‘Studying at HSE Was a Chance for Me to Get to Know Some Supportive Seniors, Knowledgeable Professors, and Wonderful Friends’
On August 4, 2023, a pre-defence of the thesis on ‘Refugee-Host Community Conflict over Assimilation, Integration, and State Legitimacy: The Case of Rohingyas in Bangladesh’ by Md. Reza Habib will be held at HSE University. The preliminary defence will take place at a joint meeting of the HSE School of Sociology and the International Laboratory for Social Integration Research. Md. Reza Habib shared his experience of studying and preparing his PhD with the HSE News Service.
Md. Reza Habib, from Bangladesh, is currently a PhD research student in sociology at the Doctoral School of Sociology at HSE University in Moscow. He earned his bachelor's, master's, and M.Phil. degrees in anthropology from the University of Dhaka in Bangladesh. He also completed a second master's programme in Population and Development in 2019 at HSE University.
Md. Reza Habib, PhD student in sociology at the Doctoral School of Sociology
My three years at this university were focused on research, which improved my knowledge, abilities, and skills. It was a wonderful chance for me to get to know some supportive seniors, knowledgeable professors, and wonderful friends.
For the duration of my academic year, I resided in Moscow. Sincerely, I adore Moscow, especially the excellent and reasonably priced metro. Living expenses weren't very high. The university has equipped the dorms with a variety of amenities for the students. Additionally, the city's many historical sites, parks, museums, and cultural events always attracted me, and I spent a lot of time there.
During my PhD programme, I studied a number of significant subjects that improved my theoretical knowledge and skills and perfectly assisted my research activities
These subjects included comparative and historical sociology, bibliographies, and pedagogy.
For my PhD, I was awarded a Russian government quota scholarship. I also found that the department of Sociology is research-oriented and my research interests perfectly correspond to its research portfolio. In this department, I also met a number of well-known professors and experienced researchers.
The topic of my current research is "Refugee-Host Community Conflict over Assimilation, Integration, and State Legitimacy: The Case of Rohingyas in Bangladesh". I will be defending my PhD thesis through publication. As required by the university, I have been able to publish several articles in various reputed journals.
I meet my scientific adviser, Dr Arnab Roy Chowdhury, both virtually and in person to discuss my work progress, as well as receive advice on my work and how to navigate research and publish articles in journals. I am planning to publish more research in reputable journals by engaging myself in the academic world.
Arnab Roy Chowdhury, Assistant Professor at the School of Sociology, Academic Supervisor
Md. Reza Habib has been a very special student for me for multiple reasons. He comes from a modest, mofussil [rural] family background in Bangladesh and has worked very hard to come up to this level. In the past four years, since 2019, he has drastically transformed himself in all possible ways to become a scholar. He improved his academic capabilities, engaged deeply with his PhD topic on Rohingya refugee and host-community conflict issues in Bangladesh, and completed his highly immersive fieldwork. The supervision over the last four years was organised both online and offline. We regularly meet at least once a month to discuss various scholarly issues and papers informally over coffee. These informal discussions on empirical and conceptual issues shaped his academic persona and transformed him slowly but steadily.
We decided to have a PhD with publications (rather than a thesis), which was indeed a challenging “project” to undertake, as he was required to publish at least three papers in Scopus-featured journals
Initially, we had to work very hard, and it took more than a year for the first paper to get accepted and published. Eventually, Reza was able to publish six papers, one of which is in a Scopus Q1 journal and the rest mostly in Scopus Q3 and Q2 journals. Only two of them are co-authored and the rest single-authored, which surpassed my expectations.
Despite difficulties and restrictions due to COVID-19, he attended an international conference in Vietnam in 2021 and formed collaborations with renowned scholars such as Professor John Hutnyk, who is very well-known for his path-breaking work in cultural studies and has published widely. Despite restricted mobility during the pandemic, under my tutelage over the last four years, Reza has also formed collaborations with scholars from James Cook University (Singapore branch) and the University of Sharjah, UAE. I strongly believe that international collaborations are crucial for knowledge production and academic mobility, which would eventually shape his ideas and scholarship in the long run. He did all of these along with his part-time job, which was indeed a difficult task and required the ability to multitask.
After he successfully defends his PhD in the next 4–5 months, he will be the first PhD produced under my supervision. That would not only make me extremely proud of his achievement, but also more confident about my capabilities. I wish him every success in life.
Hari the Robot Recommends
We created Hari the robot and named him after Hari Seldon, a character who can predict the future in the works of science fiction writer Isaac Asimov. He is based on a machine-learning model that selects news based on the behavioural metrics of HSE website users.
Don’t worry — we don’t collect any personal data for this.
