British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grants, 2017-19. Together with Ilya Yablokov, University of Leeds
Our research findings provide critical insights into the relationship between media freedom and politics in Eastern Europe, with a focus on Hungary and Latvia. We have explored cultural, social and historical aspects influencing attitudes to authorities and professional ethics, alongside economic aspects including commercial pressures, online journalism and business influences.
I am comparing super-rich Brits and Russians engaged in large-scale projects in civil society, charity and/or arts philanthropy. My aim is to identify the similarities and differences between one of the newest and one of the oldest capitalist societies. I see philanthropy as a vehicle to regulate intra-elite power relations and elite cohesion as well as to legitimise social inequality.
Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship, 2015-2017, University College London
From 2012 to 2013 I worked as a research associate in the AHRC-funded project ‘Mediating Post-Soviet Difference’ at the University of Manchester.
The project explored Russian state television’s approach to issues of ethnic tension, migration and religion. I analysed the statistical data gathered and conducted qualitative interviews with famous Russian journalists and media managers. Continue reading
From 2009 to 2011 I worked on the EU-funded FP7-SSH project ‘Interplay of European, National and Regional Identities’. I was a research fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies, Vienna. My task was to coordinate the 11 project partners in writing their background reports and edit them.
Interplay of European, National and Regional Identities: Nations between States along the New Eastern Borders of the European Union: EU-FP7/SSH collaborative research project, 2008-2011
Final report: https://cordis.europa.eu/publication/rcn/15313_en.html
For a brief spell in 2004 I worked on this EU-FP5/INCO-Copernicus project at the Centre for Sociological Studies at the Lomonosov Moscow State University. Together with a local colleague, I analysed some data from this project, which resulted in a co-authored article on the 2004/2005 colour revolutions in Ukraine, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan. The project included 18,400 entries from the eight former Soviet countries (Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia and Georgia).