Konstantin Georgiev

KONSTANTIN GEORGIEV, then a graduate student at Rice University, Houston, Texas, was awarded a grant in October 2021 to aid research on “Environmental science after socialism: Sociopolitical change and environmental science in post-Soviet Siberia,” supervised by Dr. Andrea Ballestero. This project seeks to understand how the people formerly employed at a former Soviet environmental research institute adapted their skills and practices to the post-Soviet context. Looking at the labor of scientists and other personnel, the research traces new labor practices and the establishment of different vernacular institutions and organizations. Through these new organizations, the scientists seek to continue their conservationist and research efforts and retain control over narratives of the institute’s work, history, and achievements. This project is based on ethnographic and archival research in Eastern Siberia.