Head of Department of Anthropology of the East, Vice Director, and Leading Researcher, Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences

Director of the International Center of Anthropology, Higher School of Economics, professor of the Institute of Anthropology and Ethnology, Russian State University for the Humanities. Corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, D. hist. sc. (2000) and Cand. hist. sc. (1993) in general history, BA, Department of Ethnography, Faculty of History, Moscow State University. Scholarly interests: anthropological and social theory, political anthropology, premodern societies, sociocultural transformations and intercultural communication in national, ethnic, racial, and religious aspects; cultures and history of Africa south of Sahara, diasporas in Africa and Asia. Fieldwork experience in six African countries as well as among the Africa-born and their descendants in Russia and the United States. Member of the American Anthropological Association, Association of Anthropologists and Ethnologists of Russia, African Studies Association, EASA, International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, Society for American Archaeology, Society of Russian Oriental Studies, Society for the Study of Cultural Evolution, and Russian Association of Americanist Anthropologists. Author of over 600 publications including 8 books.