Dr Anastasiia Akulich

Profile

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. 

• 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

My research interests lie at the intersection of Chinese and Russian history with a particular emphasis on intercultural interactions, religious practice and identity formation. I am currently interested in exploring Russophone emigration in 1920s-1940s China. 

<h4>Research projects</h4> <p>Any research projects I'm currently working on will be listed below. Our list of all <a href="https://ahc.leeds.ac.uk/dir/research-projects">research projects</a> allows you to view and search the full list of projects in the faculty.</p>

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

Student education

In 2023-2024 Academic Leader, I am the module leader for Korean War, Mao Zedong and Modern China and The Rise of Modern Japan. I deliver some of the teaching on Skills and Concepts in Modern History and Consensus and Contention. I supervise Level Three Final Year Projects and Level Two Long Essays. 

Research groups and institutes

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