Yuri Frantsuz
Born in Leningrad and graduated from the Leningrad Institute of Finance and Economics. After graduation, he worked at the USSR Academy of Science's Institute of Social and Economic Problems as a Research Fellow. In 1988 he defended his "kandidatstkaya" dissertation titled "Resource Supply of the Population Policy" (specialty "Economics of Population and Demography").
After being enrolled at the Graduate School in Sociology at the University of Minnesota and studying there, he defended a Ph. D. dissertation titled "The Impact of Societal Instability on Demographic Behavior (USSR / Russia: A Case Study)".
Papers and abstracts on the issues revolving around the topics of his dissertations, along with those dedicated to the impact of social inequality on health differentials and population theories, are published in peer-reviewed journals of Russia, Europe and US (one of them, co-authored—in the first quartile journal), as well as proceedings of domestic and international conferences and working papers.
Starting with his graduate education in Sociology at the University of Minnesota, he began teaching various courses in different academic settings. Currently, he has taught 20 courses, primarily in Sociological and Population Studies related disciplines, along with courses on Social Work and Social Policy. Yuri taught at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis Institute of Art, University of Houston, Institute of Eastern and Western Societies at the St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg University of the Humanities and Social Sciences and Higher School of Economics in St. Petersburg. Among the courses taught, 6 are authored and co-authored ones. He has taught both in English and Russian to undergraduate and MA students, in person and online.
Yuri has obtained several teaching and research grants, among the most important ones being Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (Central European University, 2008), Research Fellowship (Central European University, 2011) and Fulbright Research Fellowship (2020). Нe has initiated signing and implementing a Memorandum of Understanding and an Addendum between the St. Petersburg University of the Humanities and Social Sciences and University of Houston.
Honors and awards
- 2017 Award for Significant Achievements in Mentoring Students' Research Work (St. Petersburg University of Humanities and Social Sciences)
- 2016 Award for the author's course (co-authored) in English "Discussion of Social Problems" (High School of Economics, St. Petersburg branch)
- 2013 Diploma for Participation in a Contest for Teaching Mastery (St. Petersburg University of Humanities and Social Sciences)
- 1996 Award for Excellence as a Teaching Assistant (University of Minnesota, USA)
- 1988 Best paper presented in the competition of Young Researchers at the Institute for Social and Economic Problems (USSR Academy of Sciences)
- 1988 Research Proposal Award from the USSR Competition for the Best Sociological Program (Soviet Sociological Association, Moscow)