Yakov Lurie, M.A.
Since October 2026, I have been teaching and working as a social anthropologist at the University of Göttingen, while completing my PhD in Anthropology at the University of Amsterdam.
My research is broadly concerned with how people make their lives and identities under conditions of mobility, uncertainty, and social change. My PhD project explores the spaces and lifeworlds that have emerged along Russia’s highways since the collapse of the Soviet Union, focusing on small-scale roadside entrepreneurs and the ways they navigate uncertainty amid infrastructural, economic, and political shifts. This research grew out of earlier mobile ethnography with Russian long-distance truck drivers and a broader interest in roads, informal economies, and experiences of postsocialist transformations.
Since 2022, another major strand of my work has focused on the transformations of Russian society brought about by the war against Ukraine. As a member of the Public Sociology Laboratory (PS Lab), I have studied everyday life in wartime Russia, perceptions and experiences of the war, and changing forms of social participation under wartime conditions.
I have also collaborated with other research initiatives, including OutRush, CISR e.V. Berlin, and the Hannah Arendt Research Center, on projects exploring wartime migration from Russia and independent civil society both inside the country and in exile.
Alongside academic research and teaching, I have worked on applied ethnographic projects with NGOs and in the fields of urban development, media, and the arts. I am interested in forms of anthropology that go beyond academic settings and in finding accessible, engaging, and useful ways of communicating ethnographic knowledge.
I also have a long-standing background in film: before becoming an anthropologist, I studied film and worked as a film critic and with international film festivals. Film remains an important part of my interests, especially the intersections between anthropology, cinema, and visual culture — from ethnographic and documentary practices to the social lives of images.
- Since 2026: Research Associate, Institute of Cultural Anthropology/European Ethnology, University of Göttingen, Germany
- Since 2024: PhD Fellow in Anthropology, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands. PhD project: Russia in Transit: An Ethnography of Trade, Uncertainty and Change along Russian Highways.
- 2023–2024: Non-Resident Fellow, Russia Program, George Washington University, USA.
- 2018–2022: MA in Cultural Anthropology and postgraduate researcher, European University at St. Petersburg, Russia. MA-thesis: The Timescapes of Long-Distance Trucking in Russia.
- 2015–2018: MA in Arts, major in Sound in New Media, Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Helsinki, Finland.
- 2009–2013: BA in Liberal Arts, major in Film, Smolny College, Saint Petersburg State University, Russia & Bard College, New York, USA (dual degree).
- Academic Exchanges:
2016: Erasmus+ exchange, Berlin University of the Arts (UdK), Berlin, Germany.
2012: Bard College, New York, USA.
- Anthropology of mobility and roads
- Uncertainty, informality, and postsocialist change
- Anthropology of time and labour
- Neoliberalism in Russia
- Everyday life and social transformations in wartime Russia
- Applied and public anthropology
- Film and visual anthropology
- Ethnographic methods
- Film history, theory & practice
The programme brings together several research projects, ranging from broader studies of everyday life and perceptions of the war to research focusing on particular groups and forms of wartime participation. My work within the project has included research on everyday experiences of the war in different regions and cities of Russia, draft evaders and strategies of avoiding military service, and grassroots volunteer communities supporting the Russian military.
Much of our work is intended for audiences beyond conventional academia and is published as analytical reports, shorter research notes and policy papers, as well as through media outlets. The project is largely sustained by the voluntary work of its members and collaborative research across different countries.
- Lurie, Y.: The Present Absent War: How Russians Experience the War with Ukraine at Different Proximities to the Frontline. Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, 2026. [link]
- Lurie, Y.: „Don’t Wake the Giant“: Who Avoids Conscription in Russia – How and Why? Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, 2026. [link] 2025
- Lurie, Y.: „War in the Everyday Life of ‚Ordinary Russians‘: (How) Does Proximity to the Frontline Matter?“, in: Russian Analytical Digest 333, S. 4–7. [link]
- Alexandrova, V./Lurie, Y.: „Bottom-Up Volunteering for the Front in Wartime Russia“, in: Russian Analytical Digest 333, S. 15–19. [link] 2024
- Lurie, Y./Kappinen, S.: „‚Were It Not For The Funerals…‘: The War in a Small Town in the Urals“, in: Russia.Post, 2024. [link]
- Lurie, Y./Baranova, V./Chigaleichik, E.: „‚Invisible‘ Emigrants: The Lives of Economically Struggling Russians Abroad“, in: Russia.Post, 2024. [link]
- Lurie, Y./Kappinen, S.: „Wie Russland den Krieg verdrängt“, in: dekoder, 2024. [link] 2023
- Lurie, Y.: „Logistics, Inequalities and the Politics of Time in Contemporary Russian Trucking“, in: Antropologičeskij forum 58, S. 247–277 (russischsprachig). [link] 2022
- Lurie, Y.: Rezension zu Vered Amit/Noel B. Salazar (Hrsg.): Pacing Mobilities: Timing, Intensity, Tempo and Duration of Human Movements, in: Antropologičeskij forum 52, S. 221–234 (russischsprachig). [link]
- 2026
- „In and Out of Wartime: How Russians Experience the War against Ukraine in Everyday Life“. Keynote, Russia Days, Oslo, Norwegen, Mai 2026. 2025
- „The Far-Near War: How Russians Experience the War against Ukraine in Everyday Life“. Eingeladener Vortrag, Jordan Center, New York University, New York, USA, Dezember 2025. 2024
- „Russia in Transit: An Ethnography of Trade, Uncertainty and Change along Russian Highways“. Gastvortrag, Centre for Landscape and Culture, Universität Tallinn, Estland, November 2024.
- 2025
- „War as a ‚Way of Life‘: Understanding Grassroots Frontline Support in Current Russia“. ASEEES 57th Annual Convention, Washington, D.C., USA, Oktober 2025.
- „Between Owning and Belonging: Adventures in Materiality and Uncertainty among Russian Migrants in Tbilisi“. Geopolitics, Migrations and Identities in Central Eurasia, Lissabon, Portugal, Januar 2025. 2024
- „War as a Non-event? A Case of a Small Town in Sverdlovsk Region“. Russian Citizens since 24 February 2022: Forming, Expressing, and Embodying Stances on the War in Ukraine, Paris, Frankreich, Dezember 2024.
- „Beyond Infrastructural Aspirations: Roadside Trade and Uncertain Futures in Contemporary Russia“. Global Mobility & Humanities Conference, Konkuk University, Seoul, Südkorea, Oktober 2024.
- „The Margins of Development: Roadside Trade and Uncertain Futures in Contemporary Russia“. 4th Vienna Anthropology Days, Universität Wien und Central European University, Wien, Österreich, September 2024.
- „Navigating Economic Uncertainty: Towards the Varied Experiences of Russian Migrants in Georgia and Armenia“. (In)Visible Russian (Anti-)War Migration, Warschau, Polen, März 2024. 2023
- „Logistics, Inequalities and the Politics of Time in Contemporary Russian Trucking“. Global Mobility & Humanities Conference, Konkuk University, Seoul, Südkorea, Oktober 2023.