Interviews

“I was not prepared to censor myself” Interview with Russian university professor Gleb Yarovoy

Gleb Yarovoy is a professor of political science and is currently based at the University of Eastern Finland in Joensuu. His dealings over the years with his former main employer, Petrozavodsk State University, says something about the situation for Russian academics of today.

By Påhl Ruin March 5, 2019

“Being a part of the community that is being investigated creates a number of complications”

Corina Ceamă, Ion Duminică, Ian Hancock, Tomasz Koper, and Hristo Kyuchukov reflect on their views and aspirations for Romani Studies, as well as their own roles as Roma scholars.

By Kimmo Granqvist September 6, 2018

”Is it the swan song of patriarchy, or the beginning of a new ice age?” Interview with Agnieszka Graff and Elżbieta Korolczuk

Agnieszka Graff and Elżbieta Korolczuk in an interview about the phenomenon of anti-genderism: a topic they written together on and both try to understand as it is spreading in Poland but also widely elsewhere

By Eva Karlberg March 7, 2018

Muted histories and reunited memories a story of a Swedish family during the times of the Russian Revolution

Early this fall Irina Seits, Russian PhD candidate at CBEES, Södertörn University met with Gustaf Nobel, Ludvig’s great-grandson, in order to talk about the Russian period in the life of his prominent family.

By Irina Seits November 7, 2017

A discussion on the Bakhtin Circle

Paromita Chakrabarti and Yulia Gradskova discuss the Bakhtin Circle with five experts in the field: Caryl Emerson, university professor emeritus of Slavic languages and literatures, Princeton University; Lakshmi Bandlamudi, professor of psychology at LaGuardia Community College, City University of New York; Ken Hirschkop, professor of English at the University of Waterloo, Ontario; Craig Brandist, professor of cultural theory and intellectual history and director of the Bakhtin Centre, at the University of Sheffield; and Galin Tihanov, the George Steiner professor of comparative literature at Queen Mary University of London.

By Paromita Chakrabarti June 19, 2017

“Good literature is like lightning: it has to shock, to pierce the heart”

In this interview, Laura Sintija Černiauskaitė shares her experience of becoming a writer in the post-Soviet conditions of 1990s Lithuania. Her development as a writer coincided with a drastic change in what it meant to be a writer: from being a political spokesperson to being an economic entity.

By Stephan Collishaw January 30, 2017

The Russian economy at the crossroads Before and beyond the Ukrainian crisis

"Business is not particulary concerned with democratic values, but rather with the existence of stable rules of the game and secured property rights for investors, says professor Andrei Yakovlev, head of the Institute for Industrial and Market Studies at the higher School of Economics in Moscow.

By Ilja Viktorov November 19, 2015

The voice of the excluded

Poet, essayist, film critic, journalist, feminist activist, researcher at Polish Academy of Science, literary researcher at Jewish Historical Institute and lecturer in gender studies at Warsaw University — Bożena Keff’s professional career is as multifaceted as it is interdisciplinary, and her interests impressively manifold.

By Renata Ingbrant November 19, 2015

The Crimean Tatar leader Mustafa Jemiloglu: “I myself is an optimist.”

Today there is a new reign of terror against the Crimean Tatars, as well as against the Ukrainian population in Crimea. Mustafa Jemiloglu has once again been forced out from Crimea. He was after a meeting in Ankara in March refused to enter Crimea and come back to his home in Bakhchisaray.

By Peter Johnsson November 2, 2014

Interview with Iryna Dovgana. The Dignity of Donbas

Iryna Dovgan is one of several women that helped Ukrainian soldiers. But she was caught and imprisoned for several days. She was beaten, injured and humiliated. Today she stands up for her rights and is running in the election campaign.

By Peter Johnsson October 25, 2014