Marina Yusupova is a Senior Research Associate working on the TARGETED-MPI project, which focuses on advancing gender equality in Business and Management Schools through fostering inclusive academic cultures and integrating gender sensitive perspective in research, teaching and innovation content. The project is funded by the EU Horizon 2020 and includes six universities in Europe and the Middle East. Marina’s specific focus within the project is to lead development and implementation of a bespoke Gender Equality Plan for LUMS, and research practical and theoretical approaches to organisational culture change.

Marina has a keen interest in postcolonial and decolonial feminist perspectives, critical race theory, decolonising western epistemologies of knowledge production in social sciences, and the intersecting dynamics of masculine and imperial domination. Her own research documents the relationship between gender, race and coloniality in the post-Soviet contexts. Within this research area, Marina currently investigates how the legacy of the Russian/Soviet empire(s) and the European modern/colonial projects shapes masculine choices, aspirations and identities in Russia. She locates post-Soviet Russia within the persisting structures of global coloniality to analyse how Russian men use the core modern/colonial narratives for establishing their individual masculinities.

Before coming to Lancaster University, Marina worked as a postdoctoral scholar at Newcastle University (2018-2021). In collaboration with Professor Sharon Mavin, she explored women leaders’ narratives of competition in the UK and the gendered implications of workplace competition under neoliberalism. Marina was awarded the Outstanding Early Career Researcher of the Year at Newcastle University Business School for research outputs, several media appearances, and service to the University in the academic year 2019/2020. She has previously been the Aleksanteri Fellow at the University of Helsinki, Finland (2019) and Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Stony Brook University, USA (2011-2012).

Marina received her first degree in Sociology from Samara State University (Russia) in 2006 and a PhD in Sociology (Russian Studies) from the University of Manchester in 2017. She holds the status of Higher Education Academy Fellow and has vast experience of teaching on UG and PG modules in Sociology and Organisation Studies.