Professor Craig Brandist

BA (CCAT), MA, Dphil (Sussex)

School of Languages, Arts and Societies

Professor of Cultural Theory and Intellectual History

SLC Craig Brandist
Profile picture of SLC Craig Brandist
c.s.brandist@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 7413
Jessop West

Full contact details

Professor Craig Brandist
School of Languages, Arts and Societies
Jessop West
1 Upper Hanover Street
Sheffield
S3 7RA
Profile

I began work on Cultural Theory as a graduate student in the late 1980s. After completing my doctorate, which included a considerable amount of time and research in Russia, I spent a period as Max Hayward Research Fellow at St Antony´s College, Oxford.

I joined the department at Sheffield in January 1997, originally as a Research Fellow working on a project to uncover the intellectual sources of the ideas of the Bakhtin Circle. From 2003-2009 I directed the AHRC-funded project The Rise of Sociological Linguistics in the Soviet Union, 1917–1938: Institutions, Ideas and Agendas.

I am also Education Officer for Sheffield UCU. 

Research interests

My research is currently focused on the history of cultural theory, particularly as it was affected by the Russian Revolution and its subsequent degeneration. I am particularly interested in highlighting the continuing relevance and influence of early Soviet intellectual history for social and cultural theory today.

I have long been interested in the interaction between Marxism, phenomenology, Gestalt Theory and various forms of linguistic and cultural theory within the specific context of early-Soviet Russia. I am also interested in the changing institutional contexts within which these figures worked and the way in which the shaped the development of the fields to which they contributed. This has developed into work on the parallels between Stalinist and neo-liberal reforms in the public sector and in Higher Education in particular, and the ways in which they affect language, intellectual labour and research.

Most recently I have been working on the relationship between the anti-imperial policies of the revolutionary movement and early Soviet state and the development of an ideology critique of the main trends in European philology and oriental studies. This has significant implications for understanding the origins of post-colonial scholarship and the way in which ideas such as 'hegemony' are employed today. This has resulted in my latest monograph The Dimensions of Hegemony: Language, Culture and Politics in Revolutionary Russia, and in some ongoing research on early Soviet Oriental Studies.

I have also been researching the years  spent in Russia, which will result in a collection of articles and archival materials co-edited with Peter Thomas of Brunel University.

Publications

Books

  • Brandist C (2015) The Dimensions of Hegemony: Language, Culture and Politics in Revolutionary Russia. Leiden: Brill.
  • Brandist C & Chown K (2011) Politics and the Theory of Language in the USSR 1917-1938. Anthem Press.
  • Brandist C & Chown K (2010) . London: Anthem Press.
  • (2004) . Palgrave Macmillan UK.
  • (2004) The Bakhtin Circle: In the Master's Absence. Manchester, England: Manchester University Press.
  • Brandist C (1996) . Palgrave Macmillan UK.

Edited books

  • (Ed.) (2022) Fundamental problems of the sociology of thinking..
  • (Ed.) (2017) . Informa UK Limited.

