Elena Adasheva is a PhD candidate in Sociocultural Anthropology at Yale University. Her doctoral research explores human-environment relations and urban infrastructure in the Russian Arctic. Elena’s interests also include Arctic science diplomacy and governance. Her work is supported by the National Science Foundation and the American Councils for International Education. Elena was a delegate at the Model Northern Forum in Yakutsk. She received the Summer Institute in Museum Anthropology Fellowship from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. and the Eva Kastan Grove Fellowship from the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute in New York. Elena holds an MPhil in Sociocultural Anthropology from Yale University and a B.A. in Anthropology and Studio Art from Hunter College of the City University of New York where she was a Ronald E. McNair Scholar. Elena is committed to fostering intercultural communication and promoting collaborations between international actors in the Arctic. 

Research Interests: interdisciplinary studies of light and dark; urban infrastructure; electricity and energy; governance; science diplomacy; environmental anthropology; historical anthropology; social theory; Arctic and Polar studies; Indigenous studies; anthropology of museums; visual anthropology

Regional Interests: the Arctic, Northern Russia, Siberia 

Elena is a founder of the Polar Research and Education Library (PREL), a special library focusing on social sciences and humanities of the Polar regions.