Konstantinos Katsakioris

  • Principal Investigator of Primus of PRIMUS programme (project „African and Middle Eastern Elites Educated in former Socialist Countries: Studies, Trajectories, and Mindsets“, 2021-2023)

 Research Interests

  • Global History
  • Africa and Middle East
  • Sovied Union and the socialist world
  • Cold War
  • History of Education, Development and differentiated modernities

 

Academic Posts:

  • 2021 – present: Senior Researcher – PRIMUS Fellow, Institute of Global History, Faculty of Arts, Charles University
  • 2019 – 2021 (January): Postdoctoral Researcher, German Orient Institute of Beirut, Lebanon
  • 2020 (Summer Semester): Visiting Professor of African History, University of Bayreuth, Germany
  • 2017 – 2018: Postdoctoral Researcher at the Collaborative Research Center 1199 and lecturer (Dozent) at the Global and European Studies Institute, University of Leipzig
  • 2015 – 2019: Postdoctoral researcher and Lecturer (Dozent), Bayreuth Academy of Advanced African Studies and Chair of African History, University of Bayreuth
  • 2012 – 2015: Research Associate in the Project ELITAF (Elites africaines formées dans les anciens pays socialistes), Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales and Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, Paris
  • 2010 – 2011: Teaching assistant, University of Athens, Faculty of History

 

Education:

  • 2007 – 2015: Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, PhD
  • 2002 – 2003: Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, Master
  • 1999 – 2002: University of Athens, Faculty of History and Archeology, Bachelor
  • 1995 – 1999: University of Athens, Faculty of French Literature, Bachelor

 

Fellowships:

  • 2018: Institut für Ost und Sud-Osteuropa (IOS), Regensburg
  • 2017: Eastern Europe – Global Area /Leipzig Center for Area Studies
  • 2016: French-Russian Center for social sciences and humanities Moscow, Grant for research in Ukraine
  • 2015: Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, Fellowship for research in Russia
  • 2011: Potsdam Historical Institute – Fellowship
  • 2010: DAAD Fellowship, Humboldt University, Berlin
  • 2009: Centre Marc Bloch Berlin, research grant
  • 2007: French-Russian Center for social sciences and humanities Moscow, Research grant
  • 2006 – 2007: Onassis Foundation, Scholarship

 

International Conferences and Invited Lectures:

