Mira Bergelson
- Professor: Faculty of Humanities / School of Philological Studies
- Programme Academic Supervisor: Language Policy in the Context of Ethnocultural Diversity
- Mira Bergelson has been at HSE University since 2013.
Education, Degrees and Academic Titles
Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Lomonosov Moscow State University
A post-doctoral degree called Doctor of Sciences is given to reflect second advanced research qualifications or higher doctorates in ISCED 2011.
Awards and Accomplishments
Best Teacher — 2017
Best Academic Supervisor in the category ‘Student Retention and Loyalty’ — 2024
Best Academic Supervisor in the category ‘Student Engagement with External Customers’ — 2023
Courses (2024/2025)
- Analyzing Stories, or What You Would Always Like to Know about Narrative Discourse (Minor; Faculty of Humanities)Rus
- Ethnolanguage Diversity of Russia (Master’s programme; Faculty of Humanities; 1 year, 1, 2 module)Rus
- Intercultural Communication: Theory and Practice (Bachelor’s programme; Faculty of Creative Industries; 4 year, 1, 2 module)Eng
- Language Practices in Ethnocultural Diversity (Master’s programme; Faculty of Humanities; 1 year, 3 module)Rus
- Mentor's Seminar (Master’s programme; Faculty of Humanities; 2 year, 1-4 module)Rus
- Mentor's Seminar (Master’s programme; Faculty of Humanities; 1 year, 1-4 module)Rus
- Russian Communication Style (Master’s programme; Faculty of Humanities; 1 year, 2 module)Eng
- Russian Communication Style (Mago-Lego; 2 module)Rus
- Past Courses
Courses (2023/2024)
- Analyzing Stories, or What You Would Always Like to Know about Narrative Discourse (Minor; Faculty of Humanities; 1, 2 module)Rus
- Current Academic Research (Mago-Lego; 3 module)Rus
- Current Academic Research (Master’s programme; Faculty of Humanities field of study Philology, field of study Philology; 1 year, 3 module)Rus
- Language Practices in Ethnocultural Diversity (Mago-Lego; 2, 3 module)Rus
- Language Practices in Ethnocultural Diversity (Master’s programme; Faculty of Humanities; 1 year, 2, 3 module)Rus
- Mentor's Seminar (Master’s programme; Faculty of Humanities; 2 year, 1-4 module)Rus
- Mentor's Seminar (Master’s programme; Faculty of Humanities; 1 year, 1-4 module)Rus
- Russian Communication Style (Mago-Lego; 2 module)Eng
- Russian Communication Style (Master’s programme; Faculty of Humanities; 1 year, 2 module)Eng
Courses (2022/2023)
- Analyzing Stories, or What You Would Always Like to Know about Narrative Discourse (Minor; Faculty of Humanities; 1, 2 module)Rus
- Cross-cultural Pragmatics: Theory and Applications (Master’s programme; Faculty of Humanities; 1 year, 2 module)Rus
- Cross-cultural Pragmatics: Theory and Applications (Master’s programme; Faculty of Humanities; 2 year, 2 module)Rus
- In Search of Russian: Sociolinguistic Interviews on Multilingualism in Alaska (Bachelor’s programme; School of Foreign Languages; 1 year, 1, 2 module)Rus
- Language Practices in Ethnocultural Diversity (Master’s programme; Faculty of Humanities; 1 year, 3 module)Rus
- Language Practices in Ethnocultural Diversity (Master’s programme; School of Foreign Languages; 2 year, 2, 3 module)Eng
- Language in Society: Current Challenges (Bachelor’s programme; School of Foreign Languages; 4 year, 3 module)Eng
- Mentor's Seminar (Master’s programme; Faculty of Humanities; 1 year, 1-4 module)Rus
- Research Seminar "Research Methodology in Sociolinguistics" (Master’s programme; Faculty of Humanities; 1 year, 1-4 module)Rus
Courses (2021/2022)
- Cross-cultural Pragmatics: Theory and Applications (Master’s programme; Faculty of Humanities; 1 year, 2, 3 module)Rus
- In Search of Russian: Sociolinguistic Interviews on Multilingualism in Alaska (Bachelor’s programme; School of Foreign Languages; 1 year, 1, 2 module)Rus
- Language Practices in Ethnocultural Diversity (Master’s programme; Faculty of Humanities; 1 year, 2, 3 module)Rus
