Based at the ANU since 2000, I have participated in a number of Australian and international projects in the field of Russian – South Pacific early contacts. Among them are the collaborative research project ‘Tatau/tattoo: Embodied art and cultural exchange’ (Getty Grant Program, 2002-2004); ‘European Naturalists and the Constitution of Human Difference in Oceania: Crosscultural Encounters and the Science of Race, 1768-1888’ (ARC Discovery, 2006-2009); Macleay–Miklouho-Maclay Fellowship, Macleay Museum, Sydney University Museums, 2008-2009); ‘Naming Oceania: geography, raciology and local knowledge in the "fifth part of the world", 1511-1920’ (ARC Discovery Project, 2009-2011); ‘Artefacts of encounter’ (collaborative international project, Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 2010-2014); ‘The Original Field Anthropologist: Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay in Oceania, 1871-1883’ (ARC discovery grant, 2011-2015), ‘Pacific Presences: Oceanic art and European museums’ (collaborative international project, Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 2014-2019); ‘The Collective Biography of Archaeology in the Pacific’ (Matthew Spriggs’ ARC Laureate Project, 2015-2020); ‘Skulls for the Tsar: Indigenous human remains in Russian collections’ (Hilary Howes’ DECRA project, 2022 – current).

My other projects include the study of the history of early Russian émigré communities in Australia, particularly Russian and Ukrainian Anzacs.

Career highlights

Research Scholar, Department of South Pacific Studies, Institute of Oriental Studies, Moscow (1989-1990); PhD Scholar, ANU (1991-1996); Lecturer and tutor in Russian, MEL, ANU (1992-1996); Visiting Scholar, AIATSIS (1997-2000); Postdoctoral Fellow, Pacific and Asian History, RSPAS, ANU (2002-2004); Research Fellow, College of Asia and the Pacific (2005-2015); Research Associate, Pacific Presences, Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (2014-2018); Adjunct academic, CBAP, School of Archaeology & Anthropology, CASS (2015-2019); Lecturer and tutor in Russian, SLLL (2015 – current); Visiting fellow, School of Culture, History and Language, CAP (2020 – current).

Diploma (Hons), (Minsk Institute of Culture, USSR), PhD (History) (ANU)

• Russian voyages in Oceania
• Krusenstern expedition to Nuku-Hiva in 1804
• South Pacific artefacts and ancestral remains in Russian collections
• Russian toponyms in the South Pacific
• Miklouho-Maclay's contribution to South Pacific anthropology
• Russian – South Pacific cross-cultural contacts
• Bibliography of Russian writings on Oceania
• Russian – Australian early scholarly networks
• Russian Anzacs
• History of early Russian émigrés in Australia