I joined Central and East European Studies in 2014. During 2014-2017 I worked with two co-researchers on a three-year project on national cultural autonomy and minority rights in Central and Eastern Europe, funded by the ESRC. I have been responsible for research and publications on the  the Russian Federation - one of the project's four case studies. Since January 2018 I am a Lecturer in Post-Soviet Russia. 

From 2011 to 2013 I was employed by the German research institute European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI), where I co-ordinated the research cluster ‘Culture and Diversity’. In ECMI my research focused on cultural and linguistic rights of national minorities in Central and Eastern Europe. From 2012 to 2014 I was the editor of the Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe (JEMIE). Another aspect of my research has been the analysis of the complexities in the implementation of international standards of minority rights in Russia.

I have also worked in human rights as a practitioner: before my PhD I was employed by the London-based NGO Article 19, as project manager and researcher on freedom of expression and the media in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (1997-2008). In 2009-11 I was involved in the joint Council of Europe/EU programme ‘Minorities in Russia: Developing Culture, Language, Media and Civil Society’. I have undertaken research and campaigning for Amnesty International, Minority Rights Group International, and Global Partners and Associates. 

• Cultural and participatory rights of national minorities in the post-Soviet space
• Contemporary Russian politics
• Nationalism, identity and ethnic belonging
• Norm diffusion - domestic implementation of international human rights law in post-Communist countries
• Non-territorial autonomy and national minorities
• Media pluralism and inter-cultural dialogue
• Minority-language education
• Ethnic discrimination, (in)equality and social justice

Research project

‘National Minority Rights and Democratic Political Community: Practices of Non-Territorial Autonomy in Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe’: a three-year (2014-2017) ESRC-funded project, based on the analysis of elite interviews, parliamentary and media debates, and official documents. The research team also comprised Prof David J. Smith and Dr Judit Molnar.

Undergraduate

Post-Soviet Russia: Renegotiating Global, National and Local Identities - Honours Option

Post-Communist Russia and the Former Soviet Union, Level 2 (Course Coordinator)

Issues in Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies (Contributor)

Communism and its Collapse, Level 1 (Contributor)

Postgraduate

Post-Soviet Russia: Renegotiating Global, National and Local Identities - MSc Option

I contribute to the editing of the European Yearbook of Minority Issues, in cooperation with the European Centre for Minority Issues and the Minority Rights Institute (European Academy, Bolzano/Bozen).

Between 2012 and 2014 I edited 12 issues of the Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe (JEMIE), and wrote introductions to two special issues: ‘National Minorities between Protection and Empowerment’, JEMIE 13(2), 2014; and ‘Non-Territorial Autonomy in Theory and Practice’, JEMIE 12(1), 2013).

