Nikolai Ssorin-Chaikov
- Associate Professor:HSE Campus in St. Petersburg / School of Arts and Humanities / Department of History
- Programme Head:Global and Regional History
- Nikolai Ssorin-Chaikov has been at HSE University since 2015.
Editorial board membership
2019: Editor-in-chief, Social Anthropology.
2018: Member of the Editorial Council, Cultural Anthropology.
2014: Member of the Editorial Council, Этнографическое обозрение.
Education and Degrees
- 1998
PhD in Anthropology
Stanford University - 1992
Master's
Stanford University - 1987
Degree in History
Lomonosov Moscow State University PhD in Anthropology, Stanford University
Courses (2023/2024)
- Anthropology of Kinship and Gender (Minor; School of Arts and Humanities; 1, 2 module)Eng
- Anthropology of Kinship and Gender (Mago-Lego; 1, 2 module)Eng
- Ethnography and Social Theory (Postgraduate course’s programme; 2 year, 1 semester)Eng
- Foundations of Russian Statehood (Bachelor’s programme; School of Arts and Humanities; 1 year, 1 module)Rus
- Foundations of Russian Statehood (Bachelor’s programme; Saint-Petersburg School of Social Sciences and Area Studies; 1 year, 1 module)Rus
Gifts of Empire (Master’s programme; School of Arts and Humanities; field of study "46.04.01. История", field of study "46.04.01. История"; 1 year, 2 module)Eng
- Gifts of Empire (Master’s programme; Faculty of Humanities; 1 year, 2 module)Eng
- Mentor Seminar “Social Anthropology" (Master’s programme; School of Arts and Humanities; 1 year, 1-4 module)Eng
- Mentor Seminar “Social Anthropology" (Master’s programme; School of Arts and Humanities; 2 year, 1-3 module)Eng
- The Anthropology of Economy and Ethics (Minor; School of Arts and Humanities; 1, 2 module)Eng
- The Anthropology of Economy and Ethics (Mago-Lego; 1, 2 module)Eng
- Writing Power (Minor; School of Arts and Humanities; 3, 4 module)Eng
- Past Courses
Courses (2022/2023)
- Anthropology of belief and knowledge (Minor; School of Arts and Humanities; 3, 4 module)Eng
Anthropology of bureaucracy (Master’s programme; School of Arts and Humanities; field of study "46.04.01. История", field of study "46.04.01. История"; 1 year, 3, 4 module)Eng
- Anthropology of bureaucracy (Mago-Lego; 3, 4 module)Eng
- Anthropology of Kinship and Gender (Minor; School of Arts and Humanities; 1, 2 module)Eng
- Economical and Political Anthropology (Minor; School of Arts and Humanities; 1, 2 module)Eng
- Ethnography and Social Theory (Minor; School of Arts and Humanities; 3, 4 module)Eng
- Ethnography and Social Theory (Postgraduate course’s programme; 2 year, 1 semester)Rus
Gifts of Empire (Master’s programme; School of Arts and Humanities; field of study "46.04.01. История", field of study "46.04.01. История"; 1 year, 2 module)Eng
- Gifts of Empire (Master’s programme; Faculty of Humanities; 1 year, 2 module)Eng
Global Inequality in Historical Perspective: An Introduction to Global History (Master’s programme; School of Arts and Humanities; field of study "46.04.01. История", field of study "46.04.01. История"; 1 year, 3, 4 module)Eng
- Mentor Seminar “Social Anthropology" (Master’s programme; School of Arts and Humanities; 1 year, 1-4 module)Eng
Courses (2021/2022)
- Anthropology of belief and knowledge (Minor; School of Arts and Humanities; 3, 4 module)Eng
- Anthropology of Kinship and Gender (Minor; School of Arts and Humanities; 1, 2 module)Eng
- Economical and Political Anthropology (Minor; School of Arts and Humanities; 1, 2 module)Eng
- Ethnography and Social Theory (Minor; School of Arts and Humanities; 3, 4 module)Eng
- Ethnography and Social Theory (Postgraduate course’s programme; 2 year, 1 semester)Eng
- Gifts of Empire (Master’s programme; School of Arts and Humanities; 1 year, 1, 2 module)Eng
- Historical Textual Criticism (Master’s programme; School of Arts and Humanities; 1 year, 3, 4 module)Eng
- Historical Textual Criticism (Master’s programme; Faculty of Humanities; 1 year, 3, 4 module)Eng
- Research Seminar (Postgraduate course’s programme; 1 year, 1, 2 semester)Rus
