Doctor of Science in Philology, Professor at the Department of Anthropology, corresponding member of Russian Academy of Science, Vice Director, Head of the Department of the National languages of Russia, Institute for Linguistic Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences
Academic Interests
anthropological and social aspects of language and speech communication; culture and language change; culture and language contact; language and self-identification; language and ethnicity; sociolinguistic problems of Russia and the governments of the post-Soviet space; language and culture of peoples of the circumpolar region
Biography
In 1979, Professor Golovko graduated from SPbGU’s Philology Department with a specialization in English translation. From 1979 through 1984, he studied at the Leningrad branch of the Institute of Linguistics of the USSR Academy of Sciences (now Institute of Linguistic Studies, RAS), first as an intern researcher, then as a full-time graduate student. He studied the grammatical structure of the Aleut language and the language of the Naukan Eskimos. The results of the Aleutian research have been published in articles, dictionaries, and language textbooks. Professor Golovko has also participated in the collaborative authorship of several monographs from the Labratory of Typological Studies, RAS. Since the mid-1980s, his experience teaching at the Herzen Pedagogical Institute has interested him in minority languages and language policy issues. Since the early 1990s, his research interests have continued to shift towards a sociolinguistic / cultural anthropological perspective. From 1993-1997, he participated in “Traveling Between Continents: Interethnic Contacts in the Bering Strait Area,” a project whose primary focus was the social organization of interethnic relations, but also worked to record and interpret oral history. From 1998-2000, he participated in “Creole Communities in Northeastern Siberia: An Ethnographic Study of Ethnic Identity, Social Status, and Political Power,” a project whose focus was the problem of (self-)identification in Russian communities from Siberia and the Far East. Since the mid-1980s, Professor Golovko has been interested in the problem of linguistic influence, particularly the influence of other languages on Russian, as well as the peculiarities of new languages (pidgins, creoles, etc.). In recent years, his interest in cultural and linguistic change has been reflected in a project geared towards the descendants of Russian colonists currently residing in Alaska.
Courses Taught (in various years)
European University at St. Petersburg, Dept. of Anthropology: Anthropology of Ethnicity (with S. Shtyrkov), Linguistic Anthropology, New Languages, New Identities, Ethnography of Speech, Languasge and Power, Language and Culture, Siberia: Introduction to the Region (IMARES course)
St.Petersburg State University, Dept. of Philology: Sociolinguistic Methods of Research, Language and Self-identification, Ethnography of Speech, Introduction to Linguistics
Herzen State Pedagogical University, Dept. of the Peoples of the North: Eskimo Language, Aleut Language
University of Alaska Fairbanks, Anthropology Department: The Nature of Language, Language and Culture, Language Contact
Research Projects
2013-2015: "Language Change in Non-written Languages", RHF
2012-2014: "Stories about Traditional Culture in the Siberian and Far East Peoples' Languages", financed by the Presidium Program, RAS.
2010, 2012: Participation in the project “Documenting Alaskan and Neighboring Languages,” advised by M. Krauss, financed by the US National Science Foundation.
2011-2013: “Stories about Traditional Culture in Far Eastern Folk Languages,” financed by the Presidium Program, RAS.
2011: Participation in the project “Moved by the State,” advised by P. Schweitzer, financed by the US National Science Foundation.
2009-2010: Participation in the project “Documenting Alaskan and Neighboring Languages,” advised by M. Krauss, financed by the US National Science Foundation.
2009-2011: “Russian-Language Influences on the Languages of Minorities Residing in Russia,” financed by the Presidium Program, RAS.
2008-2010: “Typologically Rare and Unique Phenomena in the Languages of Russia,” financed by the RSF.
2003: “A Description of the Medny-Aleut Language,” supported by the ACLS.
1998-2000: “Merging Cultures in Northeastern Siberia: History, Ethnicity, Politics,” financed by the US National Science Foundation.
1997-1998: “A Dictionary of the Naukan Eskimo Language,” financed by the Fulbright Foundation.
1993-1997: “Traveling Between Continents: Interethnic Contacts in the Bering Strait Area,” financed by the US National Parks Service.
1994: Work on the language of the Medny-Aleut, financed by INTAS.
1991: “Indigenous Languages in Educational Institutions,” financed by the Leningrad Association of Polar Explorers and the French Academy of Sciences. Fieldwork in Chukotka, Kamchatka, and the Commander Islands on the international expedition “Scientists of the World to the Far North.”
1982, 1985, 1989: Fieldwork in the Commander Islands, financed by the USSR Academy of Sciences.
1980, 1990: Fieldwork on Eskimo languages in Chukotka, financed by the USSR Academy of Sciences.