Journal articles

  • Brandist C (2025) Insurgent imaginations: more dimensions in cultural theory in the light of inter-war Soviet theory. Kairos: A Journal of Critical Symposium, 9(1), 6-11.
  • Brandist C (2024) . Interventions, 26(2), 215-249.
  • Brandist C (2022) . Language & History, 65(3), 201-219.
  • Brandist C (2022) . Литературоведческий журнал (Literary Journal), 54(4), 212-229.
  • Brandist C (2022) . Interventions: international journal of postcolonial studies, 24(5), 696-715.
  • Brandist C (2020) . Modernism/modernity, 27(3), 615-617.
  • Brandist C (2020) Soviet-style bullshit won’t loosen Covid’s grim hold. Times Higher Education.
  • Brandist C (2018) . Journal of Multicultural Discourses, 13(4), 309-325.
  • Brandist C (2018) . Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe, 26(2-3), 277-282.
  • Brandist C (2018) . International Politics, 55(6), 803-819.
  • Brandist C (2017) The Perestroika of Academic Labour: The Neoliberal Transformation of Higher Education and the Resurrection of the ‘Command Economy’.. Ephemera : Theory and Politics in Organization, 17(3), 583-608.
  • Brandist C (2017) . Educational Philosophy and Theory, 49(9), 867-878.
  • Chakrabarti P, Gradskova Y, Bandlamudi L, Emerson K, Hirschkop K, Brandist C & Tihanov G (2017) A Discussion on the Bakhtin Circle. Baltic Worlds(1-2), 48-56.
  • Brandist C (2017) Langage, culture et politique en Russie révolutionnaire: entretien avec Craig Brandist. éǻ.
  • Brandist C (2017) Varieties of ideology critique in early soviet literary and oriental scholarship. Przeglad Filozoficzno-Literacki, 47(2), 53-67.
  • Brandist C (2016) «Palavra viva», Isegoria e a política da deliberação na Rússia revolucionária. Revista Conexão Letras, 11(16), 15-22.
  • Brandist C (2016) Reflections on the work of R.O. Šor: Materials from institutional archives. Cahiers de l'ILSL, 47, 71-84.
  • Brandist C (2015) . Studies in East European Thought.
  • Brandist C, Chakrabarti P & Khan I (2015) An Exclusive Interview With Professor Craig Brandist. Writing Today: International Journal of Studies in English, 1(3), 18-30 (12).
  • Brandist C (2015) . Studies in East European Thought, 67(3), 123-128.
  • Brandist C (2015) From ‘Neophilology’ to ‘Sociological Poetics’: Alternatives to Formalism in Literary Scholarship Leningrad in the 1920s. Knowledge Cultures, 3(4), 17-34.
  • Brandist C (2012) . Russian Literature, 72(3-4), 385-423.
  • Brandist C & Marchezan RC (2012) . Bakhtiniana: Revista de Estudos do Discurso, 7(1), 280-308.
  • Brandist C (2012) MOSCOW, THE FOURTH ROME Stalinism, cosmopolitanism and the evolution of Soviet culture, 1931-1941. TLS-THE TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT(5692), 5-5.
  • Brandist C (2012) Linguistica sociólogica em Leningrado: O instituto de Estudos Comparados das Literaturas e Línguas do Ocidente e do Oriente (ILJaZV) 1921-1933. Repensando o círculo de Bakhtin: novas perspectivas na história intellectual, 155-182.
  • Brandist C (2012) . Journal of Romance Studies, 12(3), 24-43.
  • Brandist C (2012) . Journal of Romance Studies, 12(3), 24-43.
  • Brandist C (2011) . Studies in East European Thought, 63(1), 43-61.
  • Brandist C (2010) Semantic palaeontology and the passage from myth to science and poetry: the work of Izrail′ Frank-Kamenetskij (1880-1937). Studies in East European Thought, 1-19.
  • Brandist C (2009) Problems of sense, significance, and validity in the work of shpet and the bakhtin circle, 192-206.
  • Brandist C (2009) Ernst Cassirer: The Last Philosopher of Culture. RADICAL PHILOS(156), 63-65.
  • Brandist C (2009) . HIST LING, 36(1), 198-200.