- Современная политическая антрAdvanced Political Anthropology (Postgraduate course’s programme; 1 year, 1 semester)Rus
Courses (2020/2021)
- Anthropology of belief and knowledge (Minor; School of Arts and Humanities; 3, 4 module)Eng
- Anthropology of Kinship and Gender (Minor; School of Arts and Humanities; 1, 2 module)Eng
- Applied Anthropology (Minor; School of Arts and Humanities; 3, 4 module)Eng
- Economical and Political Anthropology (Minor; School of Arts and Humanities; 1, 2 module)Eng
- Gifts of Empire (Master’s programme; School of Arts and Humanities; 1 year, 1, 2 module)Eng
- Historical Textual Criticism (Master’s programme; School of Arts and Humanities; 1 year, 3, 4 module)Eng
- Theory and methods of contemporary historical knowledge (Postgraduate course’s programme; 1 year, 1, 2 semester)Rus
Courses (2019/2020)
- Anthropology of belief and knowledge (Minor; School of Arts and Humanities; 3, 4 module)Eng
- Anthropology of Kinship and Gender (Minor; School of Arts and Humanities; 1, 2 module)Eng
- Applied Anthropology (Minor; Saint-Petersburg School of Social Sciences and Area Studies; 3, 4 module)Eng
- Economical and Political Anthropology (Minor; Saint-Petersburg School of Social Sciences and Area Studies; 1, 2 module)Eng
- Historical Memory and Identity Narratives (Master’s programme; School of Arts and Humanities; 1 year, 3, 4 module)Eng
- Historical Textual Criticism (Master’s programme; School of Arts and Humanities; 1 year, 1, 2 module)Eng
- Theory and methods of contemporary historical knowledge (Postgraduate course’s programme; 1 year, 1, 2 semester)Rus
Courses (2018/2019)
- Applied Anthropology (Minor; Saint-Petersburg School of Social Sciences and Area Studies; 3, 4 module)Eng
- Contemporary Theory and Methods in Social Anthropology (Minor; Saint-Petersburg School of Social Sciences and Area Studies; 1, 2 module)Eng
- Economical and Political Anthropology (Minor; Saint-Petersburg School of Social Sciences and Area Studies; 1, 2 module)Eng
- Historical Memory and Identity Narratives (Master’s programme; School of Arts and Humanities; 1 year, 1, 2 module)Eng
- Historical Textual Criticism (Master’s programme; School of Arts and Humanities; 1 year, 3, 4 module)Eng
- Introduction to Human History (Bachelor’s programme; School of Arts and Humanities; 1 year, 1-3 module)Rus
- The anthropology of science and religion (Minor; Saint-Petersburg School of Social Sciences and Area Studies; 3, 4 module)Eng
Courses (2017/2018)
- Contemporary Theory and Methods in Social Anthropology (Minor; Saint-Petersburg School of Social Sciences and Area Studies; 1, 2 module)Eng
- Introduction to Human History (Bachelor’s programme; School of Arts and Humanities; 1 year, 1-3 module)Rus
Publications38
- Article Ssorin-Chaikov N. Forum on the new far right: introduction // Social Anthropology. 2021. Vol. 29. No. 2. P. 298-303. doi (in press)
- Article Ssorin-Chaikov N. The Topography of Debt: Pokruta, Indigenous Fur Trade, and Imperial Space in Northern Siberia in the Early 20th Century // Comparative Studies in Society and History. 2021
- Article Ssorin-Chaikov N., Soto Bermant L. Introduction: urgent anthropological COVID‐19 forum // Social Anthropology. 2020. Vol. 28. No. 2. P. 218-220. doi (in press)
- Article Ssorin-Chaikov N. Rethinking performativity: ethnographic conceptualism // Journal of Cultural Economy. 2020. Vol. 13. No. 6. P. 672-689. doi
- Article Ssorin-Chaikov N. Reassembling history and anthropology in Russian anthropology: part I // Social Anthropology. 2019. Vol. 27. No. 2. P. 320-335. doi
- Article Ssorin-Chaikov N. Reassembling history and anthropology in Russian anthropology: part II // Social Anthropology. 2019. Vol. 27. No. 2. P. 336-351. doi
- Chapter Ssorin-Chaikov N. Conceptualism, Ethnographic, in: The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology. Oxford : Wiley-Blackwell, 2018. P. 1-3. doi
- Article Ssorin-Chaikov N. Hybrid Peace: Ethnographies of War // Annual Review of Anthropology. 2018. Vol. 47. P. 251-262. doi
- Article Ссорин-Чайков Н. В. "КУПЦЫ И ИНОРОДЦЫ” СТО ЛЕТ СПУСТЯ: ВВЕДЕНИЕ // Этнографическое обозрение. 2017. № 1. С. 30-42.
