Viktor Vakhstayn (b. 23 January 1981, in Penza, USSR) is a Russian born sociologist specializing in social theory, microsociology, and actor–network theory. In 2002 he graduated from the Faculty of Psychology of the V. G. Belinsky Penza State Pedagogical University (now Penza State University) and moved to Moscow, where he received a master’s degree in sociology at MSSES in 2003. In the same year, he graduated from the same programme at the University of Manchester. In 2007, he graduated from graduate school of the Higher School of Economics and obtained a Candidate of Sciences (Ph.D) degree in sociology by defending a thesis on “Framing Theory as a Method for Sociological Analysis of Everyday Life”. He currently serves as a research fellow at the Ariel University and the Center for Russian Studies.