Stephen Hutchings

Stephen Hutchings is a Professor of Russian Studies at the University of Manchester's Department of Russian and East European Studies. He previously held positions at the University of Surrey (1996-2006) as Professor of Cultural Studies and Russian, and at the University of Rochester, New York (1990-1996) as Associate Professor of Russian. Currently leading four major AHRC-funded research projects, his work focuses on Russian media, television, film, and literary studies. He is President of the British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies and serves on editorial boards of journals like the Russian Journal of Communication.

Research Interests: Russian cultural/media studies, post-Soviet TV/film, literary theory, disinformation dynamics, and media representation of ethnic cohesion. Recent projects include £420k AHRC-funded research on post-Soviet Russian TV representations of inter-ethnic issues (2010-2013) and a £490k study on European TV portrayals of Islam as a security threat (Russia/France/UK comparison).

Publications include Television and Culture in Putin's Russia (2009) and Russian Literary Culture in the Camera Age (2004). He supervises 8 PhD students and teaches modules on post-Soviet TV and cinema. Recent media engagements include BBC and NBC commentary on Russian disinformation tactics during the Ukraine conflict.