Aleksandra Kolesnik

Aleksandra Kolesnik is a cultural historian at Bielefeld University, specializing in the history of popular culture, musical heritage in Europe, and the post-Soviet space. She is affiliated with the Department of History under the Faculty of History, Philosophy and Theology.

• Doctorate in Modern European History (Ural Federal University, 2017)
• Master's in Modern European History (Higher School of Economics, 2013)
• Diploma in Russian History (Russian State University for the Humanities, 2010)

Her research focuses on heritage activism in Russia, the preservation of Soviet rock music legacy, and the sociopolitical use of historical memory in contemporary Russia. She contributes to the EU-funded LexiECO project as a content coordinator and editor since 2025.

Kolesnik co-organizes the Critical Studies of Heritage in the Post-Soviet Space seminar with Sorbonne and Bielefeld University and teaches public history at Bielefeld University, Free University (Brīvā Universitāte), and Off University. Her forthcoming book is titled Rock, Memory, and Conflicts: The Heritagization of Soviet Rock Music in the Post-Soviet Space.