Languages

Russian, French and Italian

Conference Papers

• Linguistic Rights: Russian Practice and International Norms, Conference ‘Minority and Linguistic Rights: National, Comparative and International Approaches’, High School of Economics, Moscow, 29-30 January 2018.
• Russia’s Virtual Equality: Individuals and Groups, Symposium ‘Minorities, Diversities, Securities’, Columbia-Marburg-Barcelona-Glasgow Consortium, Herder-Institute for Historical Research on East Central Europe – Marburg, 28-29 September 2017.
• National-Cultural Autonomy in the Post-Soviet Space, Conference ‘Minority Rights and Political Community in Central and Eastern Europe’, organised by the Institute for Minority Studies (Centre for Social Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences) and the University of Glasgow – Budapest, 5 September 2017.
• Russia’s ‘Myth of Equality’: Yesterday and Today, 24^th International Conference of Europeanists, University of Glasgow – Glasgow, 12-14 July 2017.
• Russia’s National Cultural Autonomy: Multiplicity in Conformity, Conference ‘National Minority Rights and Democratic Political Community: Approaches, Challenges and Perspectives, organised by the University of Glasgow and Babeş-Bolyai University – Cluj-Napoca, 19-20 May 2017.
• Russia’s Non-Territorial National Cultural Autonomy and Minority ‘Voices’: Effective, Symbolic, or Other? 22^nd Annual World Convention of the Association for the Study of Nationalities,Columbia University – New York, 4-6 May 2017.
• Non-Territorial National Cultural Autonomy in Russia: Minority Voices or Non-Voices? BASEES 2017 Annual Conference, Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, 31 March - 2 April 2017.
• National Minorities' Institutions in Russia: National in Form, Putinist in Content, Cambridge Central Asia Forum Seminar Series, Cambridge Central Asia Forum in collaboration with Centre for Development Studies, University of Cambridge – Cambridge, 11 November 2016.
• Russia, National Cultural Autonomy and (A)Political Community, 21^st Annual World Convention of the Association for Study of Nationalities, Columbia University – New York, 14-16 April 2016.
• Practical Experiences of National-Cultural Autonomy: Estonia, Conference ‘Non-Territorial National Cultural Self-government: The Ukrainian Perspective’, organized by the Kuras Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies, European Centre for Minority Issues and University of Glasgow – Kyiv, 2-3 June 2016.
• Moldova: Soviet Legacies, the ‘State Language’ and Linguistic (In)justice, Conference ‘Russian Speakers in the Post-Soviet Space: Comparative Approaches’, organized by the University of Glasgow and the University of Tartu – Tartu, 8-9 October 2015.
• Russia’s National Cultural Autonomy and Ethnic Federalism: Where Non-Territoriality Meets Territoriality, 9^th ICCEES World Congress - Makuhari, Japan, 3-8 August 2015. 
• The Origins of National Cultural Autonomy in Russia: Equality of Opportunities or Assumptions of Sameness? 7th CRCEES (Centre for Russian, Central and East European Studies) Annual Research Forum, University of Glasgow – Glasgow, 4-5 June 2015.
• Combining Territoriality and Non‐Territorial National Cultural Autonomy: The Case of Russia’s Tatars, Conference ‘New Modalities for Democratic Autonomy for Minorities that do not entail Dismembering States’, organised by Ankara University and Queen’s University Belfast – Ankara, 15-18 May 2015
• Russia’s National Cultural Autonomy: Real or Fictitious Participation? ‘National-Personal Autonomy, Non-territorial Autonomy, Cultural Autonomy’, University of Vienna, 8-10 January 2015.
• What Next for Crimean Tatars and Other Minority Groups in the Region?, ‘Citizenship, Minority Rights and Justice’, Sussex European Institute, University of Sussex, 3 September 2014.
• Linguistic Rights, Minority Languages and the Russian Higher Courts, ‘14^th International Conference on Minority Languages’, University of Graz, 11-14 September 2013.
• Linguistic Justice, Soviet Legacies and Post-Soviet Realpolitik: The Ethno-Linguistic Cleavage in Moldova, UACES 43^rd Annual Conference, University of Leeds, 2-4 September 2013.
• Linguistic Rights in a Former Empire: Minority Languages and the Russian Higher Courts, ‘Europe: Crisis and Renewal’, BASEES / ICCEES’s European Congress 2013, University of Cambridge, 5-8 April 2013.
• Language Policies or Language Politics? The Case of Moldova, Conference on ‘Minority Representation and Minority Language Rights: Origins, Experiences and Lessons to be Learned’, Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Cluj-Napoca, 11-14 October 2012.
• The Russian Federation’s National Minorities and their Participatory Rights, ‘Twenty Years After 1991: The Reshaping of Space and Identity’, Conference of the Association for the Study of Nationalities (ASN), Moscow, 28-30 September 2011.
• National Cultural Autonomy: Real or Fictitious Participation?, ASN World Convention, Columbia University, New York, 14-16 April 2011.
• Power, Politics and Participation: The Right to Identity in the Russian Federation, ‘Workshop on Minority and Indigenous Rights: Emerging Themes and Challenges’, Institute of Commonwealth Studies, London, 18-19 November 2010.
• Minority Education in the Russian Federation, ‘The (Almost) Unknown Treaty: the 1992 European Charter on Regional or Minority Languages’, Birkbeck College, University of London, 29 June 2010.

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