Laura Eras, M.A.

Doctoral project

Studies on social change in Ukraine and Russia

My cumulative dissertation sheds light on different aspects of social change in Ukraine and Russia. In particular, I am interested in the extent to which the co-existence of different social groups, social conflicts, and social structures changed since the late Soviet Union and if and how they were affected by the extreme political, economic, and social changes. In the first part of the dissertation, I study attitudes toward the Russian-speaking population in Ukraine between 1995-2018. The remaining articles focus on social stratification and the social openness of the Russian society since the late Soviet Union studying mainly marriage data.

Curriculum Vitae

Laura Eras joined the Graduate School for East and Southeast European Studies in December 2018. From October 2017 to September 2020, she was a research associate at the Chair of Societies in Eastern Europe at the Department of Sociology at LMU Munich. Since October 2020, Laura is a research associate at the Institute for East European Studies at the Free University Berlin. From September 2021 to February 2022, she was a visiting scholar at the Department of Sociology and the Center for Russia, East Europe, and Central Asia at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (funded by a DAAD scholarship). Laura holds an M.A. and a B.A. in Sociology and a B.A. in History from LMU Munich. During her M.A. program, she spent exchange terms at the Central European University in Budapest and Orenburg State University.

Publications

Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Eras, Laura. 2022. War, Identity Politics, and Attitudes toward a Linguistic Minority: Prejudice against Russian-Speaking Ukrainians in Ukraine between 1995 and 2018. Nationalities Papers. doi:10.1017/nps.2021.100

Demin, Alexander, Alexander Libman, and Laura Eras. 2019. Post-Socialist Transition, Authoritarian Consolidation and Social Origin of Political Elites: The Case of Russian Regional Governors. Eurasian Geography and Economics 60 (3): 257-83.

Shaping Eastern European Societies and Economies: Culture, Religion and Historical Legacies. Tagung der Fachgruppe Wirtschaft am 16./17. November 2018, Berlin [Conference Review]. In: DGO Rundbrief (2) 2018, p. 40-43.

Presentations

2022

"Assortative Mating on Education in Russia, 1991-2017.", Wisconsin Russia Project 2022 Young Scholars Conference, University of Wisconsin-Madison, June 2022.

"Assortative Mating on Education in Russia, 1991-2017.", Workshop on Russian and East European Politics, Free University Berlin (online), February 2022.

2021

"The Openness of Russian Society.", Workshop on Russian and East European Politics, Free University Berlin (online), February 2021.

"The Openness of Russian Society Since the Late Soviet Period. Assortative Mating on Social Origin in Russia, 1969-2011.", Virtual Young Scholars Conference 2021 of the Wisconsin Russia Project, University of Wisconsin-Madison (online), January 2021.

2020

"Has Russian Society Become Less Open? Assortative Mating on Social Origin in Russia, 1965-2018.", Workshop on Eastern European Politics and Society, LMU Munich, January 2020.

"Has the Russian Society Become Less Open? Assortative Mating on Social Origin in Russia, 1969-2011.", 28. Tagung der Jungen Osteuropa-ExpertInnnen (JOE), online, October 2020.

2019

"Prejudice against Russian-speaking Ukrainians in Ukraine, 1995-2018.", ASEEES 51st annual convention, San Francisco, November 2019.

"Has the War in Donbas Affected the Prejudice against Russian-speaking Ukrainians?", Workshop on Eastern European Politics and Society, LMU Munich, July 2019.

"Has the War in Donbas Affected the Prejudice against Russian-speaking Ukrainians?", Tagung der Jungen Osteuropa-ExpertInnnen (JOE), Ruhr University Bochum, July 2019.

"Has the War in Donbas Affected the Prejudice against Russian-speaking Ukrainians?", Summer School Ukraine (International Social Science Conference in Ukraine) “War and Society: Making and Experiencing War (and Peace) in the 19th-21st century Eastern/Central Europe and Eurasia”, Kherson, July 2019.

"The Effects of the War in Donbas on the Social Distance between Linguistic and Ethnic Groups in Ukraine." Lecture series of the Economics Department of the Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies in Regensburg, May 2019.

2018

"Does War Affect Intergroup Relations? Results from Ukraine." Poster, Workshop "Analytical Sociology", Venice International University, November 2018.

"From Workers and Peasants to Bureaucrats and Career Officers? On the Social Origin of the Russian Regional Governors.", Workshop on Eastern European Politics and Society, LMU Munich, July 2018.