Svetlana Kharchenkova is Assistant Professor at the Leiden University Institute for Area Studies.

More information about Svetlana Kharchenkova

Research

Svetlana Kharchenkova’s research is at the intersection of cultural, economic sociology and contemporary China. She is the principal investigator of the project “Foreign Books in China, Cultural Control and Technology” funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO). It focuses on the book publishing industry in contemporary China. To understand how foreign books become available in China, it studies everyday practices and perceptions of editors who select and prepare foreign books for publication. Paying special attention to state control, this project investigates the fate of foreign books in contemporary China.

Another line of research concerns the development of the market for contemporary art in China. The project approaches the art market from the perspectives of cultural and economic sociology and relies on ethnographic and archival data collected primarily in Beijing. It studies market development from a global perspective, and focuses on various aspects of market emergence, such as institution-building and valuation.

Teaching activities and supervision

Courses taught:
• Sociology and anthropology of modern China (BA)
• Contemporary Chinese society and globalization (BA)
• Culture: East Asia (BA)
• Research methods: art and society (BA)
• Thesis seminar (BA)
• Introduction to Asian studies (MA)
• Creativity and culture in contemporary China (MA and ResMA)
• Thesis seminar (MA and ResMA)
• Methodologies in the social sciences and humanities (ResMA and PhD)

Supervision:
I supervise BA, MA, ResMA and PhD theses on topics at the intersection of sociology and contemporary China. For MA, ResMA and PhD supervision I am particularly interested in cultural sociology approaches to China. Projects on various art worlds and markets, including book publishing, that focus on valuation, censorship, and cultural globalization are especially welcome.

Education

2017: PhD in Sociology. Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR), University of Amsterdam
2011: Research MA in Area Studies, specialization Chinese Studies (cum laude). Leiden University (minor in Dutch Studies)
2006: Specialist (Russian five-year degree) in Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, specialization Mandarin Chinese. Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow
2005: One-year exchange program (2004-2005) in Chinese language and culture, advanced level. Peking University, International College for Chinese Language Studies, Beijing 

Grants and awards

(selection)

2022-2025: VENI grant of the Dutch Research Council (NWO)
2019-2020: A ten-month full-time research fellowship at the International Institute for Asian Studies (the Netherlands). [declined]
2018-2019: Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Research Grant, administered by the Asia Art Archive (Hong Kong and New York).
2017: Best PhD paper Research Award, European Sociological Association, the Sociology of the Arts Research Network.

Publications