Alexander Etkind (born 1955, St. Petersburg, Russia) is a historian and cultural scientist.[1][2] He is a professor of history and the Chair of Russia-Europe relations at the European University Institute.[3] He is fellow of the European Institute for International Law and International Relations.[4]
He completed his B.A. and M.A. in 1978 in Psychology and English at Leningrad State University.[3] In 1998, he defended PhD (Habilitation) in Slavonic Studies/ Cultural History at the University of Helsinki.[2][5][3] Etkind taught at the European University at St. Petersburg then at Cambridge University where he was also a fellow of King's College.[6][2] He was a visiting fellow at New York University, Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin, and other places.[7][3][8]
Etkind's research focuses on European and Russian intellectual history, memory studies, natural resources and the history of political economy, empire and colonies in Europe, and Russian politics, novels and film in the 21st century.[3][9]
Nature's Evil: A Cultural History of Natural Resources is a world history (with special emphasis on Russia) of the economic and political roles of grain, meat, fur, sugar, hemp, metals, peat, coal and oil.
From 2010 to 2013, he led the international research project “Memory at War: Cultural Dynamics in Poland, Russia, and Ukraine”. The project studied the role of cultural memory of the Soviet era in Russia, Ukraine and Poland and received funding from Humanities in the European Research Area (HERA).[9]
Etkind has publications in Russian and English, and speaks both languages.[3][5]
