Projects

Panel survey of Russian Post-2022 Emigrants. OutRush Project: 2022 - ongoing

Details

Description

OutRush is a large, multi-wave research project that examines post-2022 Russian emigration through advanced quantitative and qualitative methods. Launched shortly after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the project tracks the trajectories, political attitudes, and everyday experiences of Russians who left the country after 24 February 2022. To date, OutRush has completed four survey waves, collecting responses from more than 18,000 participants across 100+ countries — forming one of the most comprehensive datasets on contemporary Russian migration.

Methodologically, the project combines large-scale panel surveys with mixed-methods follow-up studies. Our survey design includes advanced modules such as conjoint experiments, causal identification strategies, panel retention designs, and cross-national comparability frameworks. These are complemented by in-depth qualitative interviews, allowing us to capture emotional, biographical, and contextual dynamics that remain invisible in survey data alone.

OutRush operates with a dual aim: to provide rigorous, high-quality evidence for scholars and policymakers, and to offer accessible insights to migrants themselves. Our findings have been widely cited in international and independent Russian media, including The New York Times, Financial Times, Bloomberg, BBC, Al Jazeera, Meduza, and many others.

My role: Co-Investigator.

Democracy in Exile (DemEx) Project

Details

Description

One of 18 international projects funded by the Trans-Atlantic Platform for Social Sciences and Humanities. DemEx builds on the OutRush panel survey to study long-term effects of war-induced emigration. The project is funded by the National Science Foundation (USA), NCN (Poland) and SSHRC (Canada)

Russians’ dreams during the war in Ukraine. The Science of Dreams: 2022 - ongoing

Details

Description

The Science of Dreams is an interdisciplinary research initiative that collects, preserves and analyses dream narratives produced by Russians during the war. The project treats dreams as social testimony: a form of experience-bearing evidence that becomes especially valuable when ordinary speech is censored, dangerous, or otherwise constrained. By gathering hundreds of first-person accounts, we create a unique archive that documents subjective experience, emotional life, and everyday imaginaries under conditions of repression and displacement.

Goals

To assemble a systematically archived corpus of war-time dream reports that can serve as primary sources for historical, sociological, cultural and literary research.

To analyse how emotions, identity, memory and political imaginaries are expressed and transformed in dreams.

To make the material accessible for scholarly publication, public outreach, artistic projects and activist initiatives, while prioritising contributors’ safety and anonymity.

Methods We combine qualitative and interpretive approaches with contextual analysis: open calls for dream submissions, thematic coding and comparative reading. Our outputs integrate academic articles, media essays, curated exhibits and creative collaborations that translate intimate testimony into public knowledge.

Impact The collected material has already been used in peer-reviewed research and in media and cultural projects, providing both empirical evidence for academic debates and evocative material for public engagement and art-based activism.

Get involved / Contact We welcome academic collaborations, media requests and artistic partnerships.

What kind of material we work with

Figure 1. Visualization of the dream, 2022. © Sonya Nikitina, all rights reserved, used with permission.

‘I dreamed that I was in my old apartment. The front door is closed but unlocked. I close it with a latch, and suddenly, through the crack, I notice that there is someone behind it. At first, I think it’s my mother,and she is about to come inside. But time passes, and the person just stands silently outside the door. I still can’t see who it is, and then the door becomes almost transparent, and I realize that four guys are standing behind it. Standing silently, looking right at me. I hold the latch with my hand just in case. At first, I shout for them to go away, but I’m too scared and my voice is trembling. They don’t move. Then I start asking what they want, and the guys suddenly spring to life: still silent, they come up close and stare right at me’ (03/06/2022, F, age 20).

Figure 2. Visualization of the dream, 2022. © Agata Gilman, all rights reserved, used with permission.

‘A mysterious celestial object falls to Earth near Moscow’s water reservoirs; scientists announce that it can poison the water. The Russian authorities decide not to shoot down the object and allow the contamination. The news announces that the citizens must take care of themselves exclusively, and the property of the dead will be handed over to the military and security forces as salaries, as there is no money in the budget for their maintenance. In a panic I grab my cat, warm clothes and run to the forest park, because I am afraid that looting and violence will start immediately, and I hope that the snow will not melt for some time and that my cat and I will have potable water’ (07/04/2022, F, age 29)

Figure 3. Visualization of the dream, 2022. © Sonya Nikitina, all rights reserved, used with permission.

‘I came with a group of rescuers to the Mausoleum on Red Square. We received a signal that the mausoleum had been taken over many years ago by two crazy old women who had taken up residence there. They have taken a male tour guide hostage and are giving birth to ugly children. They heal the children half to death because the old women have Munchausen’s syndrome. Oh, what a Kunstkammer we found there… We walked the endless corridors of the dungeon, found scary-looking kids and took them outside. But most of them were not viable…’ (22/04/2022, F, age 48)

A qualitative study of Feminist Anti-war Resistance activists: 2022 - 2023

Description

The main aim of the project is to understand how Feminist Anti-War Resistance (FAS) activists cope with the experience of living abroad, how their activism has changed in emigration, their motivation to continue their activism, and the difficulties they face in their host societies. The project is a collaboration with Indiana University and the University of Oslo.

If you would like to participate in the interview, write to Telegram: @Karolina_Nugumanova1

Building a Commons in the Russian Diaspora: 2022 - 2023

Description

Research is designed to understand the structure of the Russian migrant community and how people are dealing with migration experiences and building new organizations, ties, and social support. We have already collected more than 400 interviews with emigrants in Serbia, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and Turkey.

If you would like to participate in the interview, write to Telegram: @Karolina_Nugumanova1