Members of the research group

Natalia Samutina

I am the Head of the research group. I work as leading research fellow and as the Head of the Center for studies of contemporary culture at the Institute for Theoretical and Historical Studies in the Humanities (National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia). I am also an associate professor at sociology department at the same institution (Higher School of Economics). My research interests are multiple and vary from cinema theory to visual anthropology and from research on transformations of contemporary city space to fanfiction studies. First I fell in love with street art in London East End and I am fascinated by the possibilities which street art provides for broadening our vision and city experience. I focus on the question of “visibility” of graffiti and street art, on different scenarios of viewing experience they organize; on media representations of graffiti and street art in various forms, from books to the Internet; on fragile historical dimension of street images.

Oksana Zaporozhets

I am a researcher and a lecturer working for IGITI, Higher School of Economics (Moscow) and I am also a visiting lecturer at European Humanities University (Vilnius). My research interests are mainly in Urban Studies covering a broad range of topics such as urban perception, urban choreography, transitive spaces, and emotional scapes. I have a keen interest in micro-urbanism (especially, in some vague concepts such as nuances, details, chances) and concentrate on the ways the city is produced and re-interpreted by the things, places, practices, and discourses identified as insignificant (such as lostness and lost things or “yard art” – communities DYI practices). My recent research project is devoted to the anthropology of the subway. In this project I consider graffiti and street art as a part of urban creative practices (games, performances, interventions) that have significantly affected the urban life during last decade. I wonder about the ways they change the perception of the city, its spatiality, and social interactions. I have a special interest in graffiti and street art in Russian cities.

Roman Abramov

I am an Associate Professor at The Department of Social Analysis of Institutions, Faculty of Sociology, Higher School of Economics. Mainly I am interested in Sociology of Professions and Collective Memory Studies. I also share the interest in Urban Studies with my colleagues and I have participated in the research project led by Natalia Samutina, which focused on the interrelation among park spaces, social environment and museum service in the Moscow park complex Tsaritsyno. I currently study political street art and graffiti on Moscow walls, an important aspect of the topic and a crucial form of urban activism and manifestation.

Ekaterina Riise

I am a researcher at the Centre for Fundamental Sociology (Higher School of Economics), involved in a range of projects on urban studies. My primal object of interest is city space perception and how different aspects such as everyday mobilities, ambiances and artistic practices shape cityscapes daily. That is why in this research project I deal with following aspects of Street Art Studies: graffiti and street art as a tool for city space formation; communicative context; street art and graffiti communities: anthropological aspect; cityscapes' forms and textures for street art.

  CV Ekaterina Fen

Alisa Maximova

I am a second year MA student in sociology and I work as research intern in the Centre for Fundamental Sociology (HSE, Moscow). My academic interests include urban studies, and this project became the best opportunity to examine life of contemporary city. Together with Varvara Kobyshcha we look on the phenomenon of street art using theoretical resources of cultural sociology and cultural anthropology. My other research project is connected with museum studies: I work under examining the audience of one of the largest Moscow museums, the Polytechnical Museum. During last three years I also took part in annual field work expeditions in small towns of Russia with the aim of studying local communities.

CV Alisa Maximova

Varvara Kobyshcha

I am a master student in Sociology. My research is devoted to the aesthetic dimension of everyday social order. I am interested in the connection between aesthetic perception and the process of meanings production. I participate in the work of the Cultural Sociology Research Group. Apart from academic work I also took part in several projects related to urban culture practices (examining the audience of Polytechnical Museum, exploring Moscow cultural institutions, analyzing the influence of artistic intervention on local communities).

Alexandra Kolesnik

I am a second year MA student at Higher School of Economics (Moscow) and I work as Research Assistant at the Institute for Theoretical and Historical Studies in the Humanities (IGITI). My research interests are in popular music studies and contemporary popular culture history. My current research project is focused on the mechanisms of representation of the past in popular music. Although Russian graffiti scene was formed in the 1980s, it was discovered by scholars quite recently. At a particular moment graffiti writers got interested in the past of the practice and the communities it brought to life. They searched for the key events and persons, channels of communication with the world outside. They also tried to incorporate the history of the community in more general historical narrative. Therefore, on the one hand, I am interested in the connection between graffiti and music, and on the other hand, in techniques and tactics Russian graffiti and street art groups and communities use to construct their own history.

CV Alexandra Kolesnik