Dr. Aleksandr Osipian

Dr. Alexandr Osipian

Researcher
+49 (0) 341 234264 91
ORCID Entanglements and Globalisation

  • About

    Alexandr Osipian was born in Ukraine. He studied history at the National University of Chernivtsi and received his doctorate in history from the National University of Donetsk in 1999. From 1994 to 2014, he was teaching at the Kramatorsk Institute for Economics and Humanities, Kramatorsk, Ukraine (since 2000 as Associate Professor of History). From 2014 to 2017, he was a senior research fellow at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and from 2017 to 2020, a visiting research fellow at the Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe (GWZO) in Leipzig. From 2020-2022 he was Research Fellow at the Osteuropa-Institut, Free University of Berlin. 2025-2026 Professor of the Entangled History of Ukraine at the European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder).

    Since June 2026 Alexandr Osipian has been a research fellow at the GWZO.

  • Work focus

    • Long-distance trade between the Middle East and Eastern Europe in early modern epoch
    • Armenian diaspora in Eastern Europe, 13th–19th centuries
    • Cultural history of early modern Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
    • Cultural memory and politics of history in Russia, Poland and Ukraine, 1991–2026
    • Deindustrialization and its political implications in the old industrial region of Donbas in comparative perspective
    • Russian war against Ukraine, 2014–2026

  • Functions (on committees)/memberships

    • Member of the »Association Internationale des Etudes Arméniennes« (AIEA)
    • Member of the »Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies« (ASEEES)

  • Teaching

    October 2018 – March 2019, Visiting Professor of History at the Center for Eastern Europe, Justus Liebig University of Giessen.

  • Series issuance

    • Member of the editorial board of the journal and book series Transponticae: the Black Sea Studies
    • Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the GWZO Early Career Research Group »Global Armenia/ns. Entangled Histories of Central and Eastern Europe and the Caucasus«

Current topic of research

The globalisation of trade and the proliferation of merchant networks were defining features of the early modern period. In Central and Eastern Europe, most of the long-distance trade was conducted by stateless diaspora communities, including Armenians, Greeks and Jews. Among them, Armenian merchants were particularly successful, establishing trade routes that spanned from Poland-Lithuania to Russia, the Ottoman Empire and Persia.

 

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