Centre for History and Cultural Anthropology

Head of the Centre

GRIBANOVA V.V. Ph.D. (Hist.)
RSCI AuthorID: 303133
SPIN (РИНЦ ID): 4841-0622

    • 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
    RSCI AuthorID: 107062
    SPIN (РИНЦ ID): 9890-2414
    Scopus ID: 35614061500
    Researcher ID: P-3372-2015
      • 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
    RSCI AuthorID: 484042
    SPIN (РИНЦ ID): 2456-7153
    Scopus ID: 57191093546
    Researcher ID: T-2509-2017
      • 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 Deputy Director, Ph.D. (Hist.), Researcher Fellow
    RSCI AuthorID: 626004
    SPIN (РИНЦ ID): 7742-5520
    Scopus ID: 572 027 86 350
    Researcher ID: A-5835-2017
      • History of Tunisia;
      • Russian-Tunisian relations in the 18th-20th centuries.

    Anastasia BANSHCHIKOVA Ph.D. (History); Senior Research Fellow
    RSCI AuthorID: 554293
    SPIN (РИНЦ ID): 8072-6914
    Scopus ID: 57216357452
    Researcher ID: E-6671-2018
      • 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 D.Sc. (Philosophy), Ph.D. (Philology); Senior Research Fellow
    RSCI AuthorID: 755636
    SPIN (РИНЦ ID): 6037-8310
      • Folklore and mythology of Tropical and South Africa;
      • Culture and traditions in African countries;
      • African philosophy.

    Veronika USACHEVA Ph.D. (Political Science); Senior Research Fellow
    RSCI AuthorID: 458088
    SPIN (РИНЦ ID): 6401-8079
    Researcher ID: AGN-8698-2022
      • 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.

    Nadezhda KHOKHOLKOVA Ph.D. (History); Senior Research Fellow
    RSCI AuthorID: 741118
    SPIN (РИНЦ ID): 2569-3655
    ORCID ID: 0000-0002-5165-1925
    Scopus ID: 57193257052
    Researcher ID: ABE-6953-2020
      • Intellectual history of Africa and African Diasporas;
      • History of Afrocentric movement;
      • Cultural identity and historical memory;
      • Decolonial and postcolonial studies.

    Valentina BRYNDINA Junior Research Fellow
    RSCI AuthorID: 1009645
    SPIN (РИНЦ ID): 1866-3797
    Scopus ID: 57217164677
      • History of Christianity in Tanzania
      • Muslim-Christian relations in Zanzibar
      • Interconfessional relations in modern Tanzania
      • Historical memory of the slave trade in modern Tanzania

    Oxana IVANCHENKO Junior Research Fellow
    RSCI AuthorID: 751985
    SPIN (РИНЦ ID): 9233-8119
    Scopus ID: 57216353195
    Researcher ID: M-3016-2018
      • Sub-Saharan Africa;
      • urban anthropology;
      • mutual help groups;
      • informal settlements;
      • ethnic identity;
      • ethnocultural processes in Tanzania;
      • uswahilini;
      • slave trade;
      • historical memory.



Recent Monographic Publications of the Center and Its Researchers:

2021
• Banschikova A. A. Tanzania. Modern slavery, interethnic relations, and group perception of Arabs // Asia and Africa Today. 2021. No.5, P. 59-65. (in Russ.)
• 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.
• Bondarenko D.M., Banshchikova A.A. & Ivanchenko O.V.) Whose State? Whose Nation? Representations of the History of the Arab Slave Trade and Nation-Building in Tanzania. In: Arne S. Steinforth and Sabine Klocke-Daffa (eds.). Challenging Authorities: Ethnographies of Legitimacy and Power in Eastern and Southern Africa. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2021. P. 29-62.
• 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.)
• Ivanchenko O. Participation of Tanzanian tribes and tribal chiefs in the 19th century slave trade // Vostok. Afro-aziatskie obshchestva: istoriia i sovremennost. 2021. No.5, P. 168-179. (in Russ.)
• Khokholkova N. African Digital Diaspora // Etnografia. 2021. No. 3 (13) P. 191–206. (In Russ.)
• Shubin V.G. From Cairo to Cape Town. Africa through the Eyes of a Russian Person. M.: Institute of African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2021.
• 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.)

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.)