- Article Destree P., Partridge T., Ssorin-Chaikov N. Our Electric Illuminations. Theorizing the Contemporary // Cultural Anthropology. 2017
- Article Ssorin-Chaikov N. Review of Janet M. Hartley. Siberia: A History of the People. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2014. Pp. xx, 289 // American Historical Review. 2016. Vol. 121. No. 2. P. 678-679. doi
- Article Ssorin-Chaikov N. Review of The Socialist Way of Life in Siberia: Transformation in Buryatia. By Melissa Chakar. Budapest: Central European University Press, 2014. xvi, 296 pp. Bibliography. Index. Plates. Tables. Maps. $55.00, hard bound // Slavic Review. 2016. Vol. 75. No. 2. P. 515-516. doi
- Article Ssorin-Chaikov N. Soviet Debris: Failure and the Poetics of Unfinished Construction in Northern Siberia // Social Research. 2016. Vol. 83. No. 3. P. 689-721.
- Book Mari.Research / Ed. by N. Ssorin-Chaikov, S. Gavrilova, K. Romanova. M. : Triumph Gallery, 2015.
- Article Ssorin-Chaikov N. Sociopolitics // Reviews in Anthropology. 2015. Vol. 41. No. 1. P. 5-27. doi
- Chapter Ssorin-Chaikov N., Gavrilova S., Romanova K. The Book of the Scientist, Livre du scientifique: Introduction, in: Mari.Research / Ed. by N. Ssorin-Chaikov, S. Gavrilova, K. Romanova. M. : Triumph Gallery, 2015. P. 8-13.
- Article Ssorin-Chaikov N. Ethnographic conceptualism: an introduction // Laboratorium: Russian Review of Social Research. 2013. Vol. 5. No. 2. P. 4-18.
- Article Ssorin-Chaikov N. Gift/knowledge relations at the exhibition of gifts to Soviet leaders // Laboratorium: Russian Review of Social Research. 2013. Vol. 5. No. 2. P. 166-192.
- Book Топография счастья: этнографические карты модерна / Науч. ред.: Н. В. Ссорин-Чайков. М. : Новое литературное обозрение, 2013. (in press)
- Article Ssorin-Chaikov N. Writing power: An anarchist anthropologist in the looking glass of critical theory // Critique of Anthropology. 2012. Vol. 32. No. 2. P. 189-205.
- Article Ссорин-Чайков Н. В. Медвежья шкура и макароны: о социальной жизни вещей в сибирском совхозе и перформативности различий дара и товара // Экономическая социология. 2012. № 2. С. 59-81.
- Article Ссорин-Чайков Н. В., Юдин Г. Б. Социальная и экономическая антропология // Экономическая социология. 2012. Т. 13. № 2. С. 122-143.
- Article Ssorin-Chaikov N. On heterochrony: birthday gifts to Stalin, 1949 // Journal of Royal Anthropological Institute. 2006. Vol. 12. No. 2. P. 355-375.
- Book Дары вождям. Каталог выставки / Сост.: Н. В. Ссорин-Чайков, О. А. Соснина; науч. ред.: Н. В. Ссорин-Чайков. М. : Пинакотека, 2006.
- Book Ssorin-Chaikov N. The Social Life of the State in Subarctic Siberia. Stanford : Stanford University Press, 2003.
Conferences
- 2019
XIII Конгресс Этнологов и Антропологов России (Казань). Presentation: История одного совхоза: поэтика неоконченной стройки в северной Сибири
Annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association (Ванкувер). Presentation: Current issues in the anthropology of the new right
- 2018
On Thinking, Crafting and Claiming the Future(s) (Хельсинки). Presentation: Future and temporal multiplicity: a brief anthropology of time
- 2017
The Russian Revolutions of 1917: The Northern Impact and Beyond (Тромсо). Presentation: Gifts of the revolution: Soviet indigenous policies through the lens of the anthropology of exchange
917 / 2017: DISCIPLINARY REGIMES OF TRUTH (Тюмень). Presentation: Pravda as Law and Pravda as Truth: Notes towards a Conceptual Ethnography of Truth
XIII МАЛЫЕ БАННЫЕ ЧТЕНИЯ (St Petersburg). Presentation: Социополитика и анархический поворот в антропологии
- 2015Contemporary Anthropologies of Art (Darham). Presentation: Performativity and exchange: a study in ethnographic conceptualism
- Contemporary Anthropologies of Art (Darham). Presentation: Performativity and exchange: a study in ethnographic conceptualism
'I Submitted My Documents to Three Universities: Oxford, Cambridge and the London School of Economics. I was Accepted in All Three'
At HSE University-St Petersburg, except for the main learning trajectory, over two years, the students master an additional one—a minor. It can help to find new optics for research, choose a profession or simply broaden the horizons. A minor helped Tatyana Novotolskaya, a graduate of the Bachelor's programme 'Sociology and Social Informatics', not only find a new area for research but also get enrolled in the Master's programme at Oxford University. Find out more about all these things and some pieces of advice for prospective students in our interview.
