Xenia Cherkaev

Xenia Cherkaev serves as a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Anthropology of Economic Experimentation at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle, Germany, where she investigates the intersection of legal ethics, economic systems, and human-animal relationships with primary focus on Russian contexts.

Her academic foundation includes a PhD in Anthropology from Columbia University, complemented by teaching experience at the Higher School of Economics (St. Petersburg) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Cherkaev's research centers on Economic Anthropology through critical examinations of Socialism, Property regimes, and Liberalism, with innovative work on Animals in Society as legal subjects. Her theoretical contributions span Intellectual History and Anthropological Theory, particularly analyzing how ethically righteous yet questionably legal actions reshape formal legal systems.

Her distinguished recognition includes:

• Wenner-Gren Foundation Fellowship for anthropological research
• Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies fellowship
• Award from the Society for Humanistic Anthropology

Cherkaev has secured significant research funding from the Wenner-Gren Foundation and authored the critically acclaimed monograph Gleaning for Communism: the Soviet Socialist Household Economy in Theory and Practice (Cornell University Press, 2023), alongside publications in top journals including The American Historical Review, Slavic Review, and Environmental Humanities.