ALEXANDER M. SEMYONOV
Ph. D.
Current position:
Professor of History, Dean, Faculty of History, National Research University-Higher School of Economics in St. Petersburg
Ul. Promyshlennaia, 14-A, St. Petersburg, Russia
Office 413
Assistant: Office 419
Editor, Central and Eastern Europe, International Journal Ab Imperio: Studies of New Imperial History and Nationalism in Post Soviet Space
Email:
Fax: 1 530 504 8962
Education:
1998-2006, Ph. D. in History, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary
Major: Russian history
Minor: Central European comparative history
Dissertation Project: “The Political Language of Russian Liberalism: The Liberation Movement, Constitutional-Democratic Party, and Public Politics in Late Imperial Russia”
1997-1998, M.A., Central European University, Budapest, Hungary
1992-1997, Ivanovo State University, Ivanovo, Russia (B.A., M.A. equivalent)
Professional Research Experience
2000-to the present, Co-founder and editor of Ab Imperio Journal (
2011, contributing author to the European Conceptual History Project, section on conceptual history of parliaments, Finnish Centre of Excellence in Political Thought and Conceptual Change (University of Jyvaskyla, Finland)
2010, Mellon Foundation European Scholar Fellow and Associate Visiting Professor, University of Chicago (USA)
2009- Editor ofthevolume "Empire and Nationalism at War" in the project "Russia’s Great War and Revolution, 1914-1922: A Centennial Reappraisal" (
2006-2008, Research fellow of the collaborative project "Languages of Self-Description and Representation in the Russian Empire" Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, (
2007, Research fellow at the Center forEuropean Studies, Rutgers University(USA)
2001-2003, Bibliography expert, History of the Russian Empire in Comparative Perspective Project (The Central European University, the Open Society Institute)
1999-2000, Visiting Scholar at the W. Averell Harriman Institute, Columbia University (USA)
Professional Teaching and University Administration Experience:
2012- to the present, professor of history, dean, Faculty of history, National Research University-Higher School of Economics, St. Petersburg
2011-12, Bard College Academic Representative, Smolny Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences, St. Petersburg State University (Russia), Bard College (USA)
2006-to the present, Associate Professor of History and Political Science, Smolny Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences, St. Petersburg State University (Russia), Bard College (USA)
2011, June, Jyvaskyla University, Finland, discussant at the graduate seminar “Concepta: International Research School in Conceptual History and Political Thought”
2010 – recurrent, professor of history at the International MA in Russian and Eurasian Studies, European University in St. Petersburg
2010, Associate Visiting Professor at the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures and Department of History, University of Chicago (USA)
2010, Visiting lecturer, Inernational M.A. in Russian and Eurasian Studies, European University in St. Petersburg
2009, Associate Visiting Professor, History Department, University of Michigan (USA)
2008-09, Methodology and curriculum expert (based in Smolny Institute) for the Russian Ministry of Education's project "The Program for the Advancement of Religious (Muslim) Education"
2006-07, Methodology and curriculum expert (based in Smolny Institute) for the Russian Ministry of Education's project "Innovative Educational Ecology in a Classical University"
2003-2006, Assistant Professor of History, Smolny College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, St. Petersburg State University, Russia
2004-2006, Associate Dean for International Students, Smolny College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, St. Petersburg State University (Russia), Bard College (USA)
2005-2010, Fellow of Academic Fellowship Program, HESP, OSI.
2004- 2005, Academic director of the “Building Democracy in Multi-Ethnic Societies” Project of the US Department of State’s Freedom Support Educational Partnerships Program, Rutgers University (US), Kazan State University (Russia), on a rotating basis.
2002-2003, History dept., Central European University, Teaching Assistant, Course title: “Modern Historiography,” language of instruction: English
2001-2002, Civic Education Project Lecturer in Russian History at the History Department of the Ivanovo State University.