- Language in Society: Current Challenges (Bachelor’s programme; School of Foreign Languages; 4 year, 3 module)Rus
- Research Seminar "Issues in Contemporary Linguistics" (Master’s programme; School of Foreign Languages; 1 year, 1-4 module)Eng
Courses (2020/2021)
- Analyzing Stories, or What You Would Always Like to Know about Narrative Discourse (Minor; Faculty of Humanities; 1, 2 module)Rus
- Cross-cultural Pragmatics: Theory and Applications (Master’s programme; Faculty of Humanities; 1 year, 2, 3 module)Rus
- In Search of Russian: Sociolinguistic Interviews on Multilingualism in Alaska (Bachelor’s programme; School of Foreign Languages; 1 year, 1-4 module)Rus
- Language Practices in Ethnocultural Diversity (Master’s programme; School of Foreign Languages; 2 year, 2, 3 module)Rus
- Language Practices in Ethnocultural Diversity (Master’s programme; Faculty of Humanities; 1 year, 2, 3 module)Rus
- Language in Society: Current Challenges (Bachelor’s programme; School of Foreign Languages; 4 year, 3 module)Eng
- Strategies and tactics of professional communication (Minor; Faculty of Humanities; 3, 4 module)Rus
Editorial board membership
Conferences
- 2021
Языки России в контакте с русским языком II (Москва). Presentation: Russian-Athabaskan language contact in the Kenai peninsula
- 2019
LANGUAGE CONTACT IN THE CIRCUMPOLAR WORLD - 2 (Москва). Presentation: Sociolinguistic typology of Alaskan Russian varieties
Сохранение языков народов мира и развитие языкового разнообразия в киберпространстве: контекст, политика, практика» (Якутск ). Presentation: Virtual communication, code shifting, and language vitality
Регионы Российской империи: идентичность, репрезентация, (на)значение (Москва). Presentation: Старожилы Сибири и Аляски: язык в контексте истории
Открытие международного Года языков коренных народов 2019 (Париж). Presentation: Городское многоязычие:: языки в условиях сверхразнообразия
- 2018
8th International Conference of the International Society for Gesture Studies (Кейптаун). Presentation: Embarrassment laughter in the narratives of linguistic adaptation
2nd Cultural Linguistics International Conference (Ландау, Пфальц). Presentation: Life narratives in the discourse and content analysis perspectives
ПолеФон-2018: Полевая и экспериментальная фонетика (Москва). Presentation: Фонетика нинильчикского диалекта русского языка
Global Humanities Campus 2018 "Principles of Cultural Dynamics" (Берлин). Presentation: Cultural resistance and language loss in Alaska: Alaskan Russian in the broader context of causality vs. contingency paradigm
Urban Linguistic Diversity (Москва). Presentation: Living with second language: What life narratives can reveal
Globalizing Sociolinguistics (Leiden). Presentation: Specific discourse features of the narratives on ethnolinguistic identity: Moscow cases
- 2017
Language Contact in the Circumpolar World (Москва). Presentation: Ninilchik Russian in the broader context of Alaskan Russian
150 Years: Kenai Peninsula History Conference (Солдотна, Аляска). Presentation: Alaskan Russian through the prism of the Ninilchik Russian Dictionary project
- 2016
"Диалог 2016": Компьютерная лингвистика и интеллектуальные технологии (Москва). Presentation: Coreference in Russian Oral Movie Retellings (the Experience of Coreference Relations Annotation in “Russian CliPS ” corpus
Selected publications and presentations (last 5 years)
In Russian
- Mira Bergelson. Pragmatic and sociocultural motivations of linguistic form. Moscow: Universitietskaya kniga, 2007, 320 p.
- Mira Bergelson, Andrej Kibrik, Marina Raskladkina. Russian linguistic heritage of Alaska: in search of mother tongue. RHF Bulletin, 2013 №1 (70), 158-169.
- Mira Bergelson. Review of linguistic projects funded by the Russian Humanities Foundation in 2010-2011. Voprosy yazykoznaniya, 2012, № 1, 142-156.
- Mira Bergelson. Narrative structure through the prism of poetic discourse. Sandro Kodzasov’s Festschrift Phonetics and Non-phonetics. Moscow: Yazyki slavyanskikh kultur, 2008, 648-657.
