Rusana Novikova

Rusana Novikova is a sociocultural anthropologist, documentarian, and podcaster based at the University of Michigan. Her research examines land, infrastructure, abandonment, and recolonization in Russia’s Far East, with a particular focus on the Hectare program. This research grew out of her fascination with the Far Eastern countryside that has been going through a dramatic change following the collapse of the Soviet Union, widespread industry closures, and massive outmigration.

When she's not writing or wandering into the weeds, she likes to interview fellow travelers for the Eurasian Knot. In 2023, she released Ainu Fever (https://www.euraknot.org/ainu-fever/), an audio documentary that grew out of her fieldwork and explores conservation, land rights, and the layered colonial history of Sakhalin Island by following a complicated friendship between a Russian environmentalist and an Ainu community leader.