Fieldwork
1979: Anadyr, Chukotka, studying the grammatical structure of the Eskimo language
1982 (June-July), 1985 (July-September), 1988 (May-June): Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Nikolskoe, studying the sociolinguistic situation of the grammatical structure of the Aleut and Medny-Aleut languages
1990 (June-August): Anadyr, Lavrentia, Uelen, Lorino, Chukotka, collecting lexical materials and studying the grammatical structure of the Eskimo language
1991 (April-May, August-September): Sociolinguistic research on the status of the education of the languages of the peoples of the north in the cities and towns of Chukotka, Kamchatka, and the Commander Islands on the international expedition “Scientists of the World to the Far North”
1993 (Agusut-October), 1995 (June-July): Anadyr, Lavrentia, Uelen, Lorino, Chukotka, working on the project “Traveling Between Continents: Interethnic Contacts Across the Bering Strait”
1994 (May-June), 1996 (July-August): Nome, Cape Prince of Wales, Little Diomede Island, Teller, Shishmaref, Anchorage, Fairbanks: working on the project “Traveling Between Continents: Interethnic Contacts Across the Bering Strait”
1998 (September-October), 1999 (July-August): Yakutsk, Sakha, working on the project “Creole Communities in Northeastern Siberia: An Ethnographic Study of Ethnic Identity, Social Status, and Political Power”
2008 (August-September): Kodiak City, Port Lions, Ouzinki, working on the project “Documenting Alaskan and Neighboring Languages”
2009 (August-September): Anchorage, Kenai, Ninilchik, working on the project “Documenting Alaskan and Neighboring Languages”
2010 (August-September): Anchorage, Dutch Harbor (Unalaska Island), transcribing records of the defunct dialect of Atta Island, recorded on wax cylinders in 1909
2011 (August-September): Petropavlosk-Kamchatsky, Nikolskoe, studying the social and cultural traces of the Medny-Aleut in the Bering Strait, as well as documenting the Medny-Aleut language
2012 (October): Anchorage, transcribing records of the defunct dialect of Atta Island, recorded on wax cylinders in 1909
2014 (December): Anchorage, working with Aleut language speakers, transcribing records of the defunct Aleut dialect (Attu Island).
Publications
Books:
Travelers' Tales: Remembering and Narrating Contacts across Bering Strait. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press (with P. Schweitzer) (to appear).
Язык командорских алеутов (диалект острова Беринга). СПб.: Наука, 2009. 356 с. (cовместно с Н. Б. Вахтиным и А. С. Асиновским). [The language of the Commander Aleut (a dialect of Bering Island). With N.B. Vakhtin, A.S. Asinovskiy]
Русские старожилы Сибири: социальные и символические аспекты самосознания. М.: Новое издательство, 2004. 292 с. (совместно с Н. Б. Вахтиным и П. Швайтцером). [Russian Siberian old-timers: social and symbolic aspects of self-identity. With N.B. Vakhtin, P. Schweitzer]
Социолингвистика и социология языка. Учебное пособие. СПб.: Гуманитарная академия и изд-во Европейского ун-та в Санкт-Петербурге, 2004. 335 с. (совместно с Н. Б. Вахтиным). [Sociolinguistcs and sociology of language. With N.B. Vakhtin]
Naukan Yupik Eskimo Dictionary. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Fairbanks, Alaska Native Language Center, 2004. 421 p. (with E. A. Dobrieva, S. Jacobson and M. Krauss).
Алеутско-русский и русско-алеутский словарь. СПб.: Просвещение, 1994. 320 с. [Aleut-Russian and Russian-Aleut dictionary]
Selected Articles:
Система пространственной ориентации в алеутском языке // Вестник Санкт-Петербургского государственного университета. Сер. 9. Вып. 3. 2015. С. 25-35. [The Aleut System of Spatial Orientation]
«Народная лингвистика» как объект исследования // Антропологический форум. 2014. №21: 9-16. [Folk linguistics as an objejt of research]
Invited commentary 642-645: S. Yamin-Pasternak, A. Kiskey, L. Alessa, I. Pasternak, P. Schweitzer The Rotten Renaissance in the Bering Strait: Loving, Loathing, and Washing the Smell of Foods with a (Re)acquired Taste // Current Anthropology. 2014 (October). Vol. 55. No. 5. P. 619-646.
Алеуты и алеутский язык // Алеуты: Каталог коллекций Кунсткамеры / Автор-сост. С.А. Корсун, отв. ред. Ю.Е. Березкин. СПб.: Музей антропологии и этнографии РАН, 2014: 47-58 (в соавт с. М. Дирксом). [Aleuts and the Aleut language]
Russian as a Minority Language: A case from Alaskan old-settler communities // В.Ф.Выдрин и Н.В.Кузнецова (ред.). От Бикина до Бамбалюмы: Экспедиционные этюды в честь Елены Всеволодовны Перехвальской. СПб.: Нестор-История, 2014: 141-154.
Mixed Communities in the Russian North; or, Why Are There No ‘Creoles’ in Siberia?” // Ethnohistory 60. 2013 (with P. Schweitzer and N. Vakhtin).
