Russians
in Britain: Identity, Community,
Representation
The
project examines the social and cultural identities, as well as the
organisation and self-representation of associations and networks of
Russian-speaking migrants currently living and working in Britain. The focus of
the project is on personal, family and collective memory, migrants’ national,
ethnic, generational, and other identities, problems of cultural reproduction, the representation
migrant communities, and the micro- and macro- politics of migrant
community-building. This research is part of a larger project
on Russian National Identity since 1961, directed by Professor Catriona
Kelly (New College) and funded by the AHRC (AH/E509967/1). The 'Russians in
Britain' project is based
on in-depth semi-structured interviews (thematic autobiographical narratives), the
analysis of the Russian-language press and other media in the UK, and ethnographic fieldwork at
Russian migrant community events and institutions.
Project
Outlines, Reports & Research Notes
See preliminary project outline.
See
project public advertisement.
See
preliminary project report, entitled 'Interviewing "Russians in
Britain"', in the Russian National Identity since 1961 project Newsletter
1, June 2008 (pp. 7-9).
See research note, entitled '"Russians Wives": A Snapshot of the
Stereotype', in the Russian National Identity since 1961 project Newsletter
3,
May 2009 (pp. 14-15).
Archive
Fully anonymised transcripts of interviews will be archived at the Oxford
Russian Life History Archive.
A partially annotated and thematically organised catalogue of newspaper articles
on post-Soviet Russian-speaking migration to the UK (Russian- and
English-language press). [link to come]
Papers
& Publications
Paper
'"The Last Soviet Generation" in Britain' presented at the conference Soviet
Memory: Remembering the Soviet Union at the European University in St
Petersburg, 11 April 2008. Published as ‘“Poslednee
sovetskoe pokolenie” v Velikobritanii’, Neprikosnovennyi
zapas 64, 2009 (2), pp. 96-116. Online version of the article is available
here. Partly
revised version of the paper entitled
'Migrant Lives: The Last Soviet Generation in Britain' presented at the AAASS
2009 Convention in Boston, USA, 12-15 Nov 2009.
A
different paper with a similar title '"The Last Soviet Generation" in
Britain: Reimagining Nationhood' presented at the conference Diasporas: Exploring Critical
Issues
(1st Global Conference)
at Mansfield College, Oxford, 5-7 July 2008. Published in the e-book Jane
Fernandez (ed.), Diasporas:
Critical Issues (Oxford: Interdisciplinary-Net Press, 2009), pp.
53-62, available here; abridged in Demograficheskie
perspektivy Rossii (Moscow: Academia, 2008), pp. 403-10.
Paper
'The Russian-speaking "Community"
in Britain: Solidarities, Loyalties, Identities' presented at the Fourth
Anglo-French Workshop in Russian Studies, at the EHESS, CNRS, Paris,
24-26
October 2008.
Paper
'Russia in International Relations: The Case of Russian-speakers in the UK' presented at the REES
Advanced Research Seminar, St Antony's College, Oxford, 1 June 2009. Revised version of the paper,
entitled 'The Russian Diaspora in International Relations:
"Compatriots" in Britain' presented at the conference
National
Identity in Eurasia II: Migrancy & Diaspora at Wolfson College,
Oxford, 10-12 July 2009.
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