Mikhail Sokolov
Position title: Professor of Practice in Russian Studies, Department of Sociology
Email: msokolov@wisc.edu
Research areas: microsociological theory, sociology of culture, history of sociology, social stratification, sociology of science and higher education
Mikhail Sokolov joined the Center for Russia, East Europe, and Central Asia, as well as the Department of Sociology, in 2023. Prior to this, he held a professorial position at the European University at Saint Petersburg, Russia, where he also served as an academic director of the Center for institutional analysis of science and education. In 2003, Sokolov defended his PhD (kandidatskaya) dissertation at Saint Petersburg University, which was based on an ethnographic study of two Russian radical nationalist groups. Since then, he has carried out empirical research on various topics, including history and sociology of social sciences, consumption and artistic tastes, organizational analysis of higher education institutions, scientometrics, science policy analysis, and comparative social stratification. His current theoretical work develops Erving Goffman’s ideas on face, fatefulness, and expression games in light of recent research in epistemic game theory and pragmatics.