Researcher
Natalia Moen-Larsen
Contactinfo and files
Summary
Natalia Moen-Larsen is a senior research fellow in the research group on Russia, Asia and International Trade. Her research interests are culture and national identity, inter-ethnic tensions, migration, and nationalism. In addition, Moen-Larsen is interested in political communication, the use of traditional and digital media, and the spread of disinformation and misinformation in Russia.
Moen-Larsen holds a PhD in sociology from the University of Oslo. The PhD examines what three Russian national newspapers wrote about refugees from Ukraine who came to Russia in the spring of 2014 and refugees from the Middle East and North Africa who went to Europe during the "refugee crisis" in 2015. The thesis also discusses the connection between representations of refugees in Russian newspapers and notions of Russia's place in the world and about the West as Russia's adversary.
Moen-Larsen is the editor in chief of Nordisk Østforum, the Nordic journal for East European and Post-Soviet studies.
Expertise
Education
2022 PhD of Sociology at the University of Oslo
2009 MA of Sociology at the University of Oslo
Work Experience
2022- Senior Research Fellow, NUPI
2015-2022 PhD Candidate, UiO
2013-2022 Research Fellow, NUPI
2011 Junior Research Fellow, NUPI
2010 Intern, NUPI
2010 Seminar leader, Institute of Sociology, UiO
Aktivitet
Filter
Clear all filtersPutins propagandaproblem
In this op-ed, Moen-Larsen and Gjerde write about the propaganda that has characterized the official Russian media coverage of the so-called “special military operation” in Ukraine.
Brothers and barbarians: Discursive constructions of ‘refugees’ in Russian media
This article maps the unexplored terrain of representations of refugees in Russian media, using discourse theory and the concepts of subject positions and symbolic boundaries to analyse these representations. The research questions are: Who are the refugees? What discourses do they feature in? What kinds of symbolic boundaries do these representations maintain? This study analyses the three Russian newspapers Izvestija, Novaya gazeta and Rossiiskaya gazeta, focusing on how, between 1 January 2014 and 31 December 2015, these newspapers came to employ the term ‘refugee’ for persons from Ukraine and for those from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Analysis of the subject position of ‘refugee’ in discourses about security, humanitarianism, integration and nationalism reveals contrasting images of refugees from Ukraine and MENA refugees. The latter are represented as ‘threatening’ and ‘alien’: symbolic boundaries are maintained between Russians and these refugees as well as between ‘superior’ Russia and ‘inferior’ Europe. In contrast, refugees from Ukraine are often presented as similar to Russians. Nationalist discourse merges with security, humanitarian and integration discourses, creating contrasting symbolic boundaries between these two groups of refugees and Russians. Refugees are classed as ‘preferred’ or ‘non-preferred’ migrants on the basis not of their situation, but their ethnicity.
Suitcase – shelling – Russia’: narratives about refugees from Ukraine in Russian media.
The armed conflict in South-East Ukraine has brought a massive increase in refugees in the Russian Federation. This article examines the meaning-making process surrounding the sudden presence of these refugees, through analysis of narratives in three major national newspapers – Izvestiya, Novaya gazeta and Rossiiskaya gazeta –1 June – 30 September 2014. Three thematic groups of narratives predominated: about war, about refugee reception and aid, and about Russia in international relations. These give meaning to the subject-position “refugees from Ukraine” primarily as war victims and aid recipients.
Research group for Russia, Asia and International Trade
Research group for Russia, Asia and International Trade
Dialogue and learning across divides in North Caucasus (DLDNC )
The project aims to create an arena for learning and dialogue between MA and PhD students with an interrest in the North Caucasus and give them an opportunity to establish contact with scholars workin...
“Normal nationalism”: Alexei Navalny, LiveJournal and “the Other”
This article analyses the LiveJournal blog of the well-known Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny during the period from 2006 to 2012. The blog is analysed through the prism of nationalism and identity construction. The analysis shows that Navalny advocates a “normal” nationalism, which he contrasts with abnormal, radical, and marginal nationalism. He underlines the importance of national rebirth and constructs Russian national identity in connection to a history of victory and greatness. The national identity that Navalny constructs is ethnically Russian. Other ethnic groups, Chechens in particular, are constructed as “Others” who belong outside the boundaries of the Russian imagined community.