Stanislav Panin is a scholar of modern Western esotericism and new religious movements. His current research focuses on the study of alternative spirituality in the USSR. Stanislav graduated from Moscow State University and achieved a degree of candidate of sciences at the same university in 2015. He is currently a Ph.D. student in the Department of Religion at Rice University. Before coming to Houston in 2018, he had worked as an associate professor of philosophy and religious studies in several Russian institutions of higher education, including Mendeleyev University of Chemical Technology of Russia, Moscow Orthodox Institute, and Russian Christian Academy for Humanities.