2000-2001, Director of a Curriculum Development Project “New Approaches to History of Empire and Nationalities in Russia and Soviet Union” (Supported by the Open Society Institute)
1995-1997, The Hague International Model of the United Nations; Ivanovo College, lecturer in European Political and Intellectual History, History of International Organizations; instructor of Parliamentary Procedure. Language of instruction: English.
Professional Affiliation
Center for the Study of Nationalism and Empire, Kazan’, Russia
Member of American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (AAASS)
Guest and Public Lectures
Combined session of the Slavic seminar and Workshop of Modern European and Russian History, University of Chicago, May 11, 2010, talk title: “Entangled History of British and Russian Ideological Construction of Empire”
"Mirrors of Russian Imperial History: A Case of Ideological Construction of Empire in Early Twentieth Century and a Reflection on Politics of Comparison in Contemporary Historical Debates", September 23, 2009, Center for Russian and East European Studies, University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, US)
"Multifaceted Borders of Russian Historical Experience," 10th Anniversary Seminar of the Norwegian University Center, St. Petersburg, 23-24 May, 2008
"Remembering Imperial Past, Forgetting the Empire: Historical Memory and Scholarship in Putin’s Russia," Smith College, US (February 22, 2007)
“Theories of Nationalism and Post Soviet Perspective on Studies of Empire and Nationalism,” the 8th International Summer School of Gender Studies, The Kharkov University Center for Gender Studies, Ukraine (Aug. 29 –Sept. 18, 2005, Crimea, Ukraine)
“Contending with the Modern: US, Russia, and Soviet Union in the First Half of the 20th Century” Virtual Campus Course, Bard College (Spring 2004)
“Past’s Future: the Concept of Empire in Studies of Russian History” Japanese Learned Society of Russian History (February 2004, Tokyo).
“Past’s Future: Empire in Russian History” Harriman Institute, Columbia University (December 2003)
“Dilemmas of Liberalism in a Multinational Empire” Huizinga Institute, Amsterdam (January 2002)
“Theories of Nationalism from a Russian Perspective” Center Judaica, Kazan’ State University (December 2001)
Conference and Workshop Papers:
International Conference of the National Research University – Higher School of Economics, St. Petersburg together with Ab Imperio: May 27-28, 2013, “When Postcolonial Meets Postimperial: Sovereignty, Politics of Difference, and Composite Society in Comparative Perspectives,” paper: “Invisible Empire? Languages of Rationalization of Imperial Diversity”
International Conference “In Search of Empire: the 400th Anniversary of the House of Romanov” Columbia University (USA), February 14th-16th 2013, paper: “‘Conservative’ and ‘Revolutionary’ Monarchy: Reflections on the Institutions of the Russian Monarchy in the Age of Mass Politics”
International Conference “Empire and Nationalism in World War I,” St. Petersburg State University, Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences, June 8-9, 2012. Member of the organizing committee. Paper: “Imperial Revolutions at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century”
International Conference “Making Sense of Exceptionalism and Diversity in Composite Polities and Societies: Past and Present,” Center for the Study of Nationalism and Empire-Ab Imperio, Kazan, Russia, May 17-21, 2012, Presentation: “Exceptionalism as a Normative Concept”
International Conference “Revolution and Protest Movements: History and Present Day” Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences, St. Petersburg State University, March 15-17, 2012, Paper: “Imperial Revolutions”
International Workshop “Ten Years of War: Russia in WWI and Revolution” German Historical Institute in Moscow, Moscow, October 10-11, 2011, Paper: “Political Transformation of the Early Twentieth Century and WWI: Prospects of Comparison”
Stanford University and Hoover Institution, Ninth Sino-Soviet Summer Archives Workshop, 17-30 July, 2011, paper title: “Imperial Sovereignty and Political Representation”
Discussant at the international conference “Alexander II: The Tragedy of a Reformist Statesman” March 14-15 2011, European University in St. Petersburg, Russia
International interdisciplinary conference “De-Centering the West: The Idea of Democracy and the Struggle for Hegemony,” University of Tartu, Estonia, December 10, 2010. Paper title: “Tensions of Empire, Tensions of Democracy”
