Semenova Valeria N.

Education:

• 2013: PhD Dissertation “Ethiopian iconography XIX-XX cent: ethnographic collections of the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera)” in History (Ethnography, Ethnology and Anthropology), Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) Russian Academy of Sciences (MAE RAS).
• 2007–2012: Ph.D. in Ethnography, Ethnology and Anthropology, Department of Africa, Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) Russian Academy of Sciences (MAE RAS).
• 2005–2007: M.A. in History of Asia and Africa, Faculty of Asian and African Studies, St.Petersburg State University.
• 2001–2005: B.A. in Philology of Asia and Africa, Faculty of Asian and African Studies, St.Petersburg State University.

Professional positions:

• Current: Assistant, Department of African Studies, Faculty of Asian and African Studies, St. Petersburg State University
• 2005 — up to now: Research fellow of the Department of Africa of MAE RAS; Curator of the permanent Exposition “Africa South of Sahara”; Curator of African Photoillustrative collections; Secretary of Foreign Affairs of MAE RAS.

Awards and honours:

• Diploma of the second degree of the Russian national competition of young lecturers for the course “African art” (2017)

Languages:

• Russian (native),
• Amharic (fluent),
• English (fluent),
• Geez (reading),
• Deutsch (reading),
• Italian (reading)

Research interests:

• Religious Christian painting of Ethiopia (esp. wall painting of the 19^th cent);
• Material culture and art of Africa;
• history of African art;
• manuscript tradition of Ethiopia;
• methods of Amharic teaching;
• traditional Ethiopian grammar books.

Teaching:

Courses taught:

• Amharic language
• Art of Africa
• Historical Grammar and Theoretical Aspects of Amharic Grammar

Publications:

• South-eastern Ethiopia: Christian enclaves among Muslim Oromo (on the material of the expedition of Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography Russian Ac. Of Sci. 22nd March 2008 – 5^th April 2008)” // Technologies of the 21^st century: biological, physical, informational and social aspects. The second St.-Petersburg Humbolt-Kolleg Conference. St.-Petersburg, Russia, October 7–9, 2008. Abstracts. pp. 38–39.
• The Lion, the lion cub, The Oxen and the Pigs: Interpreting a 1900`s Ethiopian Political Popular Painting // The Life and Times of Lïj Iyasu of Ethiopia: New Insights. Eloi Ficquet, Wolbert G. C. Smidt (Eds.). Zürich, Berlin: LIT Verlag, 2014. P. 75–79.

Congresses and conferences (abroad):

• 18th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies «Movements in Ethiopia, Ethiopia in Movement” (29 oct – 2 nov 2012, Dire Dawa, Ethiopia). Paper: «Interpreting a painting: art representation of the Ethiopian state»
• Herrenhausen Symposium «Positioning Ethnological Museums in the 21st Century» (21–23 June 2015, Hannover, Germany). Paper (poster): “The Ethiopian Ethnological Collections in St. Petersburg: Determined by the Soviet Union Scientific Tradition”. 

Expedition

• The expedition of Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography Russian Ac. Of Sci., Southeastern Ethiopia (Bale, Harar, Dire Dawa), 22nd March 2008 – 5^th April 2008.