Alexander Etkind (born 1955, St. Petersburg, Russia) is a

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

and cultural scientist. Currently he is employed as a professor in the Department of International Relations at the

Central European University Central European University (CEU; , ) is a private research university in Vienna. The university offers graduate and undergraduate programs in the social sciences and humanities, which are accredited in Austria and the United States. The univ ...

. He is fellow of the

European Institute for International Law and International Relations The European Institute for International Law and International Relations (EIIR) in French (Institut européen pour le Droit international et les Relations internationales) is an independent policy institute and N.P. organisation based in Paris, ...

Career

He completed his B.A. and M.A. in 1978 in Psychology and English at

Leningrad State University Saint Petersburg State University (SPBGU; ) is a public research university in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in Russia. Founded in 1724 by a decree of Peter the Great, the university from the be ...

. In 1998, he defended PhD (

Habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excelle ...

) in Slavonic Studies/ Cultural History at the

University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki (, ; UH) is a public university in Helsinki, Finland. The university was founded in Turku in 1640 as the Royal Academy of Åbo under the Swedish Empire, and moved to Helsinki in 1828 under the sponsorship of Alexander ...

. Etkind taught at the European University at St. Petersburg then at

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

where he was also a fellow of King's College. He was a visiting fellow at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

, Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin, and other places. Etkind's research focuses on European and Russian intellectual history,

memory studies Memory studies is an academic field studying the use of memory Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose o ...

natural resource Natural resources are resources that are drawn from nature and used with few modifications. This includes the sources of valued characteristics such as commercial and industrial use, aesthetic value, scientific interest, and cultural value. ...

s and the

history of political economy The ''History of Political Economy'' is a journal published by Duke University Press, focusing on economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, an ...

, empire and colonies in Europe, and

Russian politics The politics of Russia take place in the framework of the federal semi-presidential republic of Russia. According to the Constitution of Russia, the President of Russia is head of state, and of a multi-party system with executive power exer ...

novels A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of '' ...

and

film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

in the 21st century. ''Nature's Evil: A Cultural History of Natural Resources'' is a world history (with special emphasis on Russia) of the economic and political roles of grain, meat, fur, sugar, hemp, metals, peat, coal and oil. From 2010 to 2013, he led the international research project “Memory at War: Cultural Dynamics in Poland, Russia, and Ukraine”. The project studied the role of cultural memory of the Soviet era in Russia, Ukraine and Poland and received funding from Humanities in the European Research Area (HERA). Etkind has publications in Russian and English, and speaks both languages.

Selected publications

* ''Russia Against Modernity.'' Cambridge: Polity Press, 2023. * "Alexey Navalny: A hero of the new time." ''New Perspectives'' (2022): 2336825X211065909. * ''Rethinking the Gulag: Identities, Sources, Legacies'' Indiana University Press, 2022, editor, with Irina Anatolievna Flige, Susan Grunewald, Jeffrey S. Hardy, Mikhail Nakonechnyi,

Judith Pallot Judith Pallot is professor emerita of the School of Geography and Environment, University of Oxford, expert in Soviet, East Central European, and Russian geography, in particular, Russia's penal geography and the geography of the Russian peasan ...

, Gavin Slade, Lynne Viola, Josephine von Zitzewitz, and Sarah J. Young. * ''Nature's Evil: A Cultural History of Natural Resources'' Polity Press, 2021
excerpt
se
online review
* ''Eros of the impossible: The history of psychoanalysis in Russia''. Routledge, 2019, with Maria Rubins
online review
* "Petromacho, or Mechanisms of de-modernization in a resource state." ''Russian politics & law'' 56.1-2 (2018): 72–85
online
* "Kant’s Subaltern Period: The Birth of Cosmopolitanism from the Spirit of Occupation." in ''Cosmopolitanism in Conflict'' (Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2018) pp. 55–83. * ''Roads not Taken. An Intellectual Biography of William C. Bullitt.'' Pittsburgh University Press 2017
online review
* ''Cultural Forms of Protest in Russia'', co-ed. with B. Beumers, O. Gurova and S. Turoma. New York: Routledge, 2017. * “How Russia Colonized Itself. Internal Colonization in Classical Russian Historiography”, International Journal for History, Culture, and Modernity, Vol 3, No. 2, 2015, pp. 159–172. * “Post-Soviet Russia: The Land of the Oil Curse, Pussy Riot, and Magical Historicism” Boundary 2, Vol 41, No. 1, 2014, pp. 153–170. * ''Memory and Theory in Eastern Europe'', co-ed. with U. Blacker and J. Fedor, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. * ''Warped Mourning. Stories of the Undead in the Land of the Unburied'', Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 2013. * ''Remembering Katyn''. Cambridge: Polity 2012, co-authored. * ''Internal Colonization. Russia’s Imperial Experience'', Cambridge: Polity 2011. * �
A Parable of Misrecognition: Anagnorisis and the Return of the Repressed from the Gulag
” ''Russian Review'' 68 (October 2009): 623–640. * �
Stories of the Undead in the Land of the Unburied: Magical Historicism in Contemporary Russian Fiction
�� ''Slavic Review'' 68, no. 3, Fall 2009, pp. 631–658. * Хлыст: Секты, литература и революция (The Russian Flagellant: Sects, Literature, and Revolution) Moscow: NLO 1998; second revised edition: 2013. * ''Eros of the Impossible: The History of Psychoanalysis in Russia''. Boulder - Oxford: Westview 1996.

References

External links

Alexander Etkind on EUI Cadmus
{{DEFAULTSORT:Etkind, Alexander 1955 births Living people European University Institute European University at Saint Petersburg University of Helsinki Fellows of King's College, Cambridge The Moscow Times people Cultural historians Historians of Russia Russian Jews Academic staff of Central European University 21st-century Russian historians

Career

Selected publications

References

Further reading

External links