International editorial conference of the project “Russia’s Great War and Revolution,” Uppsala University, 23-26 JULY 2010
Workshop for Armenian-Turkish Scholarship, University of California, Berkeley, March 4-6, 2010, paper title: “Imperial Decay or Renewal? Empire and Nationalism in the Russian Empire of the Early Twentieth Century”
International Conference "Victims of Empire, Empire as a Victim," the Institute of History, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland, February 19-21, 2009, paper title: "Mirrors of Imperial Imagination: The British Trace in Russian Ideological Construction of Empire"
International conference of the Lithuanian Institute of History "Russian Empire and Its Subjects: Criteria and Practices of Identification of the Empire's Population", paper: "Rationalization of the Political Space of Empire: Ethnicity and Territory in the Formation of the Constitutional-Democratic Party," Sept. 17-18, 2008, Vilnius, Lithuania
"Imperium Inter Pares: Reflections on Imperial Identity and Inter-imperial Transfers in the Russian Empire (1700-1917)" German Historical Institute in Moscow, Sept. 9-11, 2008, paper presented: "Mirrors of Imperial Imagination: Entangled Histories of Ideological Construction of Empire in Britain and Russia"
39th National Convention of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, New Orleans, November 15-18, 2007, key-note speaker at the presidential panel (Chair, Professor and President, Mark Beissinger) “The Persistence of Empire,” paper at the panel “The Imperium of Knowledge: Modern Knowledge in the ‘Archaic Empire’, ” paper title: “Scholars into Professional Politicians: Kadet Politics and Empire in the Duma Period,” participant in the roundtable: “Ad Imperium-Ab Imperio: The Persistence of Empire and Problems of New Imperial History.”
Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Volkswagen Stiftung, International Quarterly Ab Imperio, Workshop “Languages of Self Description and Representation in Russian Empire”, Mainz, Germany, August 21-22, 2006, paper: “(Re)Defining Empire Politically: The Rationalization of the Imperial Situation in the Liberal Discourses and Practices at the Beginning of the 20th Century”
International Workshop “Classic Republicanism as a Freedom-Affirming Alternative to Liberalism,” European University in St. Petersburg, April 22, 2006 (St. Petersburg, Russia), paper title: “Anarchism, Republicanism, and Liberalism: Making Sense of Russian Political Discourses With the Help of Contextual Approach” (In English). Commentary by Quentin Skinner.
VI Symposium of the Finnish Association for Russian and East European Studies, University of Lapland, Rovaniemi, Finland, March 30-31, 2006; Key-note address: “In Search of Center and Periphery: Historical and Historiographic Perspectives on Elusive Boundaries and Conceptual Fluctuations” (In English)
The State Council of Tatarstan, “Russian Parliamentarism: Historical Experience and Current Trends of Development,” March 23, 2006, Kazan, Russia; paper title: “The Challenge of Public Politics: The Constitutional-Democratic Party in the First and Second State Duma” (In Russian)
VII World Congress of the International Council for Central and East European Studies (ICCEES), Berlin, Germany, July 2005, discussant at the panel: “Methods of Constructing Identity in Russian Empire,” paper presentation: “Defining Empire Politically: Russian Liberals’ Perception and Politics at the Beginning of the 20th century”
International Workshop “Doing History of Concepts”, European University in St. Petersburg, Russia, March 17-19, 2005, paper title: “The Problem of Modern Temporality of Russian Political Discourses”
Annual Conference of the Research Centre for the History and Culture of East Central Europe at Leipzig University (Geisteswissenschaftliches Zentrum Geschichte und Kultur Ostmitteleuropas an der Universität Leipzig/GWZO): Lost Greatness and Past Oppression in East Central Europe. Representations of Imperial Experience in Historiography since 1918, Leipzig, December 10 - 12, 2004, paper title: “Elusive Concept of Empire: A History of Multinational State Through the Prism of Nationalism and Imperialism”
International Symposium "Emerging Meso-Areas in the Former Socialist Countries. Histories Revived or Improvised" (Slavic Research Center, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan, 28-31 January 2004); paper title: “Making Politics, Undoing Empire: Political Reform in Russia at the Beginning of the 20th Century”