  • Brandist C (2008) . STUD E EUR THOUGHT, 60(4), 279-283.
  • Brandist C (2008) . RUSS LITERATURE, 63(2-4), 171-200.
  • Brandist C (2008) . Historiographia Linguistica, 35(1-2), 208-212.
  • Brandist C (2008) The law of the senses: Marrist semantics. HIST LING, 35(1-2), 208-212.
  • Brandist C (2007) The word made self: Russian writings on language. SLAVON E EUR REV, 85(3), 569-571.
  • Brandist C (2007) Fiction's overcoat: Russian literary culture and the question of philosophy.. MOD LANG REV, 102, 609-610.
  • Brandist C (2006) Philosophical Arabesques. RADICAL PHILOS(137), 54-56.
  • Brandist C (2006) The Bakhtin circle: In the master absence.. HIST LING, 33(1-2), 252-253.
  • Brandist C (2006) . J Hist Behav Sci, 42(3), 261-277.
  • Brandist C (2005) . Historical Materialism, 13(1), 63-84.
  • Brandist C (2004) . Journal of Design History, 17(2), 203-204.
  • Brandist C (2004) . Studies in East European Thought, 56(1), 82-84.
  • Brandist C (2004) Bakhtin and the classics. STUD E EUR THOUGHT, 56(1), 81-84.
  • Brandist C (2003) Olga Freidenberg's works and days. SLAVON E EUR REV, 81(4), 728-730.
  • Brandist C (2003) The origins of Soviet sociolinguistics. J SOCIOLING, 7(2), 213-231.
  • Brandist C (2003) Bakhtin and religion: A feeling of faith. MOD LANG REV, 98, 538-539.
  • Brandist C (2003) . Historical Materialism, 11(2), 239-245.
  • Brandist C (2003) Einstein and Soviet ideology. RUSS HIST-HIST RUSS, 30(1-2), 246-247.
  • Brandist C (2002) The novelness of Bakhtin: Perspectives and possibilities. SLAVIC REV, 61(3), 650-651.
  • Brandist C (2002) . Journal of the History of Ideas, 63(3), 521-537.
  • Brandist C (2002) Two routes 'to concreteness' in the work of the Bakhtin Circle. J HIST IDEAS, 63(3), 521-537.
  • Brandist C (2002) Workers and intelligentsia in late imperial Russia: Realities, representations, reflections. RUSS HIST-HIST RUSS, 29(1), 117-119.
  • Tambling J, Hirschkop K, Brandist C & Tihanov G (2002) . The Yearbook of English Studies, 32, 331-331.
  • Brandist C (2001) Brandist's review of Nihailovic's book on Mikhail Bakhtin's theology of discourse - A reply. SLAVIC REV, 60(3), 703-703.
  • Brandist C (2001) Christianity in Bakhtin: God and the exiled author. MOD LANG REV, 96, 290-291.
  • Brandist C (2001) The hero at the bar of eternity: the Bakhtin Circle's juridical theory of the novel. ECON SOC, 30(2), 208-228.
  • Brandist C (2000) Corporeal words: Mikhail Bakhtin's theology of discourse. SLAVIC REV, 59(3), 702-702.
  • Brandist C (2000) Mikhail Bakhtin: An aesthetic for democracy. RADICAL PHILOS(104), 50-51.
  • Brandist C (2000) Neo-Kantianism in cultural theory - Bakhtin, Derrida and Foucault. RADICAL PHILOS(102), 6-16.
  • Brandist C (1999) Exploiting Bakhtin. MOD LANG REV, 94, 903-904.
  • Brandist C (1998) Carnival in different contexts: Olesha's 'Envy' and Bulgakov's 'Master and Margarita'. ESSAYS POETICS, 23, 81-95.
  • Brandist C (1997) Bakhtin, Cassirer and symbolic forms. RADICAL PHILOS(85), 20-27.
  • Brandist C (1997) Deconstructing the rationality of terror: William Blake and Daniil Kharms. COMP LITERATURE, 49(1), 59-75.
  • Brandist C (1997) Carnivalization and populism in the Soviet modernist novel: Andrei Platonov and Mikhail Bakhtin. ESSAYS POETICS, 22, 1-30.
  • Brandist C (1996) Gramsci, Bakhtin and the semiotics of hegemony. NEW LEFT REV(216), 94-109.
  • Brandist C (1996) The official and the popular in Gramsci and Bakhtin. THEOR CULT SOC, 13(2), 59-74.
  • Brandist C () Bakhtin’s Historical Turn and Its Soviet Antecedents. Bakhtiniana. Revista de Estudos do Discurso, 11(1), 17-38.
  • Brandist C () . Journal of Philosophy: A Cross-Disciplinary Inquiry, 2(5), 25-37.