- Mira Bergelson. Factor of Adressee(s) inthemass-media discourse. Abstracts of the 2nd International Conference Mass-media Language as the Object of Interdisciplinary research. Moscow: MSU Press, 2008.
- Mira Bergelson. Communication principles, language functions, and the addressee’s factor. Proceedings of the 4th international conference of the Russian Communication Association Communication and Modern Social and Humanities Scholarship. Moscow: MSU Press, 2008, 128-131.
- Mira Bergelson. «Да нет, пожалуй» - Contradiction as an Instrument of Interpersonal Harmony. Abstracts of the 3rd International Conference on Cognitive Science. Moscow: Tsentr isucheniya russkogo yazyka, 2008, 25-26.
- Mira Bergelson. Intercultural communication as interaction of cultural schemas. S.G. Ter-Minasova’s Festschrift Language, Culture, Communication. Moscow: Gnozis, 2008, 427-435.
- Bergelson, M.B., Dragoy, O.V., Mannova, E.M., Skvorzov, A.A., Statnikov, A.I., Iskra, E.V. (2009). Cognitive accessibility as a sentence accuracy criterion. Psycholinguistics in the XXI century: results, problems, perspectives. Moscow, 268-269.
- Dragoy, O.V., Bergelson, M.B., Skvorzov, A.A., Statnikov, A.I., Mannova, E.M., Iskra, E.V. (2009). Who is working if the gardener’s grandmother is sleeping: a test for diagnosing comprehension of logico-grammatical constructions. Proceedings of the International Scientific Conference “Physiology of human development”, Moscow, Russia, June 22-24, 36-37.
- M. B. Bergelson, A.E. Nekrasova. Linguistic analysis of stereotypes: In search of balance between the text and the meaning. Proceedings of the conference Computer Linguistics and Intellectual technologies. Moscow: RGGU Press, Vol 8 (15), 2010, 30-35.
- Mira Bergelson. Cross-cultural analysis of the Northern Athabasks’ narrative traditions. In Memoria of V. P. Nedyalkov. Issues in Grammar and Typology Moscow: Gnozis, 2010, 37-59.
- Dragoy, O.V., Bergelson, M.B., Akinina, Yu.S., & Shitova, N.M. (2010). Linguistic theory and data on language loss: analysis of aphasic narrative. Paper presented at the Conference “Theoretical and applied linguistics: ways of development. To the 100th anniversary of V.A. Zvegintsev”, Moscow,Russia, October 29-30.
- Statnikov, A., Dragoy, O.V., Bergelson, M., Iskra, E., Mannova, E., Skvortsov, A. (2011). Comprehension of logico-grammatical constructions in different aphasia types. Proceedings of the conference “Cognitive science in Moscow: new research”. Moscow, Bukivedi, 238-242.
In English:
- Verbal Communication Functions in the Light of Technological Changes: Possible Consequences. Proceedings of the The XIV-th International Conference"Cognitive Modeling in Linguistics" (CML-2013). Southern Federal University Press, Rostov-on-Don. 2013, 54-57.
- Mira B. Bergelson and Andrej A. Kibrik. Alaskan Russian: The Story of the Ninilchik Community as Told by its Language. Over the Near Horizon. Proceedings of the 2010 International Conference on Russian America. Sitka Historical Sociaty, 2013, 217-227.
- Little, Craig B., Titarenko, L., Bergelson, M. The Role of Democratic Dialogue in Collaborative International Distance Education. AUDEM: International Journal of Higher Education and Democracy, 2012, Vol.3, 120-143.
- Mira Bergelson, Andrej Kibrik, Wayne Leman. Ninilchik Russian: Language of an Alaska Village. Prepublication of a dictionary. Raleigh, NC, USA, 2012. 215 p.
- Mira Bergelson. Intercultural Communication Patterns of Russian America: Burden of Cultural Stereotypes. Proceedings of the 5-th International Conference on Russian America. Institute of Emigration of Aland Islands, Finland, August 2012.
- Bergelson, M.B., Dragoy, O.V., Iskra, E.V., Mannova, E.M., Skvortsov, A.A., Statnikov, A.I. What is normal when we are impaired: cognitive effects in processing space. Proceedings of the Firth International Conference on Cognitive Science. Kalinigrad State University Press, 2012, 26-27.
