Svetlana Cecovic, Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Humanities (School of Philology), came to the Higher School of Economics with the aim of working in an international environment, which she had become accustomed to during her PhD studies at the University of Louvain in Belgium.
How are students and graduates adjusting and adapting to the realities in their educational and career trajectories? What role does culture play in the sociology of education? How are attitudes towards higher education changing? These are just some of the many questions being addressed over the course a two-day conference entitled ‘Cultural Sociology and Education: Meanings, Choices and Trajectories’ that is being held on December 1-2 at the HSE Institute of Education in Moscow. HSE News Service has spoken to two conference participants, James Hurlbert of Yale University and Amy Binder from University of California, San Diego.
On November 15-16, an international symposium dedicated to childhood and adolescence will take place in Moscow in honour of the 120th anniversary of Lev Vygotsky’s birth. Building on the traditions established by the renowned Soviet psychologist, who made a number of contributions to psychology, pedagogy and defectology, the symposium will seek to promote analysis and discussion of the notions of childhood and reflection on how concepts of cultural-historical theory are used in contemporary studies of childhood and maturation.
On October 21 Peter Maassen, Professor in Higher Education Studies in the Faculty of Education at the University of Oslo, gave a presentation at the 7th International Conference held in Moscow by the Russian Association of Higher Education Researchers. Professor Maassen’s presentation was entitled ‘The University’s Governance Paradox’, in which he spoke about the contradiction between the development of university leadership and the realities of exercising control in universities.
On October 21, the HSE Poletayev Institute for Theoretical and Historical Studies in the Humanities hosted a lecture entitled ‘Classics in the Modern Age: Online Opera Fans Battle for the Enigmatic Russian Soul’. Delivered by Emily Erken, Lecturer of Musicology at The Ohio State University’s School of Music, her lecture covered the peculiarities of Runet contributors in their reactions to contemporary productions of classic operas. Among other topics, her lecture addressed how Russians today are seeking to rethink the moral identity of the country in which they live and how representatives from a number of cultural groups present their current views as a natural development of the national heritage.
HSE’s Faculty of Law is a partner of the Fulbright Scholar Programme and each year has the opportunity to host a Distinguished Chair in Sustainable Development. David Wirth, a Professor who teaches and supervises research at Boston College Law School, arrived at HSE in this capacity in September 2016. He has shared his research, teaching and collaboration plans for the upcoming academic year at HSE with The HSE Look bulletin.
On Monday, October 3, two professors of anthropology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) – Heather Paxson and Stefan Helmreich – delivered a seminar for students of HSE St. Petersburg Master's programme in Applied and Interdisciplinary History. A presentation by Professor Paxson focused on how the microbiopolitics of cheese making in the U.S. presupposed and promoted industrial methods and standards and how in recent decades interest in producing and consuming artisanally made, raw-milk cheese has risen dramatically.
On October 10, the HSE School of Public Administration hosted its monthly discussion series. This month’s event is entitled ‘Stress Test for Public Finances – Policy-Responses to the Financial and Economic Crisis in the OECD’ and was led by Prof. Dr. Uwe Wagschal of the University of Freiburg (Germany). Professor Wagschal's talk focused on the consequences of massive monetary and fiscal stimulus for the public purse and will compare the fiscal packages in 28 OECD-countries aimed at combating an economic downturn following the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008.
On September 16, the Centre for Cultural Sociology and Anthropology of Education (HSE Institute of Education) held a seminar entitled ‘Trajectories and Educational Choice’ that brought together experts to discuss a number of topics related to educational expansion and the relationship between schooling and economic development.
From September 25 till October 5 2016, Professor Dr Joachim Küpper of the Free University of Berlin will deliver a series of lectures on ‘Humanities and Conceptualization of Time at HSE Moscow. Joachim Küpper’s travel to HSE follows the university’s decision this past summer to join a key project run by the Dahlem Humanities Center at the Free University of Berlin called ‘The Thematic Network Principles of Cultural Dynamics’.
