Dr. Svetlana Erpyleva

Post-doctoral researcher

E-mail: erpyleva@uni-bremen.de / 
yerpylovas@gmail.com





 

Current Research Projects

“Politicizing environmental emergency in Russia and Finland”

"How do Russians perceive the Russian military aggression in Ukraine?"


Fields of Research

• Political socialization

• Political culture

• Grassroots politics and civil society in Russia

• Russia’s wartime society

Short CV

Education

Ph.D., Social Sciences, University of Helsinki, 2019

MA, Sociology, European University at Saint-Petersburg, 2013

BA, Sociology, State University - Higher School of Economics at Saint-Petersburg, 2010


Professional Employment

2024-present  Post-doctoral researcher (funded by KONE), Research Centre for East European Studies, University of Bremen

2013-present   Researcher, Public Sociology Laboratory

2022-2024   Humboldt fellow, Post-doctoral researcher, Research Centre for East European Studies, University of Bremen

2021–2022      Post-doctoral researcher, University of Helsinki

2019-2020       Assistant Professor, School of Advanced Studies, University of Tyumen

2017-2019       Researcher and Instructor, School of Advanced Studies, University of Tyumen

2012-2018       Editorial assistant, “Stasis” journal (http://stasisjournal.net/)


Selected Publications
 
Edited Volumes and Reports

2024    “We need to carry on:” Ethnography of Russian regions during wartime. George Washington University, Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (co-editor, with Sasha Kappinen).

2023    Resigning to Inevitability: How Russians justified the military invasion of Ukraine (fall-winter 2022). George Washington University, Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (co-editor, with Sasha Kappinen).

2015    The Politics of Apoliticals, Moscow: Novoe Literaturnoe Obozrenie, in Russian (co-editor, with Artemy Magun).

Refereed Journal Articles

2024    “The climate is changing, and the President is not:” How the Russian climate activists avoid politics and fight with the regime, Europe-Asia studies, 76(6): 891-908  (co-authored with Eeva Luhtakallio).

2023  Why Fight?: The Combatant Careers of the Anti-Kyiv Combatants in the Donbass War, Sociological Forum, open access (co-authored with Natalia Savelyeva).

2023    “Too immature for politics?” Political agency in the eyes of Russian adolescent protesters, 2011–20, Childhood 30(3): 219–234.

2023    Protest Event, Political Culture, and the Power of Biography: The Post-Protest Local Activism in Russia, American Journal of Cultural Sociology, open access.

2022    “Collective Cognitive Tasks as a Method for Studying Political Reasoning,” Qualitative Psychology, advance online publication (co-authored with Maxim Alyukov).

2021    “Active Citizens Under Eighteen: Minors in Political Protests.” Journal of Youth Studies 24(9): 1215-1233.

2020    “The Cultural Pragmatics of an Event: the Politicization of Local Activism in Russia.” International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society 33, 163-180 (co-authored with Oleg Zhuravlev and Natalia Savelyeva).

2018    “Freedom’s children in protest movements: Private and public in the socialization of young Russian and Ukrainian activists.” Current Sociology 66(1), 20-37.

2014    “Individualism and Solidarity in New Russian Social Movements.” The Journal of Social Policy Studies 2, 185–200, in Russian (co-authored with Oleg Zhuravlev and Natalia Savelyeva).

2011    “Political Performance as Breaching Experiment in Ethnomethodology.” SOCIS 15, 10–18, in Russian.


Book Chapters

2023 “Political Context and Russian Youth: The Political Socialization of Young Activists under Authoritarianism,” In Jerusha Conner (ed.), Handbook on Youth Activism, Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing, pp. 289-302.

2014    “The Adolescents’ Protests in Russia and Europe: Political Independency in Democratic Societies Revisited.” In Belokurova, Elena and Maria Nozhenko (eds), Made in Europe. The View of Russian Researchers, St. Petersburg, Norma, in Russian.