Book chapters

  • Brandist C (2024) , The Anticolonial Linguistics of Nikolai Marr (pp. 76-95). Routledge
  • Brandist C (2024) In Moskovskaya DS & Klementiev RE (Ed.), Codex manuscriptus (pp. 156-198). A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences
  • Brandist C (2022) In Mrugalski M, Schahadat S & Wutsdorff I (Ed.), Central and Eastern European Literary Theory and the West (pp. 152-163). De Gruyter
  • Brandist C (2022) In Mrugalski M, Schahadat S & Wutsdorff I (Ed.), Central and Eastern European Literary Theory and the West (pp. 547-560). De Gruyter
  • Brandist C (2022) In Mrugalski M, Schahadat S & Wutsdorff I (Ed.), Central and Eastern European Literary Theory and the West (pp. 472-485). De Gruyter
  • Brandist C (2022) In Mrugalski M, Schahadat S & Wutsdorff I (Ed.), Central and Eastern European Literary Theory and the West (pp. 821-832). De Gruyter
  • Brandist C (2022) , Stalin Era Intellectuals (pp. 218-238). Routledge
  • Brandist C (2022) The Origins of Marxist Oriental Studies in the USSR and its Stalinist Distortion, PROBINGS AND RE-PROBINGS: ESSAYS IN MARXIAN REAWAKENING (pp. 82-109).
  • Brandist C (2020) The Origins of Marxist Oriental Studies in the USSR and Its Stalinist Distortion In Ray S & Gupta S (Ed.), PROBINGS AND RE-PROBINGS: Essays in Marxian Reawakening (pp. 78-105). New Delhi: Aakar Books.
  • Brandist C (2020) , Bakhtin in the Fullness of Time (pp. 19-30). Routledge
  • Brandist C & Lahteenmaki M (2020) Os primordios da Linguistica Sovietica e os ensaios de Mikhail Bakhtin sobre o romance dos anos 1930 In Zandwais A & Vidon L (Ed.), A Pesquisa sob o enfoque dos estudos do Cirulo de Bakhtin (pp. 41-72).
  • Brandist C (2019) Bakhtin’s Idealism and What it Means for Applications of his Ideas In de Paula L & Stafuzza G (Ed.), Círculo de Bakhtin: concepções em construção (pp. 237-254). Campinas: Mercado de Letras.
  • Brandist C (2019) O idealismo de Bakhtin e o que ele significa para as aplicações de suas ideias In de Paula L & Stafuzza G (Ed.), Círculo de Bakhtin: concepções em construção (pp. 117-136). Campinas: Mercado de Letras.
  • Brandist C (2018) Language, Culture and the Politics of Delimitation in Revolutionary Russia: Some Forgotten Origins of Postcolonial Theory In Bharucha N, Rajeswaran S & Stierstorfer K (Ed.), Beyond Borders and Boundaries: Diasporic Images and Representations in Literature and Cinema (pp. 19-36). New Delhi: Navvishnu.
  • Brandist C (2018) In Bandlamudi L & Ramakrishnan EV (Ed.), Bakhtinian Explorations of Indian Culture: Pluralism, Dogma and Dialogue Through History (pp. 21-36). Springer
  • Brandist C (2016) , Language Ideology and the Human New Interventions (pp. 75-93).
  • Brandist C (2015) 'Zhivoe slovo', Isegoria and the Politics of Deliberation in Revolutionary Russia, Zhivoe slovo: Logos-golos-dvizhenie-zhest (pp. 66-75). Moscow: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie.
  • Serezhnikov VK (2015) Otchet o deitel'nosti gosudarstvennogo instituta slova v sviazi s istoriei ego vozdniknoveniia In Brandist C (Ed.), Zhivoe slovo: Logos-golos-dvizhenie-zhest (pp. 87-104). Moscow: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie.
  • Brandist CS (2015) The Marrist Critique of Indo-Europeanism Revisited: Reconsidering Its Roots and Heritage In E.I. Riekhakainen EI & Slepokurov, NA (Ed.), K 150-letiiu kafedry obshchegoiazykoznaniia Sankt-Peterburgskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta: sbornik statei (pp. 12-20). St. Petersburg: SPBGU.
  • Heath AD & Scroop D (2014) Introduction In heath A & scroop D (Ed.), Transatlantic Social Politics (pp. 1-18). New York: Palgrave USA.
  • Brandist C (2012) Rhetoric, agitation and propaganda: Reflections on the discourse of democracy (with some lessons from early Soviet Russia), Language Ideology and the Human New Interventions (pp. 94-112).
  • Brandist C (2012) Linguistica sociólogica em Leningrado: O instituto de Estudos Comparados das Literaturas e Línguas do Ocidente e do Oriente (ILJaZV) 1921-1933 In Campos MIB & Hohlenwerger Schettini R (Ed.), Repensando o círculo de Bakhtin: novas perspectivas na história intellectual (pp. 155-182). Editora Contexto
  • Brandist C & Lähteenmäki M (2010) , Politics and the Theory of Language in the USSR 1917–1938 (pp. 69-88). Anthem Press
  • Brandist C (2010) , Politics and the Theory of Language in the USSR 1917–1938 (pp. 151-168). Anthem Press
  • Brandist C (2004) Hegemony, Social Science Encyclopedia (pp. 445-447).
  • Bostad F, Brandist C, Evensen LS & Faber HC (2004) , Bakhtinian Perspectives on Language and Culture (pp. 1-19). Palgrave Macmillan UK
  • Brandist C (2004) Voloshinov's Dilemma: On the Philosophical Roots of the Dialogic Theory of the Utterance, The Bakhtin Circle: In the Master's Absence (pp. 97-124). Manchester, England: Manchester University Press.
  • Brandist C (2004) The Theory and Practice of 'Scientific Parody' in Early Soviet Russia, Reflective Laughter: Aspects of Humour in Russian Culture (pp. 147-156). London, England: Anthem Press.
  • Brandist C (2004) , Bakhtinian Perspectives on Language and Culture (pp. 23-45). Palgrave Macmillan UK
  • Brandist C (2004) Law and the Genres of Discourse: The Bakhtin Circle's Theory of Language and the Phenomenology of Language and the Phenomenology of Right, Bakhtinian Perspectives on Language and Culture: Meaning in Language, Art and New Media (pp. 23-45). Basingstoke, England: Palgrave Macmillan (London).
  • Brandist C & Tihanov G (2000) , Materializing Bakhtin (pp. 1-2). Palgrave Macmillan UK
  • Oittinen V & Viljanen E () Routledge