Петербургская школа лингвистов-североведов // Труды объединенного научного совета по гуманитарным проблемам и историко-культурному наследию 2011. (РАН, Санкт-Петербургский научный центр). 2012. [Petersburg School of northern linguistics scholars]
Русский язык на Аляске (по материалам экспедиций 2010 и 2011 гг.) // Труды объединенного научного совета по гуманитарным проблемам и историко-культурному наследию 2010. (РАН, Санкт-Петербургский научный центр). 2011. [Russian Language in Alaska (based on the materials of the 2010-2011 expeditions)]
Влияние Российско-американской компании на этническую самоидентификацию коренного населения Америки // Лаврентий Алексеевич Загоскин и исследования Русской Америки. Экспедиции и путешествия российских исследователей в международном контексте: К 200-летию со дня рождения русского путешественника и общественного деятеля Л. А. Загоскина. Материалы Международной научно-практической конференции, г. Рязань, 22-23 мая 2006 г. / Отв. ред. Л. В. Чекурин. Рязань: Управление культуры и массовых коммуникаций Рязанской области и Рязанский заочный институт (филиал) Московского государственного университета культуры и искусств. 2008. С. 170–175. [The influence of Russo-American company on the ethnic identity of Native Alaskans]
Этнография речи как искусство // Natales grate numeras? Сборник статей к 60-летию Георгия Ахилловича Левинтона (Studia Ethnologica. Вып. 6). СПб.: изд-во Европейского университета, 2008. С. 199–205. [Ethnographic speech as art: Natales grate numeras?]
The ‘Priests’ of East Cape: A Religious Movement on the Chukchi Peninsula during the 1920s and 1930s”, Études/Inuit/Studies 31(1-2). P. 39-58 (with P. Schweitzer).
Типологически редкие явления в алеутском синтаксисе // Acta Linguistica Petropolitana: Труды Института лингвистических исследований РАН / Отв. ред. Н. Н. Казанский. СПб., 2007. Том III. Часть 3. С. 245–270. [Typologically rare phenomena in Aleut syntax]
Пассив в алеутском языке // Acta Linguistica Petropolitana: Труды Института лингвистических исследований РАН / Отв. ред. Н. Н. Казанский. СПб., 2007. Том III. Часть 3. С. 154–165. [The passive voice in Aleut]
Эскимосские «попы» поселка Наукан: об одном случае revitalization movement на Чукотке // Сны Богородицы: Исследования по антропологии религии (Studia Ethnologica). СПб., 2006. С.102–118 (совместно с П. Швайтцером). [Eskimo priests in a Naukan village: a revitalization movement in Chukotka. With P. Schweitzer]
Исчезающие языки и задачи лингвистов-североведов // Малые языки и традиции: существование на грани. Вып.1: Лингвистические проблемы сохранения и документации малых языков. Посвящается 75-летию академика Вячеслава Всеволодовича Иванова М., 2005. С.40–52 (совместно с Н. Б. Вахтиным). [Endangered languages and the tasks of northern linguistics' scholars. With N.B. Vakhtin]
The Difficulty of Being Oneself: Identity Politics of Old-Settler Communities in Northeastern Siberia // Kasten E. (ed.), Rebuilding Identities: Pathways to Reform in Post-Soviet Siberia. Berlin, 2005. P. 135–152 (with P. Schweitzer and N. Vakhtin).
Traveling between Continents: Native Contacts across the Bering Strait (with P. Schweitzer) // Российско-американские связи: 300 лет сотрудничества / Ю.П.Третьяков и Н.А.Александрова (ред.). СПб.: Академический проект, 2004. С. 99–119 (совместно с П. Швайтцером).
«Разве мы виноваты, что так пишемся?»: Смешанные этнические общности северо-востока Сибири в официальных классификациях // Studia Ethnologica: Труды факультета этнологии. СПб., 2004. С.61–97 (совместно с Н. Б. Вахтиным). [“It is not our fault that we are registered this way?”: Mixed ethnic communities of Northeastern Siberia in official classifications. With N.B. Vakhtin]
The Making of Identity, the Making of a Language: On Some Linguistic Consequences of the Russian Colonization in Siberia. In: Crawford N. and Ostler N. (eds.), Creating Outsiders: Endangered Languages, Migration and Marginalisation. Proceedings of the Ninth Foundation for Endangered Languages Conference. Stellenbosch, South Africa, 18-20 November, 2005. P. 31–36.
Language Contact and Group Identity: The Role of 'Folk' Linguistic Engineering // Y. Matras and P. Bakker (eds.), The Mixed Language Debate. Berlin; New York: Mouton de Gruyter), 2003. P. 177–209.
Переключение кодов или новый код? // Труды факультета этнологии. Вып. 1. СПб., 2001. с. 298 – 316 [Switching codes or a new code?]
Local Identities and Traveling Names: Interethnic Aspects of Personal Naming in the Bering Strait Area // Arctic Anthropology. 1997. Vol.34. No.1. P. 167-180 (with P. Schweitzer).