Alexia Bloch

Research Interests

Alexia Bloch's research focuses around dynamics of power, historical consciousness, and the anthropology of gender. Her current research concerns emerging capitalism and the transformation of gender relations, with an ethnographic focus on women migrants moving between centres of global capital and areas of the former Soviet Union. Dr. Bloch's previous research resulted in two major projects: the role of residential schooling in the transformation of indigenous Siberian communities (1992-1998); and the ethnography of Siberian museums (1998-2000). Through her teaching and research she strives to make anthropology a meaningful way of examining cultural processes and questioning social inequalities.

Current Research Projects

"From Istanbul to the Arctic: Post-Soviet Women Migrants and Shifting Concepts of Gender and Class." Supported by a Social Science and Humanities Research Council grant, 2002-2005.

Selected Publications

  • Bloch, Alexia. 2005. Longing for the Kollektiv: Gender, Power, and Residential Schools in Central Siberia. Cultural Anthropology. 20(4):534-569.
  • Bloch, Alexia and Laurel Kendall. 2004. The Museum at the End of the World: Encounters in the Russian Far East, University of Pennsylvania Press.
  • Bloch, Alexia. 2003. Red Ties and Residential Schools: Indigenous Siberians in a Post-Soviet State. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
  • Bloch, Alexia. 2003. Victims of Trafficking or Entrepreneurial Women? Narratives of Post-Soviet Entertainers in Turkey. Canadian Woman Studies. 22(3-4):152-158.
  • Bloch, Alexia and Laurel Kendall. 2003. "The Work of Culture in Uncertain Times: Conversations in the Russian Far East." Museum Anthropology. 26(1):61-77.
  • "Cruise Ships and Prison Camps: Reflections from the Russian Far East on Museums and the Crafting of History." Pacific Science. 2001. 55(4): 377-388.
  • "Authenticating Tradition: Material Culture, Youth, and Belonging in Central Siberia." Museum Anthropology. 2000. 23(3): 42-57.
 Web Editor Login