2022 – present: independent researcher, associate researcher at the French Institute for Central Asian Studies (IFEAC).
2021 – 2022: senior researcher at the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IEA RAS), editor of the Russian version of the journal Medical Anthropology and Bioethics.
2019 – 2021: researcher at the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IEA RAS); editor of the Russian version of the journal Medical Anthropology and Bioethics.
2019: PhD in historical sciences (Ethnography, ethnology and anthropology)
Thesis: Shamanism and Spiritual and Magical Practices of the Kyrgyz People
2004 – 2019: various media in Kyrgyzstan, Russia, as well as international media.
1999 – 2004: Balasagyn Kyrgyz National University, Faculty of Journalism, bachelor’s degree and specialisation.
Nestor Manichkin conducts research in the field of social anthropology using interdisciplinary approaches. His research, covering regions such as Central Asia (mainly Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan) and the Caribbean (mainly the African diaspora), focuses primarily on elucidating the role and specificity of religious and other sacred practices in maintaining ethnocultural identity, historical memory, and social functioning. He is the author of two monographs: ‘Shamanism and Spiritual-Magical Practices of the Kyrgyz People’ (2019) and ‘Invisible Horsemen: Possession Cults through the Eyes of Scholars’ (2024). He actively collaborates with a number of civil and scientific institutions in Germany, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Cuba, promotes science, and participates in cultural and literary life.
Monographs:
2024: Invisible Horsemen: Possession Cults through the Eyes of Scholars. Moscow: AST.
2019: Shamanism and Spiritual-Magical Practices of Kyrgyz People. Moscow: Smart Ivent.
Chapters in Edited Volumes:
2025 ‘Sham zhaguu: when spirits come through the flames’ and ‘Toktorbai from Toktogul: shaman, wanderer and storyteller’ in B. Menzel and A. Tessmann (ed.) Dwelling in Parallel Worlds. New Age and Esoteric Milieus in the Soviet Period and Afterwards, Münster: LIT-Verlag.
2024 ‘Socialist in form, national in content. Cultural policy and the turning point in the development of documentary cinema in Soviet Kazakhstan” and ‘Songs saved us: the song folklore of deported peoples as a means of preserving historical memory and ethnocultural identity’ in Dalaeva T., Sultangalieva G., Manichkim N., Krupko I. Audiovisual stories of social history and cultural memory of Kazakh society (late 19th – early 20th centuries). Almaty: Press Co.
2021 ‘Abundance of knowledge doesn’t teach men to be wise: How can you stop collecting facts and start thinking?’ In M. Nagrishko (ed.) The end of the familiar world. ‘Knife’ magazine’s guide to new ethics, new relationships and new justice. Moscow: Alpina non-fiction.
2020 [together with Alexander Mikhailowski] ‘Martin Heidegger and the future: why technology does not have a technical essence and why poetry is needed in the 21st century’ in Yu.M. Romanenko (ed) Martin Heidegger and Russian philosophical thought. St. Petersburg: RHGA.
Journal Articles:
2025 “Security agency surveillance of the Greek Catholic underground among the special resettlers of Soviet Kazakhstan”, KazNU Bulletin. Historical Series, vol. 116, No. 1,, pp. 142-154.
2022 “The Cuban Rite ‘Cambio de Vida’: The Substitute Victims and Magical Treatment Methods in the 21st Century”, Herald of Anthropology, vol. 4, pp. 230–245.
2022 “The Osain Cult: The Sacred Forest, Witchcraft, and Green Medicine in Cuba”, Anthropological Forum, vol. 52, pp. 193–21.
2021 “Reciprocity of the Living and the Dead: Sacrifices and Possession in Afrogenic Traditions”, Ethnographic Review, vol. 2, pp. 161–178.
2021 “This is the Speech of the Dead”: Lengua Congo – the Sacred Language in the Religious and Magical Tradition of Palo Monte”, Traditional Culture, vol. 22, no 4, pp. 96–11.
2020 “Mama Francisca: Ethnic-Cultural Memory in the Cuban Cult of Spiritual Dolls”, Ethnographic Review, 2020, no 1, pp. 132–152.
2017 “Some Modern Magical Rites of the Kyrgyz People: a Shamanistic Perspective”, Bulletin of KIGI RAS, no 1, pp. 48–57.
2016 “Spiritual and poetic improvisations from the manuscript by Togolok Moldo in the context of Central Asian shamanism”, Traditional Culture, no 1, pp. 75–80.
2016 “Sacral experiences: new evidence on the characteristics of types of altered states of consciousness and the differentiation of Kyrgyz shamanism”, Siberian Historical Research, no 4, pp. 216–235.