Workshop “Beyond the Nation: Writing European History Today” (Universitat Bielefeld / St. Petersburg State University, Zentrum fur Deutschland- und Europastudien), St. Petersburg, Russia, November 21-23, 2003; paper title: “Deviant or European? Fin-de-Siècle Russian Debates on Science, Culture, and Politics”
Workshop of the Zentrum für Vergleichende Geschichte Europas (Freie Universität / Humboldt-Universität, Berlin) “Framing the Historian National, Institutional, and Social Grand Narratives in East and West,” October 24-27, 2002, paper title: “Conceptual Dimensions of Debates on Russian Sonderweg”
“Narration and History: Turn of the Century in Russian Culture” (Dept. of Slavonic and Baltic Languages and Literatures, University of Helsinki, August 15-18, 2002), paper title: “Political Language, Text, and Intellectual History of Revolution and Constitutional Experiment in Beginning of the 20th Century Russia”
“New Literary Review” sponsored roundtable-discussion of the first volume of “Scenarios of Power” by Richard Wortman (Moscow, June 25 2002);
Russian State University for Humanities, Discussant at a conference “Nationalism in Imperial Russia: Ideological Models and Discursive Practices.” (Moscow, June 24, 2002);
Workshop “Students of Humanities in Search of Identity” Organized by the Journal “The New Literary Review” (March 16, 2002, Moscow, The Russian Federation), paper title: “History at the Cross-Roads of Multidisciplinarity in Russia”
An Expert Meeting of the Project History of the Russian Empire in Comparative Perspective (January 2002, Kostroma, The Russian Federation), report title: “The Role of New Academic Media in Establishment of Nationalism Studies in Russia”
Joint CEU- Zentrum für Vergleichende Geschichte Europas/Freie Universität Conference “Changing Historical Studies in Central and Eastern Europe: How Does Methodological Transfer Generate New Research?” Paper title: “New Approaches to Studies in Russian Politics” (October 26-28, 2001, Budapest, Hungary)
Annual Conference of History of Social and Political Concepts Group “Rhetoric and Conceptual Change” (June 28-30th, 2001, Tampere, Finland), paper title: “Political Rhetoric and Conceptual Change in the Context of Political Reform in early 20th Century Russia”
Association for Studies of Nationalities 5th Convention (April 2000, Columbia U./ New York), paper title: “Political Mobilization in the Russian Empire, 1905-1918: The Constitutional-Democratic Party Between the National and the Nationality Questions”
Conferences organized:
May 27-28, 2013 National Research University – Higher School of Economics, St. Petersburg, International Conference together with “Ab Imperio: Studies of New Imperial History and Nationalism in the Post-Soviet Space”: “When Postcolonial Meets Postimperial: Sovereignty, Politics of Difference, and Composite Society in Comparative Perspectives”
June 8-9, 2012, St. Petersburg State University, Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences. International Conference “Empire and Nationalism in World War I”
May 19-21, 2012 Kazan’, Russia, Ab Imperio Annual Seminar: “Making Sense of Exceptionalism and Diversity in Composite Polities and Societies: Past and Present”
October 8-10, 2010, Kazan’, Russia, Ab Imperio Annual Seminar: “Empire Studies: A Roadmap for the 2010s”
August 14-18, 2007, Kazan’, Russia, “Empire Speaks Out: Languages of Self-Description and Representation in the Russian Empire,” sponsored by Volkswagen Stiftung and Department of East European History, Johannes Guttenberg University, Mainz, Germany
June 28-30, 2002, Kazan’, Russia, “ ‘New Westernizers’ and Modernization of Russian Humanities, Social Sciences, and the Higher Education,” International CEP-Russia conference
November 2000, Kazan, Russia, International workshop “Empire and Nation in Russian and Soviet History: New Research Approaches and the Problems of Teaching Methodology”
Grants, Scholarships, and Awards:
2013, Academic co-director ofthe research projected supported by the Center for Fundamental Research, National Research University – Higher School of Economics: “History of the Construction of Political Space and Mobility: Political Imagination, Social Practices and Material Infrastructures”
2012, Academic director of the research projected supported by the Center for Fundamental Research, National Research University – Higher School of Economics: “From Empire to Multiculturalism and Multipolarity: Historical and Contemporary Strategies of Political Response to the Challenge of Cultural Diversity”
2010, Mellon Foundation Fellowship in the program "Visiting European Scholar Initiative"
2004-2008 Teaching Fellowship of the Academic Fellowship Program, HESP, OSI.
