King’s Russia Institute expands with new staff

King's Russia Institute expands with three new research staff The King's Russia Institute is delighted to announce the appointment of three new senior lecturer Dr Marc Berenson, Dr Gulnaz Sharafutdinova and Dr Adnan Vatansever have joined the Institute, which in September 2013 will welcome its first students into the MSc Russian Politics & Society and PhD Russian & Eurasian Studies programmes. Dr Sam Greene, Director of the Russia Institute, said: 'The team we have been able to assemble here at the Russia Institute is extremely exciting. These are some of the best young scholars in the field, and I'm thrilled that we will be able to bring new, innovative voices to London. With our masters and research students arriving in September, and our colleagues in other departments around King's, we are rapidly becoming one of the leading places to study contemporary Russia.' Dr Marc Berenson has previously worked at the Institute for Development Studies at the University of Sussex in Brighton, where he has been a research fellow on the governance team since 2007. After receiving his BA from Harvard University, he founded and directed from 1996 to 1998 the Law in Action program for Freedom House in Kiev, Ukraine, before obtaining his PhD in political science from Princeton University in 2006. Dr Berenson will teach courses on Russia and economic growth and state, as well as on society and social policy in Russia, and he will be available to supervise research students in the areas of governance, state-building and state-society relations.