معرفی
Danila Rygovskiy is a Research Fellow in Ethnology at the University of Tartu, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Institute of Cultural Research, holding a fractional appointment (0.40) from November 2024 to July 2025. He earned his Doctor's Degree in 2023 from the same institution with a dissertation on women in Russian Old Belief, focusing on Siberian and Estonian communities. He has held prior research roles at the University of Tartu, including Junior Research Fellow in Folkloristics, and was a Visiting Assistant in Research at Yale University in 2018. Additionally, he serves as Head of Collections at TYPA printing and paper art centre since September 2023.
- Doctor's Degree, University of Tartu, 2023
- M.A., European University at Saint Petersburg, 2019
- B.A., Novosibirsk State University, 2013
His research centers on ethnology and folkloristics, particularly the religious practices, gender roles, ritual purity, and social structures within Old Believer communities in Siberia and Estonia. He explores how tradition is maintained, how gender contracts shape community life, and how religious experience is intertwined with material culture and technology. His work bridges anthropology, religious studies, and cultural heritage.
His recent publications (2023–2025) show a dual focus: first, on Old Believer communities, examining gender, tradition, dining practices, and religious agency; and second, on Estonian printing heritage, particularly the revival of hot metal typesetting (linotype and monotype), reflecting his curatorial role at TYPA. This indicates a growing interdisciplinary trajectory connecting material religious culture with material printing culture.
His scientific contributions are reflected in numerous peer-reviewed articles and book chapters published in journals such as Material Religion, Keel ja Kirjandus, and Antropologicheskij Forum, as well as in conference proceedings and edited volumes from Routledge and other academic publishers.
Danila Rygovskiy has supervised at least one master’s thesis, Food Prohibition Narratives of Old Believers in Lithuania by Ilia Magin (2022). He is the principal investigator of the ongoing project "Artistic rediscovery of the hot metal typesetting" (2024–2025), funded by the Estonian Ministry of Culture with 45,000 EUR, demonstrating his ability to secure research funding. He was also part of the large-scale project "Vernacular Interpretations of the Incomprehensible" led by Ülo Valk, funded by the Estonian Research Council.
He is actively involved in curatorial and cultural heritage work as Head of Collections at TYPA, and has served as a museum guide at the University of Tartu Museum, indicating a strong commitment to public engagement and the preservation of material cultural heritage, particularly in the domain of printing and paper art.
