ILSIR staff took part in the work of the Congress of Anthropologists and Ethnologists of Russia 2025 in Perm
On July 2–6, 2025, the XVI Congress of Anthropologists and Ethnologists of Russia (XVI KAER) was held in Perm, where staff from the International Laboratory for Social Integration Studies presented their reports. The business part of the Congress included over sixty different discussion formats - sections and round tables, where experts shared their experiences and discussed modern trends and prospects for the development of socio-cultural anthropology and ethnology.
Tatyana Vlasova and Konstantin Obukhov took part in two sections: "Ethnography, cultural heritage and local history. Experience of Russian regions in the field of education, museum practices and recreation" with a report on the topic " Local history museum: transformation of the traditional canon" and in the section "Social anthropology: memory of a provincial town" with a report "Memory in a provincial town museum: from broadcasting ideology to joint creation of memories" . Both reports were made on the materials collected in the process of implementing the research project "Cultural citizenship and local solidarity: experience of social inclusion of the audience of Russian museums" (RNF No. 22-78-10098). In the first and second sections, following the reports, lengthy discussions took place, which concerned the boundaries of the definition of the concept of a museum, the transmission of certain principles of organizing museum work, the need to consolidate resources to promote participatory design in museums for the development of local territories.
A wide range of interested scientists from different regions of Russia – anthropologists, sociologists and historians – took part in the section “Disability as a Sociocultural Phenomenon”, dedicated to the discussion of disability in ethno-confessional environments in traditional and modern societies. Ekaterina Dolgova made a presentation on the topic “Inclusion as a catalyst for organizational transformations in a modern museum: the case of people with disabilities” , presenting the preliminary results of her candidate's dissertation. During her presentation, Ekaterina spoke about the organizational culture of an inclusive museum and the institutional mechanisms for its implementation, as well as the barriers that arise and ways to overcome them. As the results of the study showed, at present, museums are moving from an instrumental understanding of inclusion to its critical reflection, coupled with a conscious rejection of the stigmatizing labeling of museum projects as “inclusive”, and the need to create sustainable financial mechanisms and inter-museum resource centers. The discussion of the report was attended not only by sociologists and anthropologists interested in various aspects of disability and inclusion, but also by current practitioners from related fields who are engaged in the development of an inclusive direction in organizations.
Nikita Bolshakov also took part in the section . Together with Nika Chupyatova from the GES-2 Community Center and Moscow State Linguistic University, they presented a report entitled “Attitudes of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing towards Russian Sign Language Interpreters ,” which examined the results of a study conducted in the “Exploring the Deaf Community” Laboratory. As Nikita and Nika showed, the perception of the role of a sign language interpreter today is ambivalent: for some community representatives, an interpreter is an assistant in solving any issues, including personal ones, while for others, an interpreter is a professional whose responsibilities include exclusively the performance of his direct functions in translation. The audience was especially interested in the practices of ordering translation services. As the discussion showed, this topic is not exhausted by one study, so at the “Exploring the Deaf Community ” conference in October of this year, several sections will be devoted to the topic of translation.
The report by Andrey Kozlov (ILSIR HSE), Galina Vershubskaya (MSU) and Maria Kozlova (ILSIR HSE) “Komi-Permyaks: in the eyes of their neighbors and in their own eyes” was presented and discussed at the Round Table 5 “The human body and its perception in the modern world: evolutionary and cross-cultural aspects”.
The report was devoted to the analysis of changes in the public image of the Komi-Permyaks from the 1850s to the 2020s. In ethnographic and journalistic materials of the 19th and early 20th centuries, a surprising tradition emerged of derogatory emphasis on the differences between the Komi-Permyaks and the Russians living next to them. Although, according to data from the 1870s-1920s, the Komi-Permyaks did not differ from the rural Russians of the Perm province in body size, they were described as "a short, thin, emaciated people...". At the same time, when interethnic differences really began to appear in the cohorts born in the 1920s due to the rapid involvement of the Russian population in urbanization processes (they affected the Komi-Permyaks only from the late 1930s), such characteristics disappeared from the press, but up until the late 1990s, the Komi-Permyak youth put the stereotype of the “Russian” higher than the “Komi-Permyak” in physical strength, assessment of business qualities, activity. Only studies in 2013 recorded changes for the better: the levels of uncertainty, anxiety and worry among Komi-Permyak students were lower than among their Russian peers from large cities. Finally, studies in 2022 showed that maintaining “their” comfortable space in the stressful “big world” during their studies helps female students of the Department of Komi-Permyak Language and Literature of Perm State Humanitarian Pedagogical University reduce the pressure of stressors and build confidence in the prospects for their social mobility. The behavioral strategies developed by students during intercultural interaction present the cultural and linguistic “otherness” of the Komi-Permyaks as an asset, a unique “portrait feature” in the conditions of a large city. This self-presentation strategy finds support and understanding among the dominant group (Russians), urban youth, who are being formed under the influence of the “new ethics”.
The negative image of the “Other”, constructed since the middle of the 19th century in the discourse of “educated Russian townspeople” of the Perm province, was preserved for more than half a century and, what is even more dangerous, was accepted by the Komi-Permyaks themselves. It began to dissipate only in recent decades thanks to the implementation of soft inclusion strategies that reduce the pressure of assimilation and leave a sufficient range for choosing options for self-presentation.
In addition to productive work within the sections, a rich cultural program was organized at the XVI KAER, which included visits to various local history museums, cultural heritage sites and other attractions in Perm.
Research Assistant
Nikita Bolshakov
Leading Research Fellow
Konstantin Obukhov
Senior Research Fellow