Centre for History and Cultural Anthropology

Head of the Centre

GRIBANOVA V.V. Ph.D. (Hist.)
https://www.elibrary.ru/author_items.asp?authorid=303133

    • New and recent history of South Africa
    • Place of education in the South African culture

The main fields of the Centre's Studies:

• The history of African peoples from antiquity to the present day; the history of colonial conquests and anti-colonial movements in Africa.
• The evolution of relations between Russia and other leading world powers and African countries in modern and contemporary times.
• Ethnocultural and sociocultural processes in Africa in the past and present; cultural identity, culture and traditions in African countries; cross-cultural dialogue.
• Non-Western cultures in the modern world: anthropological aspects; cultural anthropology of an African city; media in non-Western societies; the image of Africa and Africans in the media and popular culture.
• Migration: non-African diasporas in African countries and African diasporas in the world; communities of migrants from Africa in different countries of the world, including Russia; ethnoracial and confessional tolerance and xenophobia.
• Religions and interfaith interaction in modern Africa and in the world; the dynamics of the propagation and interrelation of traditional religions, Christianity and Islam.

The Centre employs 12 researchers, including the head of the Centre and the curator of the Centre from the administration of the Institute. Three members of the Centre are D.Sc. Degree holders, one of whom are a Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and two of whom are Full Professors; six researchers have Ph.D.'s. The Centre also trains graduate students and applicants of an academic degree. In addition, most of the Centre's members combine research work with teaching at various universities in Moscow, including Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russian State University for the Humanities, National Research University Higher School of Economics, the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia.

The Centre's Research Fellows:

    Dmitriy BONDARENKO, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor Dr.Sc. (Hist.), Professor
    https://www.elibrary.ru/author_items.asp?authorid=107062
      • Sociocultural transformations and intercultural interaction (ethnoracial, religious, and international aspects);
      • African migrants in Russia and the USA;
      • Cultures and history of sub-Saharan Africa.

    Vladimir SHUBIN D.Sc. (History), Professor, Ph.D. (Honoris Causa), University of the Western Cape (South Africa); Principal Research Fellow
    https://www.elibrary.ru/author_items.asp?authorid=484042
      • The recent history of Southern African countries;
      • Relations of the USSR/Russia and other leading world nations with African states;
      • Politics and practice of the international social democracy

    Veronika USACHEVA Ph.D. (Political Science); Senior Research Fellow
    https://www.elibrary.ru/author_items.asp?authorid=458088
      • Global information processes, development of the media sphere, information and communication technologies in Africa;
      • Various aspects of the concept of race in modern scientific, political and
      public discourses;
      • African Diaspora and migration.

    Alexander A. PANOV Junior Research Fellow (joint)
    https://www.elibrary.ru/author_items.asp?authorid=781882
      • Processes of nation-building and transformation of cultural identities in the East African states in XX – XXI c.;
      • Political crises of XXI c. in Africa and their humanitarian consequences;
      • Migration from Sub-Saharan Africa, problem of refugees;
      • Modern mass culture in Sub-Saharan Africa.



Recent Monographic Publications of the Center and Its Researchers:

2021
• Bondarenko D.M. Nation-Building in Post-Colonial States: Historical Past and Present-Day Realities // Journal of Globalization Studies. 2021. Vol. 12, № 1. P. 18-37.
• Zherlitsyna N. A. Ottoman and British factors in anti-french resistance of beylik Constantine in 1830-1837 // Nauchnyi Dialog. 2021. № 4. Р. 357-371. (in Russ.)
• Gribanova V.V., Grishina N.V. Specificity of gender roles in the urban black population of South Africa: history and modernity // Vostok (Oriens). 2021. № 2. P. 93-103. (in Russ.)

