Dr Anastasiia Akulich

Profile

I am a historian interested in transnational and transcultural transfers of knowledge in the Eurasian region, especially in relation to Russia’s interactions with China.

I received my BA (2017) and MA (2018) from Durham University History Department before moving to the University of Manchester for my PhD (2018-2022). My PhD thesis, supervised by Professor Zheng Yangwen and Dr Rachel Platonov, re-examined the understudied Russian Orthodox Mission in China with a particular focus on religious practice and Chinese Orthodox clergy. During this time I contributed to John Rylands Library’s ‘Qing: China’s Multilingual Empire’ Exhibition (2021-2022) and wrote several blog posts on Chinese and Manchu-language Bibles held in the Rylands collections.

Since completing my PhD, I have taught at the University of Manchester (2022-2023) before joining the University of Leeds in August 2023. In 2025, I began my second research project on transnational interactions in polio vaccine development, testing and implementation of vaccination campaigns.

• Article: “From Russia to China and Back: The Shifting Geographies of Russian Orthodox Translations into Chinese and the Changing Role of Chinese Translators,” Itinerario (accepted for publication)

• Preface: “Soldiers, Railroads and Merchants: Sino-Russian Frontier in the Early Twentieth Century,” in Zwischen zwei Stuhlen: Erinnerungen des deutschbalrischen Militaringenieurs Peter Unterberger (1881-1960) an seine Jugend und Karriere im Russlandischen Reich, ed. by Heidi Kein-Kircher and Vera Volkmann (Verlag Herder Institute, 2026), pp. 25-38

• Online Publication: “Christianity in China: Supprerssion, Resilience and Diversity,” China on Film Project by Adam Matthew Digital (April 2025).

• Book review: “On the Edge. Life along the Sino-Russian Border by Franck Bille and Caroline Humphrey, Cambridge MA & London: Harvard University Press, 2021,” Europe-Asia Studies 75, no. 9 (2023), pp. 1590-1591.

• Article: ‘‘From the Seeds Sown in the Soil’: The Boxer Uprising and the Awakening of the Russian Missionary Activity in China (1900-1917),’ Ab Imperio 4 (2022), pp. 61-88.

• Article: ‘Prazdnovaniia Lunnogo Novago goda i Paskhi v period rastsveta pravoslavnogo missionerstva c Kitae (1900-1917 gg.),’ Obshchestvo i gosudarstvo v Kitae 43 (2022), pp. 531-557.

• Blog post: “Across Boundaries: Manchu-language New Testament and International Networks that Produced It,” Rylandscollections.com (September 2022) https://rylandscollections.com/2022/09/09/across-boundaries-how-international-networks-shaped-the-1836-manchu-translation-of-the-new-testament/

• Blog post: “Chinese Bible Translation and Printing: Qing to Republic,” Rylandscollections.com (February 2022) https://rylandscollections.com/2022/02/23/chinese-bible-translation-and-printing-qing-to-republic/

• Book review: “A Twentieth Century Crusade: The Vatican’s Battle to Remake Christian Europe by Guiliana Chamedes, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 2019,” European Review of History (May 2020), pp. 693-694.

Research interests

I am currently engaged in Professor Robert Hornsby’s The Soviet Union, the WHO and Global Health project funded by the Wellcome Trust. My section of the project focuses on the transnational engagements in testing and distribution of polio vaccines (particularly focusing on Sabin’s vaccine), development of WHO’s immunization policies and global anti-polio campaigns.

My other research interests include the intersection of Chinese and Russian history with a particular emphasis on religious practice in intercultural ineractions.

Qualifications

• Advance HE Fellow (May 2023)
• PhD History (University of Manchester, March 2022)
• Advance HE Associate Fellow (February 2021)
• MA History (Durham University, September 2018)
• BA History (Durham University, June 2017)

Professional memberships

• BASEES
• BACS

Research groups and institutes

• Empires and Aftermath
• Politics, Diplomacy, and International History
• War Studies