DR. VASIL NAVUMAU
In July, 2014 I have received PhD in Sociology at the Graduate School for Social Research at Polish Academy of Sciences and currently specialize in social activism in Eastern European countries (Ukraine and Belarus in particular), with an emphasis on transformation of regional collective actions amid the all-round influence of contemporary ICTs and new trends in transnational activism.
The findings of the PhD thesis were published in two peer-reviewed journals – Crossroads Quarterly (2012) and Polish Sociological Review (2014) Within the postdoctoral fellowship at the Uppsala Centre for Russian and Eurasian Studies I completed monography “The Belarusian Maidan: A New Social Movement Approach to the Tent Camp Protest in Minsk, 2006”, devoted to the history of Belarusian social activism (1990-2006) and so-called Belarusian Maidan protest movement, in particular. In the book I analyzed the communication processes between the members of the movement in Internet using radical democracy theory and Deleuzian conceptual instruments.
I am also a founder of the Belarusian civic initiative "RADAR_BY (Research and Action for a Democratic Accountable and Resilient Belarus)", which is devoted to discussion and popularization of ideas in the sphere of civic tech, e-democracy, and enhancement of capacities of civil society in Belarus via the usage of digital instruments. That said, my research interests focus on the ways new ICTs influence the transformation of repertoire, scope and ideology of social movements in Eastern Europe and the ways they can contribute to the formation of more transparent, participative and inclusive government.