Interview with Elena Iarskaia-Smirnova

Abstract

Elena Iarskaia-Smirnova, also referred to as Elena Rostislavovna" throughout this interview, was born in 1963, holds a Masters in Social Work and is a Doctor of Sociology. She is a Professor in the Department of Sociology at the National Research University Higher School of Economics in Moscow, Russia. She is also Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Social Policy Studies and Leading Research Fellow at the Institute of Social Policy at the same university. She was previously Chair of the Department of Sociology, Social Anthropology, and Social Work at Saratov State Technical University and advisor and co-founder of the non-governmental research organization Center for Social Policy and Gender Studies. Her research interests include social policy, sociology of professions, gender and disability, family and children, as well as visual and qualitative research methods. She teaches courses on the sociology of the public sphere, visual anthropology, qualitative research methods, social policy, gender studies, and social work. Her main publications in Russian include: Socio Cultural Analysis of Otherness (Saratov 1997), Social Citizenship of People with Disabilities in Russia (co-authored with Pavel Romanov, Saratov 2005), and in English: Gender and Class in Russian Welfare Policy: Soviet Legacies and Contemporary Challenges (Goteborg University 2011), Disability in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union: History, policy and everyday life (co-edited with Michael Rasell, Routledge 2014).