Aleksandra Simonova
Biography
Aleksandra Simonova is a Russian-born and US-based anthropologist and filmmaker. She got her PhD in socio-cultural anthropology from UC Berkeley. In her work, she combines an interest in writing and theoretic exploration with visual and sensorial experience. She has a background in political studies and sociology with BA from Moscow State University and MA from European University at St. Petersburg. In her research, she studied ongoing social and political transformations wrought by the disintegration of the Soviet Union into different national states. Relying on substantial ethnographic research in Crimea, my project explores the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine since the annexation of Crimea in 2014.
Research
My research delves into the weaponization of history and the performance of national belonging in Crimea and Russia. Drawing on nearly two years of ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2017 and 2021 in Crimea, Ukraine, and Russia, it examines the social, cultural, and political conditions preceding the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and how the annexation of Crimea and subsequent war in Ukraine have reshaped the embodiment and understanding of Russian citizenship. The dissertation argues that while the Russian state developed new political discourses to legitimize the annexation of Crimea—presenting it as a 'reunion' and a 'return home'—it also redefined 'Russianness' for the entire country. By promoting militarized forms of patriotism, supporting war games, and portraying Russian history as a series of conflicts, Russia crafted a dichotomous worldview dividing the 'Russian World' from Western civilization.
Centering performance in my analysis, I explore how war narratives, history, and myths become embodied in people’s actions. Since 2014, history has evolved into a cornerstone of Russian state politics, not merely legitimizing Crimea's annexation but informing broader international and domestic policies. The Kremlin’s emphasis on historical 'restoration' serves as both a motto for international relations and a unifying force domestically, motivating actions in Eastern Ukraine and beyond.
Publications
Performing Infrastructure: The Cultural Biopolitics of the Russian State in Crimea, Russian Literature, 2023 May 29.
Putinism’s Defeated Opposition, review on the book Dissidents Among Dissidents: Ideology, Politics and the Left Post-Soviet Russia by Ilya Budraitskis, Verso 2022. Dissent Magazine, Fall 2022: 160 - 165.
Coworking Environments: The Hackerspace and The Skolkovo Innovative City in Moscow in From Russia With Code, the edited volume, ed. Biagioli M., Lepinay V. Duke university press, 2019.
Teaching
Fall 2023 — Adjunct Professor, course Cultures through Film, University of San Fransisco, the Anthropology Program
Spring 2024 — Lecturer, course The Past and Future of War, UC Berkeley, the Department of Anthropology
Teaching assistance (UC Berkeley):
Fall 2021 - Utopia: Art and Power in Modern Times (with prof. Alexey Yurchak)
Spring 2019 - Introduction to Anthropology, 3AC (with prof. Charles Hirschkind)
Fall 2018 - Introduction to Anthropology, 3AC (with prof. James Holston)