Anya Kuteleva

Dr Anya Kuteleva

Small Group Project 2026

Unlearning Oil: A Comparative Study of Energy Knowledge Production in Aberdeen and St. John's

This comparative study examines how oil-dependent communities learn to understand and value oil through institutional and cultural processes, focusing on Aberdeen, Scotland and St. John’s, Canada. While both cities face mounting pressure to transition away from fossil fuels, their communities struggle to envision post-oil futures despite clear economic and environmental imperatives. Rather than focusing on traditional economic or technical barriers, this research investigates how institutional structures, cultural narratives, and social networks shape community understanding and attachment to oil industries.

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Areas of interest

International Relations Development Studies Energy Politics Energy Security Feminism Oil China Russia Gender Gender Politics Political Science

Cohort

FG11

Biography

Anya Kuteleva is an interdisciplinary researcher with a focus on international relations, development studies, energy security, and feminist-informed analysis. Her work explores three interconnected themes: oil politics and energy security, China’s rise and its evolving relationship with Russia, and gender politics in Russia. These themes are bound by a cross-disciplinary methodology centered on discursive politics - how power is constructed, challenged, and sustained through language, ideology, and cultural narratives.

In 2022, she joined the University of Wolverhampton (UK) as a senior lecturer in International Relations. Before that, she studied in Russia and China, earned her PhD in Political Science from the University of Alberta (Canada), and held a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (Russia).

Anya is the author of China’s Energy Security and Relations with Petrostates: Oil as an Idea (Routledge 2021) and published articles in leading academic journals.

Biographical details correct as of 26.06.25