Public lecture

13.04.2015

Professor Yoshiko Herrera from the Department of Political Science at University of Wisconsin-Madison, will give a public lecture entitled

 Pride versus Prejudice: Ethnicity, National Identity, and Xenophobia in Russia
download .pdf

on 22 April 2015 at 10:15–12:00 at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Education, Lossi 36, room 214.

This lecture will discuss the relationship between ethnicity, national identity and xenophobia in Russia. Using data from 11,202 individuals in Russia collected in 2003–2004, I discuss our analysis of the determinants of xenophobia toward five different groups: Roma, Chechens, Azerbaijanis, Muslims, and Americans.  We found support for social dominance theory in a positive relationship between Slavic ethnicity and xenophobia.  We then went beyond ethnicity to analyze Russian national identity content and its effect on xenophobia. We found that pride does not simply equal prejudice; particular types of national identity content predicted greater or lesser xenophobia depending on the target group. Third, we analyzed the relationship between economic vulnerability and xenophobia and the findings were unexpected: higher income is associated with greater hostility toward most groups and, for most target groups, economic vulnerability does not increase xenophobia, suggesting little support for theories of economic threat and xenophobia in Russia.  In conclusion I discuss more recent trends in Russian nationalism, and the relationship between Russia and Europe.

Yoshiko M. Herrera received her B.A. from Dartmouth College (1992) and M.A. and Ph.D. (1999) from University of Chicago.  She taught at Harvard University from 1999-2007 and since then is a Professor at the Department of Political Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison.  She is also co-Director of the International Institute at University of Wisconsin-Madison and Faculty Director (PI) of the UW-Nazarbayev University Project, and a former Director of the Center for Russia, East-Europe and Central Asia at University of Wisconsin-Madison.  Her research interests include politics in Russia and the former Soviet states; social identities and norms; nationalism and ethnic politics; and constructivist political economy. Her most recent book, Mirrors of the Economy: National Accounts and International Norms in Russia and Beyond (Cornell University Press, 2010) analyzes the implementation of the UN’s System of National Accounts (SNA) by post-communist countries. Professor Herrera is currently working on contemporary Russian nationalism and xenophobia, and on a collaborative project on formal models of identity focusing on trust, motivations, and blame attribution.