Dr. Vladislava Vladimirova
At Lake Porosozero reindeer herding campVladi is a PhD from Uppsala University Sweden, and currently a research fellow at Max-Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle/Saale, Germany. Her anthropological interests are in the broader fields of economic anthropology, political ecology, ethno-politics and the Post-Soviet state. The geographical focus of her study is the European part of the Russian North, where she has been doing fieldwork with reindeer herding and indigenous communities since 2001. Her research has been supported by the Riksbank Jubileum Fond (Sweden) and the Fifth Framework Program of the European Union, among others.
Major publication: 2006. "Just Labour: Labour Ethic in a NW Russian Reindeer Herding Community". Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. Uppsala Studies in Cultural Anthropology 40. Uppsala Universitetet.
Interviewing retired reindeer herders in the village of LovozeroContact information:
Vladislava Vladimirova
Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, PO Box 110351,
06017 Halle/Saale
http://www.eth.mpg.de
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Prof. Yulian Konstantinov
Yulian is a lecturer in Social Anthropology in Sofia, Bulgaria, and also Guest Professor at the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Tromsø, Norway. He has been studying postsoviet reindeer herding in the Kola Peninsula, NW Russia since 1994, working with reindeer herders during their annual activities. His main research focuses on the way the Kola herding community has been adapting to recent socio-economic and climate changes. The main trends of this process he discusses in a broader historical perspective, with the era of collectivized herding (1928-1991) as a main reference period. Konstantinov has been emphasizing the value of longitudinal field research with herding communities, shifting recently the vantage point of observation from the herding camp to contact with a migrating herd by means of a small mobile research station. The field method had its first trial run during the NOMAD Expedition (2007-08).
Contact information:
Yulian Konstantinov
BG-1233, P.O.Box 15, Sofia, Bulgaria
Tel.: +359 -899-175-222
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Dr. Joachim Otto Habeck
Joachim Otto Habeck, PhD, works since 2003 Coordinator of the Siberian Studies Centre at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle, Germany. Previously, he was PhD student at the Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge University, and research assistant on two interdisplinary projects (TUNDRA and SPICE) for Tim Ingold, University of Aberdeen. In these functions, he conducted research on environmental perception and the current state of reindeer husbandry in the Republic of Komi and the Nenets Autonomous Okrug. From this research resulted his 2005 monograph and several articles (see references below). He also published on the political dynamics of ethnicity among the Komi and Nenets. For the NOMAD Project, he works as coordinator at the host institution, the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle. He is engaged with liaising with IPY partners at several levels, facilitating outreach and maintaining the project’s webpage. He has visited the reindeer-herding community of Lovozero in 1999 and is acquainted with the local developments of the last ten years. His own long-term field research in the Komi Republic and Nenets Autonomous Okrug enables the NOMAD team to compare different patterns of human-reindeer interaction across the North of European Russia.
Selected publications:
Karjalainen, Timo Pauli & Joachim Otto Habeck 2004. “When ‘the Environment’ comes to visit: local environmental knowledge in the Far North of Russia. Environmental Values, 13 (2): 167-186.
Habeck, Joachim Otto 2005. What it means to be a herdsman: the practice and image of reindeer husbandry among the Komi of Northern Russia. Münster [etc.]: LIT.
Walker, Tony R., Joachim Otto Habeck, Timo P. Karjalainen, Tarmo Virtanen, Nadia Solovieva, Viv Jones, Peter Kuhry, Vasily I. Ponomarev, Kari Mikkola, Ari Nikula, Elena Patova, Peter D. Crittenden, Scott D. Young & Tim Ingold 2006. "Perceived and measured levels of environ¬mental pollution: interdisciplinary research in the subarctic lowlands of northeast European Russia". Ambio, 35 (5): 220-228.
Donahoe, Brian, Joachim Otto Habeck, Agnieszka Halemba & István Sántha 2008. “Size and place in the construction of indigeneity in the Russian Federation”. Current Anthropology, 49 (6): 993-1020.
Contact information:
Joachim Otto Habeck, PhD
Siberian Studies Centre
Max Planck Inst. for Social Anthropology
PO Box 11 03 51
D-06017 Halle (Saale)
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www.eth.mpg.de
www.polarjahr.de/NOMAD.194.0.html