Ksenia Butuzova is a cultural historian and a DPhil candidate. Her doctoral dissertation, 'Rebuses in Russian Culture: From Spiritualism to Socialism', explores the relations between popular and visual culture and ideology, focusing on the political and social history of late Imperial Russia and the Early Soviet Union. She researches picture riddles, delving into the history of ideology and propaganda, print history, nationalism, as well as the history of domesticity and entertainment. Ksenia's work also encompasses the broader history of taste, private experiences, and gender studies.
Ksenia holds a BA in Philology (St Petersburg State University, 2014), an MA in History of Russian Literature (St Petersburg State University, 2016), and an MA in History of Art (European University at St Petersburg, 2020).
Ksenia is a member of the Royal Historical Society, The Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies, and the British Association for Slavonic & East European Studies.
Selected Teaching
Hillary, 2023 — The Study and Memory of the History of Tsarist Russia
Selected publications
Butuzova K. Rebuses in the visual culture of Russian spiritualism // NLO magazine. 182. 2023, pp. 152-169.
2023 — Editor of History of Russian Spiritualism series of articles in NLO magazine
Selected academic events and lectures
2023 — co-organiser of the Decolonising Soviet Studies Research Network
2023 — co-convener of the Oxford Long Nineteenth Century research seminar
2023 — presentation Revolutionary Enlightenment: The Didactics and Ideology of Soviet Rebuses at the Conference of the Study Group on the Russian Revolution at the University of Southampton
2022 — presentation of Soviet Rebuses as an Enlightenment Tool at the ASEEES annual convention
2022 — co-organiser and chair of the Ideology, propaganda and visual imagery didactics in the Soviet public discourse of the1920 —1930s panel at the ASEEES annual convention
2022 — public talk The origins of Russian rebuses at the Oxford Long Nineteenth Century research seminar
2022 — co-organiser of an Ezoterism and Russian literature international conference at the European University at St Petersburg
2020–2021 – curator of open research seminars project Spiritism and Russian culture at the European University at St Petersburg
2020 – public talk Spiritualist Rebuses as an Instrument of Enlightenment at the Seminar «Magic, Astrology, and Science in Russian Modernism the Higher School of Economics
Supervisor: Professor Julia Mannherz