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SSEES Academic Spotlight: Volodymyr Kulikov

25 October 2024

In this edition of the SSEES Academic Spotlight, we hear from Dr Volodymyr Kulikov, Lecturer in Ukrainian History at SSEES.

Volodymyr

What brought to you work at SSEES?

I first learned about UCL many years ago through its publishing house, which has produced several books that have profoundly influenced me as an academic. Among these were works on heritage futures, exploring how we shape the future through preserving the past, and publications on informal institutions. The latter was particularly impactful, inspiring me to design a graduate course on informal institutions at my previous university. UCL’s reputation as a centre of research excellence, along with its strong academic brand, was a major draw for me, as I was eager to collaborate with scholars whose work had shaped my intellectual development.

Being here, surrounded by leading experts in my field, has been both inspiring and exciting. The high standards at SSEES make holding a teaching position a big responsibility, but I find the intellectual environment incredibly stimulating. My colleagues have been very supportive, and I feel this is a place where good ideas can grow into great projects.

UCL's profile as a truly global university also attracted me. I had previously worked with diverse student groups, which I found very inspiring. I enjoy working in an intellectually and culturally diverse environment, and I believe UCL is one of the best places for that.

If you weren’t working in Higher Education, what would be your dream job?

I have never imagined myself outside a university; I believe it is one of the greatest institutions humans ever invented. I enjoy being part of a large organisation and appreciate the power of collaboration. However, if I had to find something beyond academia, I would seek a role where I could still do something to learn about organisations in the past and present. Recently, my interests have shifted towards environmental history, so perhaps I could also work in a nature reserve or as a forest manager.

Can you tell us a bit about your current role and what you were doing before you arrived here?

As a lecturer in Ukrainian history, I aim to integrate more Ukrainian case studies into the UCL curriculum and research, advancing Ukraine’s history within a global context. I believe that Ukrainian history should be studied not only for its own sake, as inherently interesting, but also as a source of new theories and insights into broader grand challenges.

I began my academic career focused on Ukrainian history, but later transitioned to teaching interdisciplinary and international groups of students, first in cultural heritage studies at Central European University (Budapest) and then in environmental history at the University of Texas at Austin. At Texas, I taught many non-history majors, including students from the natural sciences, and found working with such diverse groups invigorating. Teaching non-historians has consistently challenged me to bridge past and present and to incorporate theories, concepts, and methodologies that students can carry forward and apply in their own academic journeys.

Outside of work, how do you unwind?

As a historian, it is difficult to find anything that feels ‘outside of work’ because everything around us becomes a potential source for research. I enjoy visiting industrial heritage sites, but even if they are far from the region I specialise in, I instinctively compare them to what I know about Eastern Europe and think about how I can use these observations in my papers. Similarly, when my wife, who is a museum studies and heritage scholar, and I visit a museum, we often end up scrutinising the exhibition layout, explanatory texts, and so on. I suspect this is common among social scientists—everything around us turns into research material.

If you could recommend only one book, what would it be?

It depends on who is asking. Books are a conversation between an author and their reader, so I would need to understand what the person wants to know to recommend a book that resonates with them. But if the question is about a book that had a particularly significant impact on me as a researcher, I would probably mention ‘Nudge’ by Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler. I remember when I first read it, I had a huge ‘aha’ moment—it explained the discrepancy between how scholars used to describe people’s decision-making (as unrealistically rational) and how it actually works (with emotional decisions and cognitive biases). The beauty of the book lies in uncovering something so obvious, yet often overlooked, like the emperor’s new clothes effect. I also like the idea of nudges promoting positive change without forcing people into it. And it is so wonderfully written—with great humour, figurative language, and really vivid examples.

What are your professional plans for the next couple of years?

I am working on two main research projects under the overarching theme of extractivism. The first is a book on industrial company towns in Eastern Ukraine during the late imperial period. With just a couple of hundred thousand workers and their families, these settlements produced the majority of coal and iron that powered industrialisation in the Russian Empire. My focus is on how companies created corporately controlled spaces and the ways residents pushed back.

The second project, part of an ERC-funded study, explores Ukraine's fossil-fuel-driven grain commodification and how it influenced industrialisation in the Russian Empire and Western Europe by shifting rural labour to factories. Resource extraction was more complex than a simple flow between provinces and imperial centres; I am also examining the roles of local elites, multinational corporations, and global commodity exchanges. I plan to channel these findings into a larger project on extractivism in Ukraine, spanning from the Industrial Revolution to the present.

I often incorporate the outcomes of my research projects into my classes, and I hope to teach a course next year on the history of energy and natural resources in Eastern Europe and Russia (BA). Additionally, I plan to co-teach, with Anna Koch, a course titled ‘Waterscapes, Wildlife, and Wastelands: An Environmental History of Water in Central-Eastern Europe and Russia’ (MA), which examines the region's history through its water bodies. I am excited to collaborate with Anna and hope to engage more students and colleagues interested in the history of natural resources and energy.

Visit Dr Volodymyr Kulikov's UCL Profile here.