MPhil Russian and East European Studies

Our MPhil Russian and East European Studies programme will enable you to carry out a piece of original research under the supervision of our academics.

Staff in Russian and East European Studies conduct research of an interdisciplinary nature across a broad range of subjects, including:

19th and 20th-century literature and intellectual history;
Soviet and post-Soviet cinema and the media;
gender studies;
memory studies;
nationalism and ethnic politics historically and in the post-communist period;
post-communist transition in East Central Europe.
The discipline of Russian and East European Studies constitutes a core group of the Cross-Disciplinary Russian and Eurasian Studies Network, which facilitates collaboration in research and postgraduate teaching and supervision among relevant members of staff across the Faculty of Humanities at Manchester.

Our staff's externally-funded current research projects include:

Reframing Russia for the Global Mediasphere: From Cold War to Information War (AHRC);
Russian Nationalism and the Ukraine Crisis: The Impact of Nationalist Actors on Russian Foreign Policy (The European Commission);
Self-Sustained Civil Society in Eastern (and Western) Europe (the British Academy).
A focal point for our research activity is a regular research seminar, which features a mix of internal and external speakers, and promotes debate between staff and postgraduates across the full spectrum of their research interests.

The Russian language and culture are also a significant focus of research undertaken by the Cross-Language Dynamics: Reshaping Communities consortium. Funded through the AHRC Open World Research Initiative and led by a Russian specialist at Manchester, the consortium aims to investigate the central role languages play in relation to key contemporary issues such as social cohesion, migration, business and diplomacy.