Dr. Aleksandra Kolesnik

I am a cultural historian specializing in the history of popular culture and musical heritage in Europe and the post-Soviet space. My primary research interests include public history, heritage studies, the history of popular music, and the sociology of culture. I hold a PhD in Contemporary European History (2017) from Ural Federal University in Ekaterinburg, an MA in Contemporary European History (2013) from the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, and a specialist degree in Russian History (2010) from the Russian State University for the Humanities in Moscow.
Since 2023, I have been a Postdoctoral Researcher at Bielefeld University and, since early 2025, the content coordinator and editor for the EU-funded project LexiECO. My current research focuses on heritage activism in Russia and the preservation of Soviet rock music heritage in the post-Soviet space. I am currently working on my first monograph, titled Rock, Memory, and Conflicts: The Heritagization of Soviet Rock Music in the Post-Soviet Space.
After leaving Russia in early 2023, I began teaching courses on public history at Bielefeld University, the Free University (Brīvā Universitāte), and Off University, with a focus on the uses and abuses of the past in contemporary Russia. Since 2024, I have been a co-organizer of the seminar Critical Studies of Heritage in the Post-Soviet Space, jointly hosted by the Sorbonne and Bielefeld University.