Dr Victoria Hudson

Victoria Hudson is British Academy Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in the Department of War Studies, researching for a project entitled ‘Russia’s Renewal of Cultural Influence and Attraction Abroad: A Comparative Study of Audience Receptivity to Russian Soft Power in Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Estonia’.

The study builds upon her doctoral research at University of Birmingham, where she successfully completed a thesis on the civilisational aspects on Russian soft power in contemporary Ukraine. In addition to engagement with the relevant bodies of IR and critical security theory, the thesis also demanded a significant tranche of fieldwork to be completed in-country, which entailed conducting surveys and focus groups across four cities of Ukraine, in addition to expert interviews in Moscow. During this time, Victoria also enjoyed a fruitful visit to the Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, within the framework of the ESRC’s Overseas Institutional Visit initiative.

Research interests:

• Ideology, nationalism, identity
• Russia, Ukraine, Europe
• Soft power and public diplomacy
• Communication , mediaDiscourse theory and analysis

Qualifications

• PhD, Centre for Russian and East European Studies (CREES), University of Birmingham (2014)
• MA Russian and East European Studies, University of Birmingham (2008) 
• MSc Security Studies, University of Wales Aberystwyth (2003)
• BSc German and European Studies, Aston University. Birmingham (2002) 

Teaching

Victoria has previously taught at University of Birmingham, University of Leicester and Aston University, at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Modules included International Security, Introduction to Politics, Security and Defence Policy of the EU, Russian Politics, Russian Translation, Qualitative and Quantitative Research Methods and Comparative Politics. As Teaching Fellow at Aston University in 2013-2014, she was also course convenor for a number of undergraduate and postgraduate modules.

King’s First Year (pilot project).

Languages

• Russian: Advanced
• German: Fluent
• French: Advanced
• English: Native
• Ukrainian: Basic

Publications

Books:

• (2023) Locating the role of neo-Paganism in far-right groups on the Russian socio-political landscape, in: Aitamurto, K., Downing R. (eds) Contemporary Germanic and Slavic Paganisms - Security Risks and Solutions, Bloomsbury [forthcoming].
• (2022) The impact of Russian soft power in Kazakhstan: creating an enabling environment for cooperation between Nur-Sultan and Moscow, Journal of Political Power, 15:3, 469-494, DOI: 10.1080/2158379X.2022.2127280
• (2022) ‘The Response of the Metropolitan District of the Russian Orthodox Church in Kazakhstan to the Emigration of Ethnic Russians from Independent Kazakhstan’ in Victoria Hudson and Lucian Leustean (eds.): Religion and Forced Displacement in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia, Amsterdam University Press.
• (2019) 'The Georgian Orthodox Church and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate: "Tools" of Russian Soft Power?' in Andrey Makarychev and Thomas Kruessmann (eds.): Europe in the Caucasus, Caucasus in Europe, ibidem-Verlag, Stuttgart, pp. 171-198.
• (2018) 'The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate as a Potential ‘Tool’ of Russian Soft Power in the Wake of Ukraine’s 2013 Euromaidan', Europe-Asia Studies, 70:9, 1355-1380, DOI: 10.1080/09668136.2018.1536780
• (2017): 'Russia's soft power in the post-Soviet space' in Natasha Kuhrt and Valentina Feklyunina (eds.): Assessing Russia's power: A Report for the House of Lords . King's College London and Newcastle University.
• (2015): ‘Forced to Friendship’? Russian (Mis-)Understandings of Soft Power and the Implications for Audience Attraction in Ukraine, Politics, Special Issue: The Soft Power of Hard States, edited by Michael Barr and Valentina Feklyunina, Volume 35, Issue 3-4, pages 330–346, November.
• (2015): ‘The Russian Orthodox Church under Patriarch Kirill’ OpenDemocracy / CEELBAS Frontlines II: Religion, Ethnicity and Culture, 31st March https://www.opendemocracy.net/od-russia/victoria-hudson/russian-orthodox-church-under-patriarch-kirill
• (2014): ‘Despite the Rumble of Russian Tanks the Main Weapon in Ukraine is Information’, The Conversation, 18th March. Available at: https://theconversation.com/despite-the-rumble-of-russian-tanks-the-main-weapon-in-ukraine-is-information-24437
• (2009): ‘Sovereign Democracy as a Discourse of Russian Identity’ in Philipp Casula and Jeronim Perovic (eds.): Identities, Discourses and Politics: The Foundations of Russia's Stability, ibidem-Verlag, Stuttgart.

Book chapters:

Victoria Hudson (2022) ‘The response of the Metropolitan District of the Russian Orthodox Church in Kazakhstan to the Emigration of Ethnic Russians from Independent Kazakhstan’ in Victoria Hudson & Lucian Leustean (eds.) ‘Religion and Forced Displacement in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia’
University of Amsterdam Press.
DOI: 10.5117/9789463727556

Research articles:

Victoria Hudson (2022) ‘The Impact of Russian soft power in Kazakhstan: creating an enabling environment for cooperation between Nur-Sultan and Moscow’, The Journal of Political Power. [forthcoming]

Grants and Honours [selected]

2016-2019 

British Academy Post-Doctoral Fellowship at King’s College London

2014

Marie Curie FP7 International Staff Exchange – Institute of Europe (RAS) Moscow   

Recipient of ‘ASTONishing Academic’ award at Aston University for teaching quality

Grant from university’s School Research Fund to attend IPSA World Congress (£1,634.35). 

2013     

CEELBAS grant for international research visit for project with HSE in Moscow (£1,356)         

2011 

ESRC grants for fieldwork and language training in Russia and Ukraine (£3560+£2190)

ESRC-funded research visit to Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki (£3,160) 

2009            

CEELBAS / ESRC +3 Studentship for PhD studies (£50,000)

2002             

Studentship for Master’s Degree from the Department of International Politics at the University of Wales Aberystwyth (£4,000)

German Embassy Prize for the best graduation dissertation in German at Aston University

European Studies final year departmental prize from Aston University

2000           

 DAAD scholarship for a German language course in Germany (€1,000)

 Scholarship for Liberal Arts summer university at ECLA in Berlin (€3,000)

 

Dr Hudson is part of the BISA Russia and Eurasian Security Group WG (co-convenor 2022-)