Olga Sezneva

University of Amsterdam

Olga Sezneva: I am an urban and cultural sociologist working at the University of Amsterdam. I also have strong interest in artistic research, as well as in education. The research themes I am engaged with are migration and urban development, cultures of sharing, language and epistemology, and critical pedagogy. My research concentrates mainly in Russia, East/Central Europe, and most recently, Namibia.

After I studied sociology (Ph.D.) at New York University (USA), I was a Harper-Schmidt Fellow of the Society of Fellows at the University of Chicago. Most recently, I was a Visiting Professor for Urban Studies at the European University at St. Petersburg (Russia), where I contributed to the establishment of STS Center. I am a co-founder and a co-director of a transdisciplinary post-graduate program in social design and architecture Building The City Now! (BCNow!), accredited by Polytechnic Foundation of Catalonia. In addition to producing academic texts, I reflect on my topics of interest in my artistic work by wiring fiction and performing with the international artist collective Moving Matters Travelling Workshop.