodologies to explore the material, political, and intimate entanglements of oil, landscape, and human experience in Azerbaijan. Working across artistic and academic fields, the group examines how extractive environments shape perception, memory, and ways of inhabiting space. By engaging with oil not only as an economic resource but as a cultural, geological, and symbolic substance, their work opens new ways of understanding how landscapes live through bodies, histories, and images.

Yana Kononova is a Ukrainian photographer and researcher with a background in social sciences and a PhD in sociology. Born on Pirallahi Island in the Caspian Sea, an area deeply shaped by oil extraction, her practice investigates geological, ecological, and geopolitical dimensions of extractive landscapes. In her ongoing project Incendiary Lands, she returns to Azerbaijan to explore mud volcanism, oil, and the aesthetics of landscape as an active agent in shaping perception and history. Working with large-format photography, field observation, and text, she develops a visual language that connects planetary processes with human experience. Her work has been exhibited internationally and received awards including the Bird in Flight Prize and the Hariban Award.

Lala Aliyeva is a documentary filmmaker and visual anthropologist from Azerbaijan. Her practice is grounded in long-term fieldwork and a sustained inquiry into the relationship between people and the environments they inhabit. Over the past five years, her work has focused on the Caspian Sea. Through her ongoing feature-length documentary Strange Sea, she approaches the sea through a distinctly female gaze, weaving together personal memory and collective histories. She is also the co-founder of Chai Docs Documentary House. Her short films have screened at international film festivals.

Leyla Sayfutdinova is a sociologist from the University of Glasgow whose research focuses on post-Soviet industrial and urban transformation, with a particular emphasis on the socio-material entanglements of oil in Azerbaijan. Her work critically examines how extractive infrastructures shape social life, memory, and governance. Through this collaboration, she seeks to move beyond the limits of text-based scholarship by engaging with artistic and visual methodologies, developing hybrid forms of inquiry that bridge sociology and visual practice.

Margarita Galandina - Border Ecologies: Contact-Zone Infrastructures and Post-Socialist Identities in Buryat-Mongolia and Inner Asia

Margarita Galandina is a Siberian-born multidisciplinary artist based in London, working across photography, archival research, and moving image. Raised in Buryatia (eastern Siberia), she engages in her work with Indigeneity, historical memory, and the relationship between landscape and cosmology.

She works with institutional and family archives, using autoethnographic and site-based approaches to explore photographic history across Inner Asia. Through archival intervention, self-portraiture, and documentary methods, she looks at how images carry and structure inherited histories.

As part of the UKRI Polarities Network fellowship, she is developing a moving-image work for her long-term project Ovoo, focused on Buddhist and shamanistic sites across Buryatia and Mongolia, developed through archival research, field recordings, and film.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/margarita-galandina/ or website margaritagalandina.com

 Mia Tamme

Mia Tamme is an artist, writer, filmmaker, and community organiser based in Tallinn, Estonia. Working across textiles, moving image, writing, and performance, her research-based practice drifts between the Baltic Sea, folk traditions, institutional archives, and personal memory. Drawing from practices such as weaving, sailing, fishing, and storytelling, she explores how queer and wayward histories are carried through voices, bodies, objects, and folk art.

Her work has been shown at institutions including KUMU Art Museum and EKKM. She has participated in the Helsinki International Artist Programme residency and studied at the Dutch Art Institute. Mia organises reading groups, storytelling events, sauna days, and other collective gatherings.

Natacha Nisic - Why Is The Sea So Bitter?

Natacha Nisic is an artist and filmmaker. She weaves links between history, representation and memory and its implications in the political, social and cultural fields. She explores the visible and invisible relationships between images, words, interpretation, symbol and ritual. Her work questions the nature of the image through different media: Super 8, 16MM, video, photography and drawing. She created The Crown Letter (2020), an international platform of women artists, in response to the Corona virus crisis. She directed “Rather Die Than Die” (2018) a documentary essay on the First World War and the art historian Aby Warburg as part of the commemorations of the Centenary of the First World War, and, for Arte, “Andrea’s Sky” (2014). Natacha Nisic exhibits worldwide — recent exhibitions include, MAM, Paris (2024), MNAV, Uruguay, 2023, Frise, Hambourg (2023), Leopold Hoesch Museum (2022), Centre Pompidou (2020), Sharjah Film Platform (2019), the Yebisu Film Festival, Tokyo (2018), the Me-dia City Biennale in Seoul (2016), Bienal de la Imagen en mouvement in Buenos Aires, Munfret in Buenos Aires (2016), Jeu de Paume, Paris. Nisic has obtained numerous scholarships and residencies, notably at the Villa Kujoyama, Tokyo in 2001 and 2016, at the Gyeonngi Creation Center, South Korea (2010) and at the Villa Medici, Rome in 2007. Education: Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, Paris; Deutsche Film und Fernseh Akademie, Berlin; La Femis, Paris.