‘HSE is Becoming, in My Eyes, a Wonderful International Academic Community’
From 28th March to 4th April 2014 the Laboratory for Comparative Social Research is holding its 4th International Workshop 'Social and Cultural Changes in Cross-National Perspective: Values and Modernization' at the HSE in Moscow. Key note speaker Arye Rattnet, Director of the Centre for study of Crime, Law & Society and Professor of the Department of Sociology at the University of Haifa in Israel, gave a short interview to the HSE English Language News Service about his positive experience of working with HSE students and researchers.
― Tell us about your cooperation with HSE....
― My cooperation with HSE begun a year and a half ago when I was first invited to attend and give a presentation at the LCSR workshop in St. Petersburg. I presented my study on Trust and Legitimacy in the Law and The legal system both in Israel and other countries including Russia, but focusing also in our sample on the immigrants from the former Soviet Union to Israel. I was amazed to see how much interest there was especially from HSE students and research fellows from LCSR. Since then I have been coming back to the workshops here in Moscow.
I am also in touch with the HSE Sociology Department and we are looking at some possibilities to expand cooperation with my home university, the University of Haifa, Israel.
Some research fellows from LCSR have already come to the University of Haifa to work with me on their projects, and a larger group is intended to come later in the summer.
― What do you find inspiring about the HSE and how do you find Moscow as a place to work and live in, or visit?
― The LCSR is not like other big conferences that I have attended along the years. It is a workshop, where the students and research fellows present their work, get feedback, integrate it into their work and then present it again at the next workshop. It’s great to follow their progress and to see their motivation to develop themselves. LCSR is becoming like a large family of students, scholars and research fellows from all over the world and this is a wonderful experience. It’s a very close and warm working relationship, which makes the stay here in Moscow very pleasant.
I delivered a paper - Macro and Micro Perspectives Explaining Corruption: Is Something Missing?. In my research I attempted to see whether individual characteristics such as moral judgement might add to explanations of corrupt behaviour.
This is my second visit to Moscow and I am very impressed by the city and its attractions, I have attended some wonderful classical music concerts and look forward to more.
HSE is becoming, in my eyes, a wonderful international academic community and I hope that it will continue to grow and develop.
Anna Chernyakhovskaya, specially for the HSE news service
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