  • “Africa and the Socialist Countries through the Prism of Cultural Transfers,” conference, Intercultural Transfers – 35 Years after the First Attempts to Establish a New Paradigm, (December 12-14, 2019), University of Leipzig.
  • “The Socialist Countries, North Africa, and the Middle East: The Educational Connection,” invited talk, (November 27, 2019), Institute of Asian and African Studies, University of Pilsen.
  • “Algerian Students in the Eastern Bloc in the Cold War,” conference, Relations in the Ideoscape: Middle Eastern Students in the Eastern Bloc, (May 19-20, 2019), German Orient Institute in Lebanon, Beirut.
  • “Students from Portuguese Africa in the Soviet Union, 1960-1974,” African History Research Seminar (May 6, 2019), University of Bayreuth.
  • “Algeria and the Eastern Bloc: The Educational Connection,” workshop of the Beirut Orient Institute, Wissen und Wissensbeziehungen im ideologischen Raum: Mobilität und Migration von Studierenden aus Westasien und Nordafrika in die Staaten des Ostblocks, (November 13, 2018), Frankfurt.
  • “Educational Cooperation in the Cold War: The Socialist Countries, the Third World and the Educational Revolution,” lecture, (November 6, 2018), University of Konstanz.
  • “The Federation of African Students in the Soviet Union,” German African Studies Association Conference, (June 30, 2018), University of Leipzig.
  • “Training the Postcolonial Elites: The Socialist Countries, the Third World and the Educational Revolution,” Institut für Ost und Sud-Osteuropa (IOS), lecture, (June 26, 2018), IOS Regensburg.
  • “Nigerian Students in the Eastern Bloc from the 1950s to the Biafran War,” Nationalism, workshop in honor of Achim von Oppen, (June 20-21, 2018), University of Bayreuth.
  • “The COMECON Countries, North Africa and the Middle East: Educational Cooperation during the Cold War,” Transnational Relations between Eastern Europe/USSR and the Middle East, workshop, (February 22-23, 2018), University of Geneva.
  • “The Soviet Union and Africa: The Forgotten Chapter of Educational Aid, 1950s-1991” Saving Bruce Lee: African and Arab Cinema in the Era of Soviet Cultural Diplomacy, workshop, (January 19-21, 2018), Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin.
  • “Return from the USSR: Soviet-educated Africans, Work and Politics,” After Socialism: Forgotten Legacies, Possible Futures in Africa and Beyond, workshop, (October 13-14, 2017), Bayreuth Academy of Advanced African Studies.
  • “Black Intellectuals and the Relevance of Marxism and Leninism, 1955-1965,” workshop, Communism beyond Eurocentrism, (September 14-16, 2017), Center for Area Studies, Leipzig.
  • “The Educational Revolution: The Socialist Countries and the Third World, 1955-1991,” Eastern Europe – Global, workshop, (June 7, 2017), Geisteswissenschaftliche Zentrum Geschichte und Kultur Ostmitteleuropas,
  • “Une superpuissance éducative: L’Union soviétique et la formation des élites du tiers monde, 1955-1991,” Guest Lecture (April 28, 2017), University of Fribourg.
  • “The Patrice Lumumba Peoples’ Friendship University: Higher Education for a Soviet-Third World Alliance,” Guest Lecture (April 21, 2017), Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia, New York University.
  • “The Soviet Federal-Multinational Polity through the Prism of the Third World,” workshop, Journée d’études sur le fédéralisme soviétique (March 30, 2017), Sciences Politiques, Paris.
  • “Creating a Socialist Intelligentsia: Soviet Educational Aid to Africa in the Cold War,” workshop, Development, Solidarity and Mutual Interest (December 2-3, 2016), Zentrum für Internationale Entwiklung, University of Vienna.
  • “At Stake is the Future of the Third World: The Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow,” conference, Future Africa and Beyond (June 15-17, 2016), Bayreuth Academy of Advanced African Studies, University of Bayreuth.
  • “The ‘Soviet bloc’ and Africa: The Focus on the Educational Cooperation,” workshop “Future Africa” und “Africa Future-making” im Gespräch (June 2-3, 2016), University of Bonn.
  • “Third World Students and Internationalism in the Soviet Union,” workshop, Racism in the Land of “Peoples’ Friendship” (January 28, 2016), University of Södertörn.
  • “The Cold War of Festivals: Africans in the Soviet Union, Soviets in Dakar,” workshop, Celebrating Whose Independence? Visions of Post-Colonial Nation in Africa (January 16, 2016), Bayreuth Academy of Advanced African Studies.
  • “Étudiants africains en URSS: Décolonisation, cadres nationaux et médiation soviétique,” (December 14, 2015), EHESS, Centre d’études des mondes russe, caucasien et centre-européen, Paris.
  • “The Political Activity of African Students in the Soviet Union,” (December 3, 2015), Iwalewahaus, University of Bayreuth.
  • “Educational Aid during the Cold War,” (November 16, 2015), Weber World Café, Forum Transregionale Studien, University of Leipzig.
  • “African Travelers in the Soviet Union in the Era of Decolonization,” (October 10, 2015), Arbeitsgemeinschaft Außereuropäische Geschichte, Verband der Historiker und Historikerinnen Deutschlands, University of Bayreuth.
  • “Les diplômés des écoles soviétiques. Intégration professionnelle et associations des nouveaux cadres,” (September 4, 2015), Russian Institute of Africa, Moscow.
  • “African Intellectuals and the Communist Countries after 1945,” (July 10, 2015), 6th European Conference of African Studies, Paris.
  • “Étudiants du tiers monde à l’Est, 1960-1990. Décolonisation, cadres nationaux et médiation soviétique,” (April 27, 2015), University of Geneva.
  • “Étudiants africains et arabes en URSS et en Europe de l’Est : formations, expériences, retours,” (March 16, 2015), Institut de recherche interdisciplinaire sur les enjeux sociaux, EHESS, Paris.
  • “Intellectuels africains, communisme et transferts culturels. Le chantier complexe,” (February 5, 2015), Université Sorbonne-Paris I.
  • “La formation des cadres/quadros africains en URSS: le cas des étudiants des colonies portugaises,” (February 3, 2015), EHESS, Paris.
  • “Étudiants africains en URSS: action politique et idéologie pendant les années soixante,” conference, Étudiants africains en URSS et dans les autres pays du monde communiste (November 20-21, 2014), Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, Paris.
  • “L’Université Patrice Lumumba: Discrimination positive ou discrimination tout court ?,” conference, Élites maghrébines et subsahariennes formées en URSS/Russie et dans les pays d’Europe de l’Est (October 25-26, 2013), University of Mohammedia, Morocco.

 

Main Publications:

Special issues edited in peer-reviewed journals

  • Constantin Katsakioris and Alexander Stroh, “Africa and the Crisis of Socialism,” Canadian Journal of African Studies 55, 1 (2021).
  • “L’Union soviétique, les pays de l’Est et le Sud: Éducation, arts, et sciences,” edited and introduced by Constantin Katsakioris. Forthcoming in the Cahiers du Monde russe 62, 4 (2021).

