OLGA GUROVA
Born 13.05.1977
Citizenship: Russia
Work & mailing address:
1 Vironkatu, office 636, Helsinki 00170 Finland
Tel. +358.9.191.24054
GSM +358.468.122139
E-mail: olga.gurova@helsinki.fi; gourova@eu.spb.ru
Web-page:
http://sitemaker.umich.edu/olga.gurova/home
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CURRENT ACADEMIC POSITIONS
2011 - Academy of Finland Research Fellow, Lecturer, Department of Social
Research, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki, Finland.
PAST TEMPORARY ACADEMIC POSITIONS
2008 – 2011 Docent in Sociology, State University – Higher School of
Economics, St. Petersburg, Russia.
Research Fellow, Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, Helsinki, Finland,
2009.
Visiting Scholar, Faculty of Sociology and Social Anthropology, Central European
University, Budapest, Hungary, 2009.
Research Fellow, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, USA,
2007-2008.
Senior Lecturer, Department of Sociology, Tver’ State University, Russia, 20032007.
Fulbright Research Fellow, Russia, East European and Eurasian Center (REEEC),
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA, 2005-2006.
KONE Visiting Fellow at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, University
of Helsinki, 2006.
Visiting Researcher at the University of Genoa (DISPOS), 2006.
Visiting Researcher at the Faculty of Sociology, University of Helsinki, 2003.
EDUCATION
2004 Doctoral Degree (kandidat nauk) in Cultural Studies, Russian State
University for Humanities, Moscow, Russia
2000 MA (Sociology) European University at St. Petersburg, Russia / University
of Helsinki, Finland.
1999 BA (Sociology) Novosibirsk State University, Russia.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Sociology of consumption, fashion studies, socialist and post-socialist societies.
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TAUGHT COURSES
Qualitative Methods in Social Research
Global Consumer Cultures
Sociology of Consumption
Sociology of Culture
Gender and Everyday Life in Soviet Russia
The Consumer Revolution in Contemporary Russia
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FELLOWSHIPS AND AWARDS
Best Supervisor Award, National Research University – Higher School of
Economics, St. Petersburg, Russia, 2011.
Academy of Finland Fellowship, Department of Social Research, University of
Helsinki, Finland, 2011.
EURIAS Fellowship, Collegium Budapest, Hungary, 2011-2012 (declined due to
personal circumstances and overlapping with other fellowship).
Rector’s List for Outstanding Achievements in Academic Work, State University
– Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia, 2010.
Curriculum Research Award, Central European University, 2010.
Paper “Fashioning the Consumer Revolution in Contemporary Russia” named as
commended at the Junior Sociologist Competition organized by International
Sociological Association (ISA), 2010.
Research Fellowship, Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, Finland, 20092011.
Rector’s List for Outstanding Achievements in Academic Work, State University
– Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia, 2009.
Research Fellowship, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary, 2009.
Carnegie Fellowship, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, USA, 2007-08.
KONE Visiting Fellowship, Helsinki Collegium for Advanced studies, Helsinki,
Finland, 2006.
Fulbright Senior Scholar Exchange Program, University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign, USA, 2005-06.
Individual grant for course development and teaching from Curriculum Recourse
Center (CRC), Central European University, Budapest, Hungary, 2005.
Research grant (with Olga Echevskaya) from the Program “Inter-Regional
Research in Social Science” supported by K. & J. McArthur Foundation, 2003-04.
Individual Scholarship from the Center for International Mobility (CIMO),
University of Helsinki, Finland, 2003.
Scholarship for graduate studies at the European University at St. Petersburg,
1999-2002.
SELECTED CONFERENCES/WORKSHOPS/IVITED TALKS
BASEES Annual Convention, Cambridge, the UK. March 31 - April 1 2012
(expected). Paper “Shopping for Fashion in Postsocialist Russia”.
Annual Convention of the Association of Slavic, East European and Eurasian
Studies. Washington DC, USA. November 17-21 2011.
