About the Principal Investigator

Short Introduction About Myself

My name is Dmitrii Sergeev. I am the Principal Investigator in the project ‘Evolving Attitudes toward Single Motherhood in the UK and Russia’ at the University of Cambridge.

During my 20 year research career, I have primarily focused on cultural meaning and its dependence on social determinants and cultural variables, analysing culture-related processes of meaning-making and investigating the influence of a post-industrial society on meaning-making processes and the development of new forms of cultural texts. I investigate how cultural codes and production of cultural texts function within a particular social group that is underrepresented.

My research visit to the Laboratory for Social Anthropology of the Collège de France in 2011 under the supervision of Prof. André Bourgeot enhanced my knowledge of modern methodology applied in social studies. My interest in illustrated literature with its connection to societal and cultural development stemmed from one semester study at the University of Versailles-Saint-Quentin in 2013. I questioned the fact of the emergence of illustrated children’s literature particularly with its connection to social and historical context. This has led me to develop a theory of pragmasemantic behaviour which enriches my analytical instrumentation with new approaches: the sociology of the text and social semiotics. Later I linked the studies of illustrated texts and culturally underrepresented groups.

My findings have been disseminated in three monographs, two published by the Russian Academy of Science, as well as in papers in internationally peer-reviewed journals, such as Russian Studies in Philosophy, Universe of Russia, Sociological Studies. My paper in the Q2 Sociological Studies Journal, where I discussed the pragmasemantic theory through the emergence of children’s picturebooks, was recognized as the best publication of 2016 in the “New Approach in Social Analysis” nomination category.

I have gained experience in the conduct of long-term research topics as a member of two research teams and I have headed projects financially supported by grants from the Federal Government of the Russian Federation. In 2018 I worked on the development of syllabus of the “History of Children’s Picturebooks in the United States” in the Fulbright Faculty Development Program at Illinois State University.

Qualifications

• Doctorate of Philosophical Science, Transbaikal State University, Russia
• Candidate of Science in Cultural Studies (PhD), Transbaikal State Pedagogical University, Russia
• Specialist (diploma with honours), Teacher of French and English, Transbaikal State Pedagogical University, Russia

 Employment

• Dean, Faculty of Culture and Arts, Transbaikal State University, September 2009 – October 2021
• Chair, Department of Theory and History of Culture, Transbaikal State Pedagogical University, September 2006 – February 2009
• Lecturer, Department of French / Department of Philosophy, Transbaikal State Pedagogical University, September 2002 – August 2006

Fellowship

• ‘Evolving Attitudes toward Single Motherhood in the UK and Russia’, Principal Investigator, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship, Horizon – 2020. European Commission, University of Cambridge, UK.
• ‘History of Children’s Picturebooks in the United States’, Principal Investigator, Fellowship, Fulbright Faculty Development Program, 2018-2019, Illinois State University, USA.
• ‘Fundamental Problems of Social Knowledge: Cultural Meanings in Ecological Texts’, Chair of the Research Team, 2014-2016, Grant of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, Transbaikal State University.
• ‘Ontology of Contemporary Cultural Languages in the Post-Industrial Society’, Chair of the Research Team, 2012-2014, Grant of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, Transbaikal State University.
• ‘Quality of Life as Premises for Social Security Policy’ Member of the Research Team, 2011-2013, Grant of the Federal Government of the Russian Federation, Transbaikal State Pedagogical University / Transbaikal State University.
• ‘Art Object as Cultural Code: Archaic and Renewed Forms’, Member of the Research Team, 2012-2013, Grant of the Federal Government of the Russian Federation, Transbaikal State Pedagogical University.
• ‘Crisis of the Contemporary Russian Culture: Strategies of its Overcoming’, Chair of the Research Team, 2009-2011, Grant of the Federal Government of the Russian Federation, Transbaikal State Pedagogical University.

Publication

1.  Dynamics of single mothers’ semantic strategies in Anglophone non-fiction. Open Res Europe 2023, 3:79 (https://doi.org/10.12688/openreseurope.15729.1)
2. Latina American and Caribbean Single Mothers in Anglophone Children’s Picturebooks. Children’s Literature in Education. Under review.
3. Diversity and Dynamics of Single Mothers in Contemporary Children’s Picturebooks. Barnboken. In preparation for publication October 2023.
4. Single Motherhood in Post-war Soviet Russia: Cultural Code and its Literary Implication. Slavonica. 2022, 27 (2), p. 100-113.
5. Sociology of Contemporary Picturebook: Single Motherhood by Choice and its Influence on Children’s Literature. Children’s Readings: Studies in Children’s Literature. 2022, 22 (2), pp. 174-195.
6. Sociologization of Human Studies: Searching for Children’s Picturebook Definition. Sociological Studies. 2020, No 2, pp. 96-104.
7. What Are We Reading? Toward A Definition of the Children’s Picturebook. Children’s Readings: Studies in Children’s Literature. 2019, 15 (1), pp. 400-415.