Studies in peer-reviewed journals

Book chapters

  • “Effective Solidarity with the Postcolonial World: The Educational Assistance of the Socialist Countries in the Cold War,” in Magda Lipdka and Monika Talarczyk (eds.), Hope is of a Different Color: Students from the Global South in the Lodz Film School (Warsaw: Museum of Modern Art, 2021), forthcoming.
  • “The Leninist Solution to the National Question in Africa: A Forgotten Cultural Transfer,” in Michel Espagne and Matthias Middell (ed.), Intercultural Transfers: 35 Years after the Establishment of a Paradigm, Leipzig: Leipzig University Press, 2021, forthcoming.
  • “Study Away: Arab Students in the USSR,” in Eileen Kane, Masha Kirashirova and Margaret Litvin. (eds.), Russian-Arab Worlds: A Documentary History, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021, forthcoming.
  • “Decolonization and Education: Eastern Bloc Educational Aid to Africa in the Cold War, 1950s-1991,” Themata Istorias tis Ekpaideusis 19, 1 (2020): 16-42.
  • “Der Leninismus und die nationale Frage in Afrika: Kulturtransfer in der kolonialen und postkolonialen Welt,” in Matthias Middell (ed.), “Kommunismus jenseits des Eurozentrismus,” Jahrbuch für Historische Kommunismusforschung 14, (2019): 209-22.
  • “The Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, and Africa in the Cold War: The Educational Ties,” Collaborative Research Center 1199 “Processes of Spatialization under the Global Condition” – Leipzig University – Working Papers Series, 2019: 1-20. https://research.uni-leipzig.de/~sfb1199/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/WP16_Katsakioris-et-al_web_190419.pdf
  • “Glimmers of Hope from Moscow: Greek Female Activists, Political Prisoners, and the Committee of Soviet Women, 1960-64,” with Vaggelis Karamanolakis, Archeiotaxio 20, (2018): 227-43 (in Greek).
  • “Die Sowjetunion und Afrika: Ein vergessenes Kapitel der Entwicklungshilfe in der Bildung, 1950–1991,” in Rasha Salti and Gabrielle Chomentowski, Saving Bruce Lee: African and Arab Cinema in the Era of Soviet Cultural Diplomacy (Berlin: Haus der Kulturen der Welt, 2018), 27-33.
  • “Engagements politiques et mobilisations des étudiants africains en URSS (1960-1974),” in Françoise Blum, Pierre Guidi and Ophélie Rillon eds., Étudiants africains en mouvements. Contribution à une histoire des « années 68 », (Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 2016), 301-15.
  • “Les promotions de la décolonisation. Étudiants africains en URSS, 1960-1970,” in Monique de Saint-Martin, Grazia Scarfó-Ghellab and Kamal Mellah eds., Étudier à l’Est. Trajectoires d’étudiants africains et arabes en URSS et dans les pays d’Europe de l’Est (Paris: Karthala, 2015): 79-94.
  • “The Soviet-South Encounter: Tensions in the Friendship with the Afro-Asian Partners, 1945-1965,” in Patryk Babiracki and Kenyon Zimmer eds., Cold War Crossings: International Travel and Exchange across the Soviet Bloc, 1940s-1960s (Arlington: Texas University Press, 2014): 134-65.
  • “L’Université de l’Amitié des Peuples à Moscou : Discrimination positive ou discrimination tout court ?,” in Elites maghrébines et subsahariennes formées en URSS/Russie et dans les pays d’Europe de l’Est (Proceedings of the Conference of Mohammedia: ELITAF Research Group, 2013), http://riae.hypotheses.org/183.
  • “Sowjetische Bildungsförderung für afrikanische und asiatische Länder,” in Bernd Greiner, Tim Müller and Claudia Weber eds., Macht und Geist im Kalten Krieg (Hamburg: Hamburger Editions, 2011): 396-415.
  • “The Soviet Union and the Greek Civil War: The Archival Documents of Vyacheslav Molotov,” with Nikolas Pissis, Archeiotaxio 10, (2009): 123-35, (in Greek).
  • “Afrikanskie studenty v SSSR. Utcheba i politika vo vremia dekolonizatsii,” Ezhegodnik sotsial’noi istorii (2008): 209-28.
  • “Transgresser les frontières de la Guerre froide. Militants, intellectuels et étudiants africains en Union soviétique, 1956-1991,” Présence africaine 175-177, (2008): 85-92. https://www.cairn.info/revue-presence-africaine-2007-1-page-85.htm.