- Mira Bergelson. Russian Cultural Values and Workplace Communication Patterns. Intercultural Communication: A Reader. (Larry A. Samovar, Richard E. Porter, Edwin R. McDaniel, eds.) 13th edition, USA, 2012, 189-197.
- Mira Bergelson. Modern Russian public discourse: Do changes in information technology lead to new discourse strategies, or to new worldview? Proceedings of the conference Computer Linguistics and Intellectual technologies. Moscow: RGGU Press, Vol. 9 (16), 2011, 94-101.
- Bergelson, M., Dragoy, O., Iskra, E., Mannova, E., Skvortsov, A., & Statnikov, A. Compensating spatial impairments: spatial-dynamic stereotypes. Paper presented at the Night Whites Language Workshop, St. Petersburg, Russia, December 16-17, 2011.
- Mira Bergelson, Andrej Kibrik. The Ninilchik variety of Russian: Linguistic heritage of Alaska. Slavica Helsingiensia 40: Instrumentarium of Linguistics. Sociolinguistic Approaches to Non-Standard Russian, Helsinki 2010, p. 299-313.
- Mira Bergelson. How Much Culture we Need to Figure out Misunderstanding: Cognitive, Cultural and Interactional Aspects of Story Telling. Proceedings of the 9th Conference of the International Association for Intercultural Communication Studies, Guangzhou, China, June 17-21, 2010.
- Bergelson, M.B., Dragoy, O.V., Shklowsky, V.M. Telling a Story or Describing a Picture: Cognitive Differences and Similarities across Aphasic and Healthy Speakers. Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Cognitive Science. Vol. 1, Tomsk: Tomsk State University, 2010, p. 26-27.
- Bergelson M.B., Dragoy, O.V., Mannova, E.M., Skvorzov, A.A., Statnikov, A.I., Iskra, E.V . Is it easier to cover a scarf with a hat in Broca’s or Wernicke’s aphasia? Science of Aphasia XI-th Conference Abstracts. Potsdam, Germany, August 30-31, 2010.
- Mira Bergelson, Olga Dragoy. Inefficient Fluent and Efficient Non-fluent: A dissociation between micro- and macrostructure of aphasic discourse. Proceedings of the Science of Aphasia Xth Conference, Turkey, 2009.
- Dragoy, O.V., Bergelson M.B., Statnikov A.I., Skworzow A.A., Mannova E.M., Iskra E.V. Understanding logical-grammatical constructions: enhanced diagnostic test. Paper presented at the Joint Russian-Chinese Scientific Seminar. Methodology of psychophysiological research in Russia and China: theoretical and applied aspects, Moscow, Russia, December 7-11.Moscow: MSU Press. 2009, 37-39
Supervisor of the following Doctoral theses
- 1
Academic supervisor/consultant for the MA dissertation by Tiia-Lotta Pekkanen, exchange student in a double-degree MA programme by UCL and HSE
- 2Regional variety of English in Alaska
- 3A. Vitaly Typology of language situations in the Russian Northwest: cultural and linguistic interference
Biography
Mira Bergelson is an experienced professional in cross-cultural communication, corporate and professional discourse. She comes from academic environment, and during the ‘roaring 90-ies’ she pioneered the field developing new courses, designing and delivering professional development and cultural awareness workshops for managers and educators of new Russia.
Her professional experiences are very diverse but always focusing on effective communication, which is a key instrument of management, and on importance of cultural knowledge, which is in the heart of professional communication. Mira is a very culturally adaptable person. She has proven that having worked in such variety of settings as Russian academic institutions, American universities, a remote Siberian town, an Alaskan village, a US embassy, and the Kremlin press-office.
In her work as a cultural consultant for public organizations, state institutions and corporations Mira tackled cross-cultural communication from both ends as an educator and as a participant. She has taught Cross-cultural Management to the MBA students in Moscow-based American business school and Communication in Russian Professional Contexts to the international business students in Helsinki.
She has worked as a consultant for the US White House advance teams and for Russian Federation Presidential Executive Office.