2020
• Africa: Postcolonial Discourse / Ed. T.M. Gavristova, N.E. Khokholkova. Moscow: Institute for African Studies, RAS, 2020. 248 p. (in Russ.)
• Banshchikova A.A., Ivanchenko O.V. Memory about the Arab Slave Trade in Modern-Day Tanzania: Between Family Trauma and State-Planted Tolerance // Antropologicheskij forum [Anthropological Forum]. 2020. № 44. P. 83-113. (in Russ.)
• Bondarenko D.M. Conversion to Orthodox Christianity in Uganda: A Hundred Years of Spiritual Encounter with Modernity, 1919–2019 // Religions. 2020. Vol. 11, № 5, 223. P. 1-18 (with A.V. Tutorskiy).
• Dmitri M. Bondarenko, Stephen A. Kowalewski, and David B. Small (eds.). The Evolution of Social Institutions: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2020. XVII, 661 p.
• Tatarovskaya I.G. Inhibition – an attributive function of the nervous system: from Hippocrates to I.M. Sechenov // History of Medicine. М., 2019, V. 6, №4. P. 217-220. (with G. Kh. Shingarov).
• Shubin V.V. “Moscow and Zimbabwe’s Liberation” // Jocelyn Alexander, JoAnn McGregor and Blessing Mills-Tendi (eds.). Transnational Histories of Southern Africa’s Liberation Movements, Abingdon: Rutledge, 2020, P. 225-233.
• Subbotin V.A. From the Colonial Wars to the First World War. Excerptsfrom the History of the Overseas Troops and Their Command. Moscow: Institute for African Studies, RAS, 2020. 150 p. (in Russ.)

2019
• Banshchikova A.A., Ivanchenko O.V. Historical Memory of the 19th-Century Arab Slave Trade in Modern-Day Tanzania: Between Family Trauma and State-Planted Tolerance. In: D.M. Bondarenko and M.L. Butovskaya (eds.). The Omnipresent Past. Historical Anthropology of Africa and African Diaspora. Moscow: LRC Publishing House, 2019. P. 23-45.
• Bondarenko D.M. African Americans and American Africans: Migration, Histories, Race and Identities. Canon Pyon: Sean Kingston Publishing, 2019. 160 p.
• Bondarenko D.M. In Search of the True Faith: The Appearance of Orthodox Old Believers in Uganda and Spiritual Anti-globalism in Contemporary Africa. Exchange. Journal of Contemporary Christianities in Context. 2019. Vol. 48, № 2. P. 127-155.
• Khokholkova N.E. Afrocentrism in the USA: Theory and Practice of Sociocultural Transformation. Moscow: Institute for African Studies Press, 2019. 194 p. (in Russ.)
• Shubin V.V. Zimbabwe: Isolation or Liberation? // South African Historical Journal. Published online: 16 Jul 2019.

2018
• Anthropology of Africa: New Objects of Research / Ed. O.I. Kavykin. Moscow: Institute for African Studies, RAS, 2018. 206 p. (in Russ.)
• Bondarenko D.M. State Building, States, and State Transformation in Africa: Introduction // Social Evolution and History. 2018. Vol. 17, № 1 (Special Issue State Building, States, and State Transformation in Africa). P. 3-15 (with C.I. Njoku).
• Gribanova V.V., Ponomarev I.V. School and politics. From the history of the creation and reform of the school system in the countries of Eastern and Southern Africa. Moscow: Institute for African Studies Press, 2018. 176 p. (in Russ.)
• Ivanchenko O., Banshchikova A. Urbanization and Mutual Help Groups: Contribution to Nation-Building in Tanzania // Social Evolution and History. March 2018. Vol. 17. No 1. P. 34–59.
• Shubin V.V. Africa аnd Russia: The Pursuit of Strengthened Relations in the Post-Cold War Era. // Africa and the World. Bilateral and Multilateral International Diplomacy. Ed. by D. Nagar and Ch. Mutasa. Cham Switzerland: The Palgrave Macmillan inprint is published by Springer Nature, 2018. P. 51-69. (with Rosaline Daniels).

2017
• Bondarenko D.M. African Migrants in Post-Soviet Moscow: Adaptation and Integration in a Time of Radical Socio-Political Transformations. Ìrìnkèrindò: a Journal of African Migration. Iss. 9. P. 35-75. http://africamigration.com/issue/dec2017/Full_Issue_9.pdf.
• Ethnic Identity in Contemporary Africa. Moscow: Institute for African Studies Press, 2017. (in Russ.)
• Gribanova Sub-Saharan Africa and the Millennium Development Goals // Asia and Africa Today. 2017. №. 2. Pp. 59-62. (in Russ.)

2016
• Bondarenko D.M. The Shades of Black: Cultural-Anthropological Aspects of Mutual Perceptions and Relations between African Americans and African Migrants in the U.S.A. Moscow: LRC, 2016. 216 p. (in Russ.)
• Tatarovskaya I.G. Ontology and epistemology of the supernatural in African mythology. Moscow, 2016 (co-authored). (in Russ.)
• Tatarovskaya I.G. Myths of Nations of Sub-Saharan and South Africa: The Frame of Social and Spiritual Life of African Society. Moscow, 2016. (in Russ.)