2006-2008 Research grant from Volkswagen Stiftung (program “Einheit in der Vielfalt? Grundlagen und Voraussetzungen eines erweiterten Europas”) for the project “Redefining Empire Politically: Rationalization of Imperial Entanglements in the Discourse and Practices of Russian Liberalism at the Beginning of the 20th Century”
2004-2008 The John and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Collaborative Research and Publication Project Grant
2007 US Department of State, fellowship in the framework of the project “Building Democracy in Multi-Ethnic Societies”
2004 Incentive grant for research and curriculum development from Andrew Gagarin Trust, administered by Smolny Institute of Liberal Arts and Sciences
2003 Academic Achievement Awardby the Central European University Dissertation Committee
2001-2002, 2003-2009 Teaching Fellowship from the Civic Education Project
2000-2001 Open Society Institute, Special and Extensions Program, Curriculum Development Grant
1999-2000, Open Society Institute, Doctoral Support Grant
1997-2003, Central European University, scholarship for MA and Ph. D. degree programs
Languages
Russian (native), English (spoken, written)
Television and Radio Broadcasts
Regular participation in radio broadcasts of Russian radio networks “Ekho Moskvy,” “Radio Svobody” (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty), Russian Service of the BBC
Latest:
Guest at the talk show “Open Studio,” Topic of the conversation: Who is the Elite? Fifth Federal Channel, Sept. 2, 2011
Guest at the talk show “The Night with the Fifth Federal Channel,” Russia’s federal fifth channel (20.12.2010). The topic of conversation: National Identity (
Guest at the program Fifth Floor, Russian Service of the BBC, theme: The Great French Revolution and Its Legacy 22.08.2010 (
Guest at the program Fifth Floor, Russian Service of the BBC, theme: Why certain peoples seek independence? 26.07.2010
Guest at the program "Vam Slovo" Russian Service of the BBC, 08.05.2009 (
Guest at the program "Smoke of the Fatherland" (Vladimir Ryzhkov and Vitalii Dymarskii, anchors), radio station “Ekho Moskvy,” 22.06.2008 (
Guest-expert at the program Konflikt Swedish Radio service (September 22, 2007),
Guest-expert at “Talking Point” program of the Russian Service of the BBC (“Restoration of National History in Russia” 30.08.07; “Revision of History of the Second World War”12.04.2007)
Guest-expert for the Radio Svobody’s analytical program “The Time of Freedom,” 09.26.2006:
Selected Publications
Books:
1.Co-edited volume New Imperial History of Post Soviet Space (Kazan: Center for the Study of Nationalism and Empire, 2004), (In Russian)
Book’s webpage:
Reviewed by Adeeb Khalid: The Russian Review, 64:4 (2005): 712-713.
Reviewed by Ricarda Vulpius. Review of Novaia imperskaia istoriia postsovetskogo prostranstva. Kazan’, 2004,
2. Ilya Gerasimov, Jan Kusber, and Alexander Semyonov, eds., Empire Speaks Out: Languages of Rationalization and Self-Description in the Russian Empire (Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2009) ISBN 9789004175716