Research areas
My research looks at the interaction between urban space and local identity in Moldova and Russia, the legacies of centralised urban planning and the marketisation of the post-socialist city. I am also interested in interdisciplinarity and the use of alternative methodological approaches to the study and critique of history, culture and society.
I am currently a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the School of Modern Languages. My project explores the construction of national and civic identities in the Republic of Moldova following its independence from the Soviet Union, examining how authorities have used architecture and urban planning to express notions of Moldovan nationhood and how citizens have responded to these efforts. By exploring the processes through which Moldova’s urban landscapes have acquired identities and material forms, this study will reveal the complex overlapping cultural geographies that shape contemporary political and social imaginings of Moldovan identity.
Selected publications
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Open access
“Grey is all that is depressing and dull”: the chromatic landscapes of rooftop exploration in St Petersburg and the “grey spaces” of leisure in the Capitalocene.
Karas, A., 21 Mar 2025, In: Leisure studies. 44, 5, p. 812-825Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Post-Soviet graffiti: free speech in authoritarian states
Karas, A., 25 Nov 2025, (E-pub ahead of print) In: City & Society. Early View, e70021.Research output: Contribution to journal › Book/Film/Article review
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Open access
Rooftop exploration and the creation of alternative spaces in St. Petersburg
Karas, A., 21 May 2024, In: Problems of Post-Communism. Latest ArticlesResearch output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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‘Anthropology of transformation: from Europe to Asia and back’
Karas, A., 7 Dec 2023, In: Europe-Asia Studies. 75, 10, p. 1798-1799Research output: Contribution to journal › Book/Film/Article review
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"Hanging out" with the boys: the female participant observer in a male-dominated group
Karas, A., 9 Dec 2022, Researching in the former Soviet Union: stories from the field. Dall'Agnola, J., Edwards, A. & Howlett, M. (eds.). Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, p. 73-90 (BASEES/Routledge series on Russian and East European studies; vol. 150).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
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Mansardization: attic space, urban development and the politics of preservation in St Petersburg
Karas, A., 1 Jan 2022, In: Slavonic and East European Review. 100, 1, p. 127-156Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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'LGBTQ+ activism in Central and Eastern Europe: resistance, representation and identity'
Karas, A., 22 Mar 2021, In: Europe-Asia Studies. 73, 3, p. 590-592Research output: Contribution to journal › Book/Film/Article review