The Master's in 'Global and Regional History' Trains Specialists in History and Anthropology
The Master's programme 'Global and Regional History' has two educational tracks: one historical and one anthropological. The main goal of the programme is to prepare graduates to continue their academic careers. However, students will also be able to work in more applied fields: in museums, publishing companies, exhibitions, and marketing. Find out which courses await students and why the programme rejects traditional divisions into Russian and world history in this interview with Nikolai Ssorin-Chaikov, the programme's Academic Supervisor.
Quick Recap of Double Degree Programmes at HSE – St. Petersburg
Double degree tracks have been created as a result of a partnership between HSE – St. Petersburg and other programmes offered by well-known foreign universities. Participants are given the opportunity to study abroad for a year at a partner university. Upon successful defence of a thesis in front of a joint commission, students receive fully fledged diplomas from two universities.
Master's Programme in History Launches Double Degree Track
HSE University — Saint Petersburg and the University of Göttingen have signed the agreement on the double degree track for the Master's programme 'Global and Regional History'. The best programme students will study in Germany for a year and obtain two diplomas issued by both universities.
International Opportunities Online: Joint Courses Bring HSE’s and International Students Together
Call for Applications for the development and delivery of joint online courses with international partner universities completed at HSE University — St. Petersburg at the end of December. Now students of five educational programmes can take courses developed by lecturers from HSE and partner universities. Students of partner universities will take the courses along with students of HSE University — St. Petersburg.
Communications, Creativity and Critical Thinking — What Have the Students Learnt in the Course of the Skills4Future Programme
November 18 a metaprogramme Skills4Future came to a close at HSE University - St Petersburg. During a month participants were working on problematic tasks and projects devoted to the involvement of the youth in the life of the city, developing the concept of the festival for the Russian Museum of Ethnography, studying the cultural scenes of Saint Petersburg and the influence of coronavirus on the society. Let’s see what results the students managed to achieve.
HSE University – St. Petersburg Launches Three New Double Degree Tracks
In late May, the HSE campus in St. Petersburg finalized negotiations with three foreign partner universities to launch three new double degree tracks at the Master’s level.
‘Global and Regional History’ Master’s Programme Seeks Future Historians, Anthropologists, and More
In 2020, HSE - St. Petersburg is launching a new master's programme in ‘Global and Regional History’, which will replace the ‘Applied and Interdisciplinary History’ Programme. The HSE University - Saint Petersburg editorial office interviewed Nikolai Ssorin-Chaikov, Programme Head and anthropologist, about the programme's a global approach to studying history and its international partnerships.
The Autumn School "Change in an Interdisciplinary Perspective" was started in September 20
On September, 20 the Higher School of Economics welcomed with open arms Masters and PhD students from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München and University of Regensburg for a joint programme looking at Change in an Interdisciplinary Perspective.
Ambassadors for Interdisciplinary and Applied History
Samrat Sil is a recent graduate of the English-taught Master's programme in Applied and Interdisciplinary History ‘Usable Pasts’ at HSE St. Petersburg. David Datmar, a native of Ghana, decided to join the programme to help him prepare for eventual study at the PhD level, which he plans to undertake soon at the University of Oxford. Both gentlemen were recently awarded certificates of recognition for their role as ambassadors contributing to the university’s internationalization agenda.
Anthropology postdocs at HSE St Petersburg
The Higher School of Economics Centre for Historical Research in St. Petersburg, Russia invites applications for postdoctoral research positions in the field of anthropology (application deadline 15 March 2017)
Upcoming Lectures on Ocean Science Politics to Give HSE Exposure to Modern Anthropology
Stefan Helmreich, Professor and Elting E. Morison Chair in the Department of Anthropology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will be at HSE Moscow and HSE St Petersburg from September 25 – October 4, 2016 to deliver a series of lectures and lead a discussion on the politics of contemporary ocean science. He will also take part in the round table 'Soundscape in the Anthropology of Science and Art' during the Days of Ethnographic Cinema festival organized by the HSE School of Cultural Studies.
Contemporary Anthropologies of Art
Nikolai Ssorin-Chaikov, an associate professor of the Department of History HSE in St Petersburg took part in the conference “Contemporary Anthropologies of Art” which was held at the Durham University (England) on September 9, 2015.