Brown Bag Seminar at the Department of Social Research, University of
Helsinki. Paper “Consumption and the Middle Class in Contemporary Russia”.
November 15 2011.
Seminar at the Institute of World Cultures, University of Helsinki. Paper “From
Russia to Finland: Exploring Cross-border Shopping». November 2 2011.
American Sociological Association Annual Conference. Paper: Shopping for
Fashion and the Consumer Subjectivities in Contemporary Russia. August 20 2011.
Brown Bag Seminar at the Collegium for Advanced Studies. Paper: “Shopping
for Fashion and Consumer Subjectivities in Contemporary Russia”. November 7 2010.
Annual Convention of American Sociological Association. Atlanta, USA. August
13-17 2010. Paper “Culture of Consumption in Contemporary Russia: Between Local
Past and Global Future”.
Curriculum Resource Center Session “Educational Policies: Disciplinization
Processes and Recruitment Strategies in Women Studies and Gender Studies”. May 1721 2010. Central European University, Budapest, Hungary.
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Brown Bag Seminar at the Collegium for Advanced Studies. Paper: “Clothing
Consumption in Contemporary Russia: Between “Congealed”, “Fast” and “Sustainable”
Fashion”. May 4 2010.
Seminar “Body in Russian Culture”. University of Oxford, UK. February 18 2010
(invited speaker, declined due to illness).
Talk “Fashioning the Consumer Revolution in Contemporary Russia” at the
seminar Fashion Studies-1. Fashion, Power and Space at the Graduate Center, City
University of New York. November 18 2009.
Annual Convention of the American Association of the Advancement in Slavic
Studies, Boston, USA. Paper presentation titleв “Fashioning the Consumer Revolution
in Contemporary Russia”. November 12-15 2009.
Conference “Confronting Cold War Conformity: Peace and Protest Cultures in
Europe, 1945-1989”, Charles University Prague, The Czech Republic. The presented
paper: “Visual Consumption: Alternative Life Styles, Fashions and Consumer Practices
in Soviet Media (1970-80s)”. August 18-25 2008.
Conference “Contemporary Critical Inquiry Through the Lens of Postsocialism”,
University of California, Berkeley. April 24-28 2008.
Young Researchers Workshop “Cultures of Consumption”, Birkbeck College,
University of London, UK. December 7-8 2006.
Kolloquium «Osteuropäische Geschichte», University of Bielefeld, Germany. The
presented paper: “Making the Body: Cultural History of Underwear in Soviet Russia”.
October 24 2006.
Conference «Fashion in Global Context». City University of New York, New York,
USA. The presented paper: «Body, Gender and Soviet Style: Fashion Discourse in
Soviet Russia in the 1950s and 60s». April 26 2006.
Conference «The Fabric of Cultures: Fashion, Identity & Globalization from the
Early Modern to the Postmodern». City University of New York, New York, USA. March
10 2006.
Public lecture „Pictorial Politics of the Body: Studying Images of Underwear“ at
Krannert Art Museum, Champaign, IL, USA on March 16 2006.
Lecture „Making the Body: Cultural History of Underwear in Soviet Russia“ at
Russian, East European and Eurasian center, University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign, USA on 29 November 2005.
ICPSR Summer School in quantitative research in social sciences “Data Analysis
for the Future”. University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, USA. June 27 – July 24 2004.
2003 III Workshop of the network project “Cultural Studies in Post-Soviet
Context” at University of Helsinki, Finland. The presented paper: “Western Clothes for
A Soviet Man. Cultural Meanings of Import in Soviet Russia, the 1950 and the 1960s”.
August 24 2003.
REVIEWER
Economic Sociology, International Review of Social Research
MEMBERSHIP
Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES, former AAASS)
American Sociological Association (ASA)
British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies
British Sociological Association (BSA)
International Sociological Association (ISA)
LANGUAGES
Russian (native), English (advanced), French (competent in reading), Finnish (basic, in
progress).
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