Ksenija Iljina

Supervisor: Dr Uilleam Blacker, Prof Eric Gordy

Present status: PhD candidate

Working title of thesis: Soviet mythologies in commemorative and ritual practices in modern Latvia

Ksenija Iljina is a PhD student at University College London. She is continuing work on her doctoral thesis, which examines the uses of Soviet mythologies and ritual practices, especially in contemporary Latvia. She considers how Russia as a post-imperial state exerts its soft-power influence in post-Soviet states through nostalgia for the Soviet past and how these states are responding. Her research centres on heritage, memory, and identity construction in the Baltic region.

In 2020/2021 academic year Ksenija participated in the Yale University-University College London Exchange Program. In 2017 she received an M.A. in Arts and Cultural Management from King’s College London (Department of Culture, Media and Creative Industries). Before this Ksenija completed a B.A. degree in Russian Philology at the University of Latvia. Her broader research interests include Russian and Slavonic Studies, Baltic Studies, and Cultural Memory and Social Anthropology.