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Department of History
Department of History
Contacts

Address:
190068 Saint Petersburg
123 Griboedov channel, Room 123

Phone:+7 (812)786-92-49 

Postal address: 
190068 Saint Petersburg
123 Griboedov channel

Administration
Adrian A. Selin
Department Head – Adrian A. Selin
Evgeniy Anisimov
Academic Supervisor – Evgeniy Anisimov
About the Department

The Department of History was created in 2012. The overarching goal of the department is systematic development of the field of global, comparative, and transnational history as a potent tool of overcoming the limitations of national history canon, fostering interdisciplinary dialogue in the field of social sciences and humanities, and brining new public relevance to historical knowledge. The department mission includes the development of new type of historical undergraduate and graduate education in Russia and pioneering new research fields in Russian historiography in dialogue with the global historical profession. 

Publications
Book
Social History of the True Orthodox Christians Wandering in Russia. Capitalism, Communism, and Apocalypse, 1900-1930

Kuziner I.

L.; NY: Routledge, 2025.

Article
Forum 21: Humans and Other Species

Blanchette A., Bogdanova E., Fedotova A. et al.

Forum for Anthropology and Culture. 2025. No. 21. P. 11-128.

Book chapter
Albert Hlebec: On the Slovenian National Question

Gužvica S.

In bk.: Political Transformations in the Interwar Period: The Case of Slovenian Political Thought. Ljubljana: Inštitut za novejšo zgodovino, 2026. P. 127-135.

Working paper
The Image of the Past in Ciro Spontone’s ‘Historia Della Transilvania’

Khvalkov E., Levin F., Кузнецова А. Д.

Working Papers of Humanities. WP. Издательский дом НИУ ВШЭ, 2021

All publications

Anthropology of Belief and Knowledge

2025/2026
Academic Year
ENG
Instruction in English
5
ECTS credits
Delivered by:
Department of History
Type:
Minor
When:

Instructors

Рахманова Лидия Яковлевна

Рахманова Лидия Яковлевна

Ryzhkov, Aleksei

Ryzhkov, Aleksei

Ssorin-Chaikov, Nikolai

Ssorin-Chaikov, Nikolai

Course Syllabus

Full SyllabusAsk Question

Abstract

Anthropology of belief and knowledge seek an understanding of an understanding: it aims at grasping what people across cultures admit to be true. How various systems of knowledge and belief distinguish the rational and the irrational? What is sense and senselessness? How are knowledge, belief, intuition and revelation distinguished in different social and cultural contexts? How are epistemologies related to aesthetics, ethics, moral order and everyday knowledge practices, and how are they embedded in forms of society that that articulate and constitute? We consider these questions by drawing on detailed ethnographies of science and religion. Cases that we explore range from studies of witchcraft and shamanism to laboratory and computer science, from conspiracy theories to knowledge about climate change and different religions.
Learning Objectives

Learning Objectives

  • be able not only read key ethnographies, but also make an individual research, based on the unique ethnographic experience, applying the skills learnt through the course.
Expected Learning Outcomes

Expected Learning Outcomes

  • A student knows the history of the discipline and subfields
  • Able to solve professional problems based on synthesis and analysis
  • A student can critically evaluate and rethink the accumulated experience (one's own and another's), think about professional and social activities.
Course Contents

Course Contents

  • ethnographies of magic
  • ethnographies of science
Assessment Elements

Assessment Elements

  • non-blocking project essay
  • non-blocking final essay exam
Interim Assessment

Interim Assessment

  • 2025/2026 4th module
    0.5 * project essay + 0.5 * final essay exam
Bibliography

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

  • E. E. Evans-Pritchard. (1960). The Organization of a Zande Kingdom. Cahiers d’études Africaines, (4), 5. https://doi.org/10.3406/cea.1960.3678

Recommended Additional Bibliography

  • Bielo, J. S. (2016). A companion to the anthropology of religion. Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale, 24(1), 103–106. https://doi.org/10.1111/1469-8676.12247

Authors

  • Kasatkina Aleksandra Konstantinovna
  • Dzhafarova Alina Tagirovna
  • Nevskii Andrei VLADIMIROVICH
  • Ssorin-Chaikov Nikolai Vladimirovich