Mira has been born and grew up in Moscow where she has always lived except for a few years of studies and research in the US and Germany. She considers herself bicultural and is fluent in Russian and English and speaks basic German and French. She has researched a variety of indigenous languages and cultures of Russia in the Caucasus, Eastern Siberia and Far East. She has a Ph.D. in Linguistics and Communication from the Russian Academy of Sciences. Her second doctoral dissertation was devoted to the sociocultural pragmatics of communication.
‘The Processes of Urbanisation and Its Impact on People’s Language Practices Are of Major Scientific Interest’
On April 6–8, 2023, HSE University-Moscow hosted the Fifth International Conference Multilingual Urban Space: Policy, Identity, Education. Every year, researchers from around the world attend the conference to share their research and exchange ideas on multilingualism in urban settings.
‘Projects Will Bring Research Teams Together’
A number of new projects will form the basis of the educational and scholarly activity at HSE’s School of Philology. These projects will allow the School to expand its scholarly breadth, consolidate its active research teams, and engage new colleagues in collaboration. HSE News Service spoke with School Head Evgeny Kazartsev about the new projects, their anticipated outcomes, and what changes will need to be made in order to bring them to fruition.
Weaving Languages Together
Why megacities need to preserve multilingualism
Expedition to Primorsky Krai
As part of the HSE “Rediscovering Russia” program, seven first-year graduate students spent a week in Primorsky Krai. The field expedition, held in Vladivostok, was aimed at studying multilingualism, value orientations, migration, local identity, family and state language policies of the region.
HSE Doctoral Graduates Receive Their Certificates
This year, 117 students graduated from doctoral programmes at the HSE campus in Moscow. On November 1, they received their graduation certificates. Some of them also defended their theses under a new procedure that was introduced at HSE this year, while the others will do this within the next year.
What is it like to live and work in Russia in 2018?
An intercultural seminar on specifics of living and working in Russia was held by Dr. Mira Bergelson, a Professor of Linguistics, on September 25th at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow for internationally recruited faculty members.
HSE’s New Master’s Programme: Training Specialists in Language Policy
The first intake into this new Master’s programme will be in 2018 and its graduates will be able to work in the field of language policy. Denis Zubalov, Academic Supervisor of the programme 'Language Policy in the Context of Ethnocultural Diversity' told the HSE News Service all about what students will be studying, how urbanization is linked to language policy and what killer languages are.
Annual Workshop on Intercultural Communication ‘Living and Working in Russia’
On September 22 'Living and Working in Russia' workshop welcomed new international faculty members to HSE.
Understanding Russian Communication: Online and in Private
How Russians think bears little resemblance to Germans’ attention to detail or American cheerfulness. The difference can be explained, at least in part, by looking at linguistic peculiarities. A Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) launched by HSE called ‘Understanding Russians: Contexts of Intercultural Communication’ investigates cases when basic Russian cultural values show up through linguistic choices, which may influence the way people act. The nine-week course was first offered in 2014 and was tremendously successful. It will run for the second time starting October 12, 2015. Mira Bergelson, professor in the Faculty of Humanities at HSE and the author of the course, shared the core principles of making contact with people who don’t smile on the street but who may become your best friends after just a few meetings.
Settling into the Russian Way of Life
As part of the orientation events for international faculty members, the Office of Internationalization held an interactive workshop on Living and Working in Moscow led by Mira Bergelson, Professor in the Faculty of Humanities.
HSE International Faculty — Welcome Aboard!
The start of an academic year is always characterized by a new and expanded team of faculty and students ‘on board’ the HSE. In 2015 over 40 new international faculty members have joined HSE and are ready for a new voyage of discovery. Their stay at the university traditionally begins with a number of seminars, meetings and other events which come under the Orientations session, organized by the International Faculty Support Unit.
Mira Bergelson about Alaskan Russian
A professor from the School of Philology took part in the ‘Diversity Linguistics: Retrospect and Prospect’ conference, which took place in Leipzig from May 1st – 3rd, 2015.
HSE on Coursera: This is only the start
The 11 educational courses completed in the first year of HSE's cooperation with Coursera won an audienec of 300,000. The courses' lecturers talked about how they succeeded in doing this at a round table at HSE.
HSE on Coursera: First Results and Impressions
On December 5,the Coursera: First Results roundtable will be held. Coursera, an international online educational platform, has been used for 12 HSE courses. This first cycle of courses has come to a close, with more than 340,000 students from around the world having signed up for HSE courses so far. Another 10 courses are currently open for registration.