Lauren Woodard

Lauren Woodard is a cultural anthropologist and Postdoctoral Associate at the MacMillan Center. Her research focuses on migration, race, and national identity along the Russian-Chinese border. Based on 13 months of ethnographic fieldwork conducted among government officials and immigrants in Moscow and Primorskii krai, her book project, The Politics of Return, examines tensions between inclusion and exclusion in Russia’s migration policies. 

Lauren received her PhD (2019) and MA (2015) in Anthropology from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and her BA (2011) in Russian Civilization from Smith College. Her work has been funded by the Kennan Institute, Social Science Research Council, Wenner-Gren Foundation, and Fulbright and published in the Political and Legal Anthropology Review.