Editor-Reviewed Articles

2023 “Nicht Befürworter:innen und nicht Gegner:innen: Wie verändert sich bei der Bevölkerung in Russland mit der Zeit die Wahrnehmung des Krieges in der Ukraine?” Russland-Analysen, 434 (co-authored with Oleg Zhuravlev).

2021   Are Children Born Social Actors? Forum for Anthropology and Culture 16, 39-47.

2017    Nationwide Protest and Local Action: How Anti-Putin Rallies Politicized Russian Urban Activism. Russian Analytical Digest 210, 15-19 (co-authored with Oleg Zhuravlev and Natalia Savelyeva).

2013    “‘Parents did not let me go’: protest politicization of adolescents in the depoliticized society.” Sociologia Vlasti 4, 150-174, in Russian.

Selected Media Publications

2024  “(A)moral War: How Russians use Morality to Justify Differing Positions on the War,” Russia.Post, September 16 (co-authored with Sasha Kappinen). Retrieved from: https://russiapost.info/society/moral_war
 
2023 “Accepting the Inevitable,” Posle, May 3 (co-authored with Sasha Kappinen). Retrieved from: https://posle.media/language/en/accepting-the-inevitable/

2023 “‘Once we’ve started, we cannot stop’: How Russians’ attitudes to the war in Ukraine are changing,” Re-Russia, April 14. Retrieved from https://re-russia.net/en/expertise/060/
 
2022    “Why do Russians support the war against Ukraine?” OpenDemocracy, April 16. Retrieved from https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/russia-ukraine-war-support-interviews-opinion/

2021    “What’s new about Russia’s new protests?” OpenDemocracy, June 3. (co-authored with Oleg Zhuravlev). Retrieved from https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/whats-new-in-russia-protests-2021-navalny/

2020    “Children Changing Politics.” Baltic Rim Economies, 1, February 28. Retrieved from https://sites.utu.fi/bre/children-changing-politics/

2018    “The Politicization of Russian Youth.” New Eastern Europe, January 1: 7-13. Retrieved from https://neweasterneurope.eu/2018/01/02/politicisation-russian-youth/

2014    “Apoliticism and Solidarity: Local Activism in Russia.” (co-authored with Oleg Zhuravlev and Natalia Savelyeva). Lefteast, October 6. Retrieved from
https://www.criticatac.ro/lefteast/apoliticism-and-solidarity-local-activism-in-russia/


Fellowships

2021 Post-doctoral Humboldt Fellowship, Research Center for East European Studies, University of Bremen (calendar years 2022/2023)
 
2020    Post-doctoral Junior Fellowship, the Institute for Advanced Study, Central European University (the academic year 2021/2022, declined)

2020    Visiting Fellowship, Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki (2 months, received, canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic)

2019    Young Russian Scholars Helsinki Fellowship, Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki (2 months)

2017    Research Fellowship, University of Southern California (2 months)

2012    Research Fellowship, Free University of Berlin (1 month)


Research Grants

2025-2028   Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), individual research grant funding post-doc position

2023     Global Academy by Russia Program at the IERES, George Washington University (Public Sociology Laboratory)
 
2021-2024       Kone Foundation (Svetlana Erpyleva, Eeva Luhtakallio, and Maija Jokela)

2019    Russian Foundation for Basic Research (Svetlana Erpyleva, Maxim Alyukov, Matvey Lomonosov, and Brian Smith)

2016-2017       The Volkswagen Foundation (Public Sociology Laboratory, the Research Centre for East European Studies, Centre for Social and Labour Research, and Research and Information Centre Memorial)

2016-2017       The Volkswagen Foundation (Public Sociology Laboratory, the Bonn Centre for Conversion and the Institute for Euro-Atlantic Cooperation

2012-2013       Department of Liberal Arts and Sciences of St. Petersburg State University (Public Sociology Laboratory and group of researchers of St. Petersburg State University)

2010    Heinrich Böll Foundation (individual project)