Anton Popov

Anton Popov joined the School of Languages and Social Sciences of Aston University in 2014 as a Lecture in Sociology and Policy Group. He graduated from the History Department of the Kuban State University in Krasnodar, Russia. Then he studied ethnology in the Institute for Ethnology and Anthropology (Moscow, Russia), cultural studies and Russian and East European studies in the University of Birmingham (UK). He received his PhD from Birmingham University based on the study of the cultural production of identity among Greeks in southern Russia and the North Caucasus. His research interests are in political anthropology (with a particular focus on postsocialist societies); identity and transnationalism; violence, ethnicity and (non-Western forms of) civil society; youth culture; qualitative research methods (ethnography, life story and family history); history and social memory. Anton conducted ethnographic research on nativist and ethno-cultural revivalist movements, migrant and ethnic minority communities in southern Russia, the Caucasus and Turkey. His recent research was on Cossack youth and the role that violence, ethnicity, history and the sense of place play in their lives. Currently Dr Popov is involved in the international research project FP7 MYPLACE (http://www.fp7-myplace.eu/) and works on transmission of historical memories about the traumatic periods of the past to the younger generation of Europeans and the impact of collective memory on the youth activism (including young people’s involvement in radical right groups). 

Anton Popov is a lecturer and seminar tutor on the ‘Understanding Social Divisions’ (TP1) and ‘Social Theory 1’ (TP2) undergraduate modules. 

He is also currently co-supervising externally three PhD projects at the University of Warwick: ‘Everyday Practices of Transnational Living: Making Sense of Brasiguaio Identities’ (Marcos Estrada); ‘Second-Hand Memories of the Communist Era: the First Post-Socialist Generation in Romania’ (Daniel Hanu); ‘Punk and Protest: A Socio-Historical Study of Political Resistance among Dutch Punks’ (Kirstin Lohman)