‘You Should Study Mathematics, Combinatorics, and Catalan Numbers instead of Playing Computer Games’
November 19
Concert-Research on Pokrovka
November 13
Maxim Reshetnikov: ‘An Effective Open Market Economy Has Been Built in Russia’
November 13
See also:
‘Getting a PhD Is Just the Beginning’
In autumn 2024, Yea Rem Choi, from South Korea, Junior Research Fellow at the International Laboratory for Supercomputer Atomistic Modelling and Multi-scale Analysis and assistant at the HSE MIEM School of Applied Mathematics, defended his doctoral dissertation on applied mathematics at HSE University. Yea Rem Choi talked to the HSE News Service about the soft skills that helped him in his research, how he is building a career, and why he chose HSE University for his doctoral studies.
‘My Thesis Defence Was a Lively Discussion’
Han Zhang, from China, has worked at the International Laboratory for Evaluation of Practices and Innovations in Education at HSE University-Moscow since 2023. In October 2024, she successfully defended her PhD thesis on the relationship between collaborative peer editing and the quality of academic writing in a second language. She spoke with the HSE News Service about why she chose to join HSE University and how her research can be used to improve student writing performance.
Doctoral Student Explores the Challenges Faced by International PhD Seekers During the Pandemic
In late June 2024, a pre-defence of Nurudeen Abdul-Rahaman’s dissertation took place at the HSE Institute of Education. Nurudeen Abdul-Rahaman, a doctoral student from Ghana, has presented his dissertation ‘Academic and Social Integration of Foreign Doctoral Students at Russian Universities during the Covid-19 Pandemic’ for the degree of Candidate of Sciences in Education (PhD).The HSE News Service spoke with Nurudeen as well as his academic supervisor, Evgeniy Terentev, Director of the Institute of Education, about their extensive research on international doctoral students in Russia and Nurudeen's contribution to this research.
‘We Cannot Understand the Modern Ideological Confrontation without the Accusations that Emerged during the Lausanne Process’
Rainer Matos Franco, from Mexico, defended his PhD thesis with honours at HSE University this June. In his dissertation, Rainer Matos Franco examines the history of anticommunism in Europe during the 1920s. The HSE News Service spoke with Rainer and his academic supervisor, Tatiana Borisova, about the significance of the Lausanne Process for the Cold War and contemporary history, the opportunities provided by HSE University for international PhD candidates, and the challenges of working with a vast database of historical sources.
‘I Am Able to Tell My Students Things That I Always Wanted to Tell People in Russia’
Ana Livia Araujo Esteves, from Sao Paulo, Brazil, is a journalist, a third-year doctoral student of International Relations, and visiting lecturer at the HSE School of International Regional Studies. In her interview for the HSE News Service, she speaks about her motivation to carry out research and teach students in Russia, shares some tips for people from Latin America living in Moscow, and talks about why a dog can be a reason to stay in Russia for just a bit longer.
Zaruhi Hakobyan Shortlisted for HSE Alumni Awards
Zaruhi Hakobyan, master’s graduate of the HSE University Faculty of Economic Sciences and research scientist at the University of Luxembourg, is involved not only in research but also in organising academic events for young scientists and students. As a foreign graduate of HSE University, Zaruhi was nominated for the HSE Alumni Awards ‘for her tireless enthusiasm in popularising economic science, teaching, and research at the international level’ and made the shortlist.
HSE Researchers Study Emerging Adulthood in Russia
Sociology today distinguishes more developmental stages of growing up than just childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood, as commemorated in Leo Tolstoy’s trilogy Childhood, Boyhood, Youth. For the past two decades, sociologists have been exploring the concept of emerging adulthood, a transitional stage that occurs between adolescence and early adulthood. Researchers at the HSE Institute of Education have discovered that in Russia, one out of every two young respondents, with females more frequently than males, falls within the emerging adult category. The study findings have been published in Emerging Adulthood.
‘My Research Has Evolved into A Broader and More Encompassing Vision’
Seungmin Jin, from South Korea, is researching the field of Explainable AI and planning to defend his PhD on ‘A Visual Analytics System for Explaining and Improving Attention-Based Traffic Forecasting Models’ at HSE University this year. In September, he passed the pre-defence procedure at the HSE Faculty of Computer Science School of Data Analysis and Artificial Intelligence. In his interview for the HSE News Service, he talks about his academic path and plans for the future.
News Finds You: HSE Researchers Study Media Consumption of People Who Avoid News
News avoidance is a global phenomenon that affects millions of people around the world. Despite their conscious refusal to consume media content, many argue that the most important news still finds them. Researchers at the HSE Laboratory for Studies in Economic Sociology have studied how people perceive the ‘news-finds-me’ effect. The results of the study were published in the Bulletin of Moscow University.
Good Deeds Bring Moral Satisfaction to Russians
Researchers from HSE University have analysed why people feel happier when they help others. It turns out that joy is caused by different reasons, depending on who we help — relatives or strangers. In both cases, happiness brings moral satisfaction from doing a good deed, but helping loved ones is also associated with satisfying the need for belonging and acceptance, while helping strangers provides a sense of autonomy. The results of the research were published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships.