I am a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Criminology, Law & Society at UC Irvine. My research focuses on the legalization of cannabis for recreational use in California. The results of my statistical analysis have recently been published in Law & Social Inquiry journal. Currently, I am conducting interviews with participants in the cannabis industry in California, and I have two other articles in progress (see “My Current Research”)
I was born in Moscow in 1986. I graduated in Sociology from the Lomonosov Moscow State University (BA, 2008) and the European University in St. Petersburg (MA, 2009), both with distinction. In 2013, I earned a Candidate of Science degree in Sociology at the Higher School of Economics. While working on the dissertation, I spent the 2011-12 academic year as a Fulbright visiting scholar at Boston University.
Since August 2012, I have worked as a researcher at the Institute for the Rule of Law, a think-tank on socio-legal studies, where my research has focused on various aspects of the Russian criminal justice system. The result of my research was a co-authored book Being a Lawyer in Russia: A Sociological Study of the Legal Profession (2016), which describes the professional situation of Russian defense counsels and discusses their autonomy inside and outside the profession. I also published a number of peer-reviewed articles in Russian and English, prepared analytical reports, and participated in an international project on legal professions worldwide (Lawyers in 21st-Century Societies, ed. by Richard Abel et al.).
While working at the Institute for the Rule of Law, I was engaged not only in academic activity but also in policy-oriented projects. In 2018, I received the George F. Kennan Fellowship at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars to conduct an individual project devoted to the ongoing reform of the legal profession in Russia. The research addressed the problem of the effectiveness of democratic institutions in Russia, the primacy of the “vertical of power” over horizontal civil bonds, and the ability of the professional community to retain autonomy over internal matters.
When Russia launched a full-fledged war in Ukraine in 2022, I became a volunteer with Nova Ukraine. Currently, I am coordinating a team of volunteers and we are helping Ukrainian refugee families in the United States.
I have an Italian husband who is a Ph.D. Candidate at the American University and a 10-year-old daughter. We are an international family speaking three languages at home (Russian, Italian, and English).
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