Elena Gladun is a Doctor of Law, an associate professor at the Institute of State and Law, the University of Tyumen. Her other positions at the same university are the executive editor of the BRICS Law Journal bricslawjournal.com since 2016 and the Advisor to the President of the University of Tyumen (2012-2015). Since 2014 up to present time, she has been leading the Research Division of the Institute of State and Law “Legal and economic frameworks for sustainable development of the northern territories in Russia” and supervises research projects, grant writing activities and faculty networking in the relevant area of study.
The educational background of Elena Gladun is Department of Foreign Languages at the University of Tyumen (1992-1997), Law Department at the University of Tyumen (1995-1999) and a Post-graduate school at the Law Department of the same University (2002-2004). Her dissertation thesis topic is “Division of powers in the field of subsoil use in a federal state (study of the Constitutions and laws in Russia, the United States of America and Canada)”
In 2012-2015, as the Advisor to the President of University she was a decision-making person for the University international strategy. For example, Elena determined priority areas of the University internationalization process, collaborated with University stakeholders to support internationalization of educational and research projects. Her main responsibility was to build networks with international universities and to represent the University administration in international projects.
Currently, Elena is a local coordinator of the University of Arctic (UArctic) http://www.uarctic.org/ and a contact person and coordinator of North-to-North exchange program within UArctic. She has launched the Arctic Initiative Center with the functions to coordinate Arctic-related projects, to assess educational programs, grants competitions, scientific research, student events on Arctic topics.
Elena actively participates in educational and research projects with foreign universities – the University of Münster (Germany), Osnabruck University of Applied Sciences (Germany), Tallinn University (Estonia), Stockholm University (Sweden), Univesity of Wolverhampton (Great Britain), and also with the international companies.
Elena’s international collaboration experience includes teaching at the University of Wyoming (USA), Wolverhampton University (United Kingdom), Tallinn University (Estonia); five year of team work with the German Universities, co-authorship in the research papers. Recently she has carried out a joint research in the area of public participation in local government with the University of Central Florida. Presently, Elena takes part in the Arctic Law Thematic Network (the Sub-group of Philosophy of Law in the Arctic) and Erasmus Mobility Program with Tallinn University.
Her main research interests are natural resources management and environmental law; indigenous issues in the process of industrial development of the Arctic territories; nature management and environmental protection in the Arctic. She has published about 50 papers in peer reviewed journals and has taken part in more than 30 Russian and international conferences.
Elena has got more than ten years of experience in studying indigenous issues and arctic communities in the northern areas of the Russian Federation (Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District) and abroad (USA, Norway). This has been resulted in 17 papers devoted to the indigenous peoples; for example, she is a co-author of the book titled “Guarantees of Rights and Interests of Indigenous Peoples in the Russian North” (Tyumen State University, 2007) and the book “The Interconnected Arctic” (international co-authorship, Springer Polar Sciences).
In 2014 Elena launched an extracurricular international project of Tyumen University (International Summer School “Way to the North”). It is a multidisciplinary approach to the study of northern territories of Russia (Tyumen Region, Khanty-Mansiik Autonomous District, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District) bringing together students and professors from the USA, Germany, Norway and other European countries. It is the unique opportunity to travel to the Russian North, to see the historical and archeological sites, to stay with the northern indigenous peoples and to build a network with Russian young people, researchers and businessmen.
Elena has carried out a range of interdisciplinary research projects: “Sustainable Land Management and Adaptation Strategies to Climate Change” (2011-2016); “Water Quality and Sustainable Ecosystems in the Conditions of Environmental and Climatic Change in Western Siberia” (Laboratory of Water Quality, Stability of Water Ecosystems and Ecotoxicology, Tyumen State University and Russian Academy of Science, 2012). She is the author of several draft bills for the Legislature of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District– State Support Measures to the Indigenous Peoples’ Communities (2006), Reindeer Herding (2013), among others.
In 2015 Elena was awarded a Letter of Honor by the Russian Ministry of Education and Research.