With the beginning of the academic summer term 2026, Prof. Dr. Sören URBANSKY joined the Research Training Group GRK 2833 “East Asian Futures” as a Participating Researcher. Prof. URBANSKY holds the Chair of Eastern European History at the Faculty of History of Ruhr University Bochum, specialising in the history of Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union since the 19th century, Sino-Russian relations, the history of Siberia and Manchuria, as well as the history of empires, borders, infrastructures, migration, and racism. After obtaining his Ph.D. at the University of Konstanz, he has worked at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich, the German Historical Institute in Washington and the University of Cambridge before taking on his current position in 2023. His published monographs include several works on Sino-Russion relations, the latest being his 2025 book China und Russland. Kurze Geschichte einer langen Beziehung (engl. title Entangled Empires. Four Centuries of China-Russia Relations).

The Research Training Group welcomes Prof. URBANSKY as Participating Researcher and hopes for a fruitful cooperation in the group’s upcoming activities. For further information on Prof. URBANSKY, please visit his profile page on the Faculty of History’s website.