Oleg A. Donskikh

Oleg Albertovich Donskikh is a Russian sociologist, writer and eminent public figure.

 

Oleg was born on 13 October 1952 in Leningrad.

His father Albert Mikhaylovich is an engineer and ship constructor; mother Ada Sholomovna is Dr habil of technical sciences, professor, a specialist in the field of hydrodynamics.

In 1974 Oleg Donskikh graduated from the Department of Humanities of Novosibirsk State University.

In 1989-1994 he was the founder and the first Head of the laboratory of languages and cultures of indigenous peoples of the Siberian North in the Institute of the North Development Problems, Siberian Branch of Academy of Sciences of the USSR (Tyumen). During this period he was also Head of the projects "Interaction of cultures" and "Interaction and development of languages". He led research on the history of Orthodox missions in Northern Siberia.

In 1981 Oleg defended his PhD thesis "Methodological issues of the origin and development of ideal informational systems"; in 1990 his habilitaion doctoral dissertation "Philosophical analysis of the problem of the origin of language". In 1992 he was awarded the title of Professor.

From 1994 to 2003 he lived in Australia. For a time he was the Head of the Russian ethnic representatives of Victoria Province. In 2002 he defended his PhD thesis in Monash University (Melbourne). The dissertation topic is "Russian Philosophy as an Expression of Russian National Consciousness", (the scientific advisor was John Bigelow, the first of the two opponents John Passmore). The dissertation deals with, in particular, the formation of the tradition of Russian sophiology. Oleg taught the course "History of Russian Poetry" (in English) at the University of Melbourne.

Since 2004 Oleg Albertovich has been the Head of the Department of Philosophy, later the Department of Philosophy and Humanities of Novosibirsk State University of Economics and Management. In 2007-2012 he wrote weekly columns in the newspaper "Evening Novosibirsk".

He is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of the scientific journal Ideas and Ideals, a member of the Union of Journalists. He consistently criticises the current Russian educational reforms.

Prof Donskikh is the author of thirteen books, including Evolutionary Environments. Homo Sapiens — an Endangered Species? (Innsbruck, 2018; in co-authorship), A Will to Dignity (2nd ed.: Moscow, 2018), Degro(a)dation (Moscow, 2013), and more than 200 scientific, popular and reporter articles in periodicals.

His Scopus Author ID is 24782261100.