Conference proceedings

  • Brandist C (2025) From Ganga to Volga: Two Indian Anti-caste, Buddhist Intellectuals Visit Early Soviet Russia. Бегство в "край желанного" [Escape to the "desired land"], Vol. 58(58) (pp 186-205). Helsinki, 19 June 2023 - 19 June 2023.

Dictionary or encyclopaedia entries

  • Brandist C Wiley.

Other

  • Brandist C (2016) The Soviet System, Neoliberalism and British Universities. Social Science Space.
  • Brandist C (2016) Back in the USSR: The risks of Soviet-style managerialism in UK universities. Times Higher Education, 30-30.
  • Brandist C (2015) Interview with Prof. Craig Brandist. Frontier.
  • Brandist C (2014) My rallies of endeavour will ensure the impact our dear leaders desire (A very Stalinist management model). Times Higher Education(2154).
Research group

Research students currently supervised

  • Julia Allison
  • Elena Platonova
Teaching activities
  • MDL103 Introduction to European Cinema
  • MDL6001 Research Methods for Modern Languages
  • MDL6002 Dissertation Support
  • RUS117 The Soviet Union 1917-1991
  • RUS120 Introduction to Russian Culture
  • RUS312 Politics and Culture in the USSR 1917-38
  • MDL6700 Critical Theory I
  • MDL6710 Critical Theory II
Professional activities and memberships

President of Sheffield UCU