en

Dr. Elena Smolarz

Postdoctoral Researcher

Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies
Room 0.200
Heussallee 18–24
D-53113 Bonn
Phone: +49 228 73 62447
esmolarz@uni-bonn.de

Member of
Elena Smolarz.jpg
© Barbara Frommann

Academic Profile

As a research associate of competence network "Crossroads Asia", Elena conducted research on coerced mobility and slave trade practices in Central Asia in the 18th and 19th centuries. Her main areas of interest include transformation of autochthonous societies in borderland regions under Russian imperial rule, translocal slave trade networks, ransoming processes as well as studies on spatial and social mobility.

2017–2018
EU-Fundraiser, EMCRA (Berlin)

2008–2014
Doctoral Studies at the Bonn International Graduate Schools – Oriental and Asian Studies (BIGS-OAS) in Islamic Studies, University of Bonn, Germany

1997–2004
M.A. Studies in Islamic Studies, Eastern European History and Comparative Studies of Religion, University of Bonn, Germany

2018–present
Research Associate and University Lecturer, Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies, University of Bonn, Germany

2012–2016
Principal Investigator, Center for Development Studies, University of Bonn, Germany

2005–2010
Research Associate, Institute for Oriental and Asian Studies, University of Bonn, Germany

2019–present
Affiliated Member of the Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies

2013–present
Member of the European Society for Central Asian Studies

2012–2016
Member of the competence network "Crossroads Asia" founded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research

  • External Evaluator for Erasmus+ and H2020 Projects
  • External Reviewer for Brill Publishing House
  • External Reviewer for the Konrad Adenauer Foundation

2008–2011
Doctoral Scholarship of Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation

1997–2002
Scholarship of German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)

2012–2016
Individual research project connected to the competence network "Crossroads Asia" founded by the German Federal Ministry of Education – approximately € 240,000

  • (in Publication) (with Hans-Heinrich Nolte) “Slavery and Serfdom in Moscovy and the Russian Empire”, in: The Palgrave Handbook of Global Slavery, ed. by Damian Pargas and Juliane Schiel, London: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • 2021. “Captifs des nomads de la steppe. Asie centrale, XVIII-XIX siècles”, in: Les Mondes de l’esclavage. Une histoire comparée, ed. by Pauline Ismard, Cécile Vidal and Benedetta Rossi, Paris: Seuil, p. 281-287.
  • 2020. “Saving Lost Souls or Doing Good Business? Interactions at the Russian-Kazakh Frontier and Strategies for Freeing Russian Slaves in Central Asia in the Early 19th Century” in: Diyar. Zeitschrift für Osmanistik, Türkei- und Nahostforschung, 1, No. 1, p. 34-57.
  • 2020. "Unglückselige russische Sklaven“? Opfernarrative im Kontext der Versklavung russischer Untertanen in Buchara und Chiwa in der ersten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts” [“‘Hapless Russian Slaves’? Victim Narratives in the Context of Enslavement of Russian Subjects in Bukhara and Khiwa in the First Half of the 19th Century”], in: Opfer. Dynamiken der Viktimisierung vom 17. Jahrhundert bis zum 21. Jahrhundert, ed. by. Isabella von Treskow and Harriet Rudolph, Heidelberg: Winter, p. 225-243.
  • Saving Lost Souls or Doing Good Business? Interactions at the Russian-Kazakh Frontier and Strategies for Freeing Russian Slaves in Central Asia in the Early 19th Century in Diyar. In Transcultural Studies (forthcoming)
  • 2017. Speaking about Freedom and Dependency: Representations and Experiences of Russian Enslaved Captives in Central Asia in the First Half of the 19th Century. In Journal of Global Slavery 2/1–2, 44–71.
  • 2016. Imperski vzgliad na mobil'nost' i formi social'nogo vzaimodeistviia v pogranichnom regione Orenburshia v nachale XIX veka. [Imperial Perspective on Mobility and Forms of Social Interactions in Orenburg Borderland at the Beginning of the 19th Century]. In Vosmie Bolshakovskie chteniia: Orenburgski krai kak istoriko-kul'turni fenomen. Orenburg, 94–97.
  • 2016. Institutionsbildung im Islam unter russisch-imperialem Einfluss am Beispiel der Orenburger Geistlichen Versammlung des Mohammedanischen Gesetzes 1788–1860. [Institutionalization in Islam under Russian Imperial Influence: The Orenburg Muslim Spiritual Assembly in 1788–1860]. (=Bonner Islamstudien 34). Berlin.
  • 2015. With S. Conermann (eds.): Mobilizing Religion: Networks and Mobility. (=Bonner Asienstudien 12). Berlin.
  • 2015. Introduction. In Mobilizing Religion: Networks and Mobility, edited by S. Conermann, E. Smolarz (=Bonner Asienstudien 12). Berlin, 7–19.
  • 2014. Unterwegs wider Willen: Mobilität in den Schilderungen russischer Sklaven im Buchara des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts. [On the Move against Their Will: Mobility in the Representations of Russian Slaves in the 18th and 19th Century-Bukhara]. In Internationales Asienforum 45/1–2, 85–111.
  • 2009. Ahmad Donis: Navodir ul-vaqoje. In Kindlers Literatur Lexikon, 3., vollständig neu bearbeitete Auflage. Munich.
  • 2009. Ahmad Donis: Risola. In Kindlers Literatur Lexikon, 3., vollständig neu bearbeitete Auflage, Munich.