Aleksandr Veselov
Aleksandr Veselov holds a PhD in Social Philosophy and works at the intersection of memory studies, digital anthropology, and game studies. His research focuses on cultural memory, emotions, and the representation of Soviet and post-Soviet history in video games. He is also the creator of Video Games with History, a media project dedicated to the study of history and cultural memory in video games.
The project
Title : Playing Resistance: Agency and the Memory of Protest in Video Games in Contemporary Russia.
"This project examines how independent Russian video games from the 2010s to the present engage with questions of agency, civic experience, and cultural memory. The study traces a broader shift from earlier games centered on direct action and political participation to later works shaped by endurance, disillusionment, and indirect forms of self-preservation. In this way, the study shows how contemporary Russian video games preserve, transform, and aestheticize difficult social experience in mediated form."
Hosting institution : Institut de recherche sur le cinéma et l'audiovisuel (IRCAV) de l'Université Sorbonne Nouvelle.
Selective Bibliography
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Veselov Aleksandr, “Between Despair and Irony: Gamification of the Canon and Narrative Modules of the Russian Internet Folk Universe Samosbor” in Pörzgen Yvonne, Slavic Video Games Studies, LIT Verlag, 2026
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Veselov Aleksandr, “Book review. Santos Luisa (2023) Cultures of Silence: The Power of Untold Narratives”, The February Journal, 01-02, London & New York, Routledge, 2023
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Veselov Aleksandr, “Social engineering: An analysis of core principles and paradigmatic features”, The National Journal of Social Work, 2017
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Veselov Aleksandr, “Strategies and tactics of social engineering in the contemporary paradigm”, The European Social Science Journal, 2011
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Veselov Aleksandr, “The subject of social engineering: Definitions, typology, and historical development”, Philosophy and Culture, 2011
