Alena Ledeneva

Alena Ledeneva is Professor of Political Science and Sociology at University College London and founder of the Global Informality Project (in-formality.com), currently in writing residency at the Institute of Advanced Studies of Paris (IEA-Paris ). A graduate of Novosibirsk State University and the University of Cambridge (Newnham), she is the author of the trilogy: Russia's Economy of Favors (1998), How Russia Really Works (2006) and Can Russia Modernize? (2013).

Alongside her academic work, she is a conceptual and visual artist who highlights phenomena of informal power and social complexity. In 2019 she participated in the parallel program of the 58th Venice Biennale, at Palazzo Donà, San Polo.