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Attention: registration is mandatory! To register, please use the form at the end of the page.
Online Event via Zoom
Date: 12 December 2025, 15:00–17:00 CET
The OVD-Info Prize is an annual international award for the best Master’s and PhD research on political repression, surveillance and censorship in contemporary Russia. Launched in 2024 by the Russian human rights project OVD-Info together with EHESS-CNRS, Sciences Po-CERI and Paris Nanterre University, it supports young scholars in production of master theses and PhD dissertations on these subjects.
Eligible research may come from disciplines such as sociology, political science, law, anthropology, information and communication studies, geography, or any other closely related field, using qualitative and/or quantitative methods.
In 2025, we received 53 applications from students at 44 institutions across 18 countries, including the USA, Montenegro, France, Russia, Ukraine, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Germany, Czechia, Lithuania, South Korea, Ireland, Canada, Finland, Italy, and the UK.
Of these, 26 works were shortlisted. In the final round, the jury selected 5 winners: 4 PhD projects and 1 master’s research project.
At this public event, two of 2025 winners will present their research.
Katyusha Behind Bars: A Dispositive Analysis of Commemoration in Russian Prisons
About the author: Ryan Reed is a doctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki in the Political, Societal, and Regional Changes programme. His doctoral thesis investigates how the contemporary Russian Prison Services (FSIN) contend with legacies of the past including the Stalinist and Post-Stalinist Gulag systems.
Homophobic Legislative Politics in Russia and Its Consequences: Systematic and Widespread Discrimination and Violence against LGBTQ People
About the author: Sergey Katsuba is a socio-legal scholar and PhD candidate at UCD Sutherland School of Law, studying LGBTQ rights and institutionalised discrimination in authoritarian regimes. His doctoral research investigates how political homophobia in Russia is embedded through legal, political, and societal mechanisms—examining how laws targeting LGBTQ communities reinforce authoritarian rule and enable violence.
The presentations will be followed by an open discussion on the role of academic research in documenting and countering state repression, the future of the Prize, and new submission cycles.
The event is aimed at researchers, journalists, human rights defenders and anyone interested in the study of political repression in Russia.
More about the Prize and past winners: https://ovd.info/en/competition
Registration
Zoom link will be sent shortly before the event.
For security reasons, the organisers reserve the right to withdraw any registration without explanation.
Deadline for registration: 10 December 2025.