Visiting Scholars

Since 2017, Grigory Grigoryev has been conducting ethnographic research on collective memory, nationalism, and identity formation in the Northern Caucasus, focusing on the interplay between oral historical narrations and social dynamics in Dagestan. His work examines how Dagestani ethnic groups—primarily the Avar, Dargin, and Kumyk peoples—construct and maintain their collective identities through temporal stratification and selective interpretation of local history, particularly surrounding the Russian Civil War period (1917-1922).

Grigory’s methodology combines anthropological fieldwork with oral history techniques, allowing him to investigate how historical knowledge is constructed at the community level. He examines how local heroes from the Civil War era embody ethnic ideals and aspirations while functioning as symbolic resources that reveal ongoing tensions between 'traditional' and 'pure' Islam, attitudes toward Imperial, Soviet, and Russian rule, and other internal conflicts affecting this multiethnic region.

Grigory has recently completed his PhD in Social Anthropology at the University of Helsinki (2024) with a dissertation titled “Collective Memory of Modern Dagestanis about the Local Heroes of the Russian Civil War: Heroic Narratives and Ethnic Identity”. Grigory is the recipient of research fellowships at the Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki and CREECA, University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research interests encompass social anthropology, anthropology of religion, nationalism, memory studies, and ethnic-religious conflicts in the Northern Caucasus. During his time at CREEES Grigory is hoping to prepare several research papers based on his PhD dissertation.

The radical right is usually defined as anti-pluralist: it values social homogeneity above all else, and in some cases even seeks to punish otherness: for example, by restricting the rights of minorities, people from an immigrant background or LGBT+ people. At the same time, there is a growing trend of seemingly mildening rhetoric towards select minority groups among radical right politicians and parties in many parts of the Western world. Even candidates from minority backgrounds are increasingly to be found in the ranks of such parties. The aim of my visit is to work with the Stanford labs on an experimental survey instrument to see what effect such strategies have on support for the radical right, and whether such shifts in discourse also help to increase support for right-wing politicians among minority voters, or whether these are more likely to win over wavering majority voters. I also hope to develop contacts with researchers there who are exploring similar issues and to plan further cooperation.

Mari-Liis Jakobson is Associate Professor of Political Sociology at the School for Governance, Law and Society, Tallinn University, and Principal Investigator of the starter grant project “Breaking Into the Mainstream While Remaining Radical: Sidestreaming Strategies on the Populist Radical Right “. Her research interests relate to populism, radical right and migration and transnationalism politics and policy. Her work has been published in several internationally recognised peer-reviewed journals, such as European Political Science, Contemporary Politics, Politics and Governance or Comparative Migration Studies. She is also co-editor of Anxieties of Migration and Integration in Turbulent Times (Springer, 2023).