Centre for History and Cultural Anthropology

Head of the Centre

GRIBANOVA V.V. Ph.D. (Hist.)

    • new and recent history of South Africa
    • place of education in the history of 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 Center consists of two Departments: the Department of History and the Department of Cultural Anthropology. At present there are 13 researchers in the Center 8 of which are the Ph.D. and 2 both Ph.D. and the highest - D.Sc. degrees holders, including 2 Full Professors. At the moment there are also 10 graduate students doing Ph.D. research under the Center members' supervision. Besides that, a major part of the Center employees combine academic work with teaching at different universities, including the Lomonosov Moscow State University and the Russian State University for the Humanities. Website: Center of History and Cultural Anthropology

The Centre's Research Fellows:

    Dmitriy BONDARENKO, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor Dr.Sc. (Hist.), Professor

      Vladimir SHUBIN D.Sc., Professor, Ph.D. (Honoris Causa), University of the Western Cape (South Africa).
        • 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.

      Natalia ZHERLITSYNA Ph.D., Researcher
        • History of Tunisia; Russian-Tunisian relations in the 18th-20th centuries

      Veronika USACHEVA Ph.D., Senior Researcher
        • Media studies; Relations between mass media, state and society;
        • informational globalization; multicultural societies;
        • xenophobia, tolerance/intolerance attitudes in mass media;
        • cross-cultural communication;
        • image of Africa and Africans: mass media and mass culture aspects.

      Oleg KAVYKIN Ph.D., Senior Researcher
        • Identities and Identities' Construction in Sub-Saharan Africa

      Anastasia BANSHCHIKOVA Ph.D., Researcher
        • cultural anthropology of Ancient Egypt;
        • perception of Ancient Egypt in medieval Arab sources;
        • historical memory of the slave trade and colonialism in modern Tanzania;
        • German colonial legacy in modern Tanzania;
        • history of Bagamoyo.

      Irina TATAROVSKAYA Ph.D., Researcher
        • Cultures and mythologies of the Congo Basin peoples; African folklore

      Nadezhda E. KHOKHOLKOVA Ph.D., Senior Research Fellow
        • History of social, political and intellectual movements (Afrocentrism, Pan-Africanism, and Afropolitanism);
        • postcolonial studies; cultural identity;
        • historical memory; cross-cultural dialogue.

      Oxana IVANCHENKO Junior Researcher
        • Urban anthropology;
        • Sub-Saharan Africa;
        • Social movements; Informal settlements;
        • mutual help groups;
        • rotating savings and credit association;
        • Ethnic identity;
        • socio-cultural processes in Tanzania;
        • uswahilini

      Valentina BRYNDINA Junior Researcher
        • Imagology, the formation and functioning of images in the public consciousness;
        • The interaction of cultures, Arabs in East Africa.

      Tatiana EVGENYEVA Ph.D., Senior Researcher
        • Political psycology; Political mythology;
        • ethno-racial and religious tolerance and xenophobia

      Alexander A. PANOV Junior research
        • 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
        • Image of Russia in Africa



    Recent Monographic Publications of the Center and Its Researchers:

    In English:
    • Bondarenko D.M. African Americans and American Africans: Migration, Histories, Race and Identities. Canon Pyon: Sean Kingston Publishing, 2019. 160 P.
    • Bondarenko D.M. The Axial Ages of World History: Lessons for the 21st Century. Litchfield Park, AZ: Emergent Publications, 2014. (with K. Baskin).
    • Bondarenko D.M., Kavykin O.I. (eds.). Fifth International Conference “Hierarchy and Power in the History of Civilizations”. Abstracts. Moscow, 2009.
    • Shubin V.G. ANC: A View from Moscow. Mayibuye Books (2nd revised edition). Johannesburg, 2008.
    • Shubin V.G. The Hot ‘Cold War’. Soviet Union and Liberation Struggle in Southern Africa. London - Durban, 2008.
    • Bondarenko D.M. Homoarchy: A Principle of Culture’s Organization. The 13th – 19th Centuries Benin Kingdom as a Non-State Supercomplex Society. Moscow, 2006.

    In Russian:
    • Khokholkova N.E. Afrocentrism in the USA: Theory and Practice of Sociocultural Transformations. Moscow, 2019.
    • Gribanova V.V. Schooling and Politics. From the history of the Creation and Reformation of the School System in the Countries of East and South Africa. Moscow. 2018. (with I.V. Ponomarev).
    • Anthropology of Africa: New Objects of Research. Ed. by O.I. Kavykin. Moscow. 2018.
    • Ethnic Identity in Contemporary Africa. Ed. by T.V. Evgenyeva. Moscow. 2017.
    • 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. 2016.
    • Tatarovskaya I.G. Myths of Nations of Sub-Saharan and South Africa: The Frame of Social and Spiritual Life of African Society. Moscow. 2016.
    • Banshchikova A.A. Crucial Periods in Ancient Egyptian Historical Tradition and Consciousness. Moscow. 2015.
    • Shubin V.V. The Fates of Zimbabwe. Moscow. 2015.
    • Education in Africa. Ed. by N.A. Zherlitsyna. Moscow. 2013.
    • Banshchikova A.A. Female Images in Ancient Egyptian Fiction. Moscow, 2008.
    • Gribanova V.V. Three Centuries of Education Development in South Africa. Moscow, 2008.
    • Kavykin O.I. Neo-pagans’ Identity in Contemporary Russia (Rodnovery. Samoidentifikatsja neojazychnikov v sovremennoj Rossii). Moscow. 2007.
    • Evgenyeva T.V. (ed.). Political Psychology. A Reader. Moscow, 2007.
    • Bondarenko D.M., A.V. Korotayev, L.E. Grinin, N.N. Kradin (eds.). Early State, Its Alternatives and Analogs. Volgograd, 2006.
    • Zherlitsyna N.A. From the History of Russian-Tunisian Relations in 1780-1917. Archaeval Documents and Contemporary Evidence. Moscow, 2005.