Society news at HSE University

The International Congress on Russia and Spain: Politics, Economics, Culture was the first to bring together leading Russian researchers on Spain and Spanish scholars representing various fields of the social sciences and humanities.

Coming up with a good idea for your own business is sometimes as easy as just looking at the experience you already have. After working in New York, model and businesswoman Anna Barsukova understood that any urban beauty who is always on the go desperately needs fresh-squeezed juices. This is how the Organic Religion detox bars came about. In the latest edition of Success Builder, Anna discusses why the university is more appealing than the runway and how the detox industry is growing and changing in Russia.

In 2012, HSE alumnus Evgeny Koudryavtsev opened the football school Championka for pre-schoolers. At the school, kids are able to develop social skills and a ‘sense of the ball’ using Western methodologies. In the latest edition of Success Builder, Evgeny discusses the advantages to such an approach, as well as how Harvard does athletics and why a businessman should be athletic.

On February 19, the award ceremony for the 2015 Startup of the Year competition was held at Moscow’s Digital October Centre. Nearly 300 applications were submitted for the competition from Russia, Kazakhstan, and Belarus. Twelve of the best projects made it to the finals in four main categories, as well as in a special category called ‘People’s Love.’ The winning teams included students and alumni of the Higher School of Economics.

On 5th February, American diplomat and political scientist Henry Kissinger visited the HSE Faculty of World Economics and International Affairs. On Kissinger’s initiative the meeting was organised as a seminar for a dozen or so of the brightest young academics at HSE, MGIMO and RAS institutes. The best master’s students were also invited. The event was chaired by Sergey Karaganov, Dean of the Faculty.

The Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania published its annual Global Go To Think Tank Index 2015. The index authors have been included the HSE laboratory in the list of Top Transparency and Good Governance Think Tanks for the second year in a row.

Working with fine art is not only about well-known artists and beautiful paintings; it also requires precise calculation, analysis, management, and even psychology. Art can be a business, and an entirely interesting business at that. HSE alumna Ekaterina Plastinina, who founded and co-owns the art agency Alma Arts, sat down with Success Builder to discuss how to become a connoisseur of the auction business, how to successfully purchase a painting, and why Dubai is better than London.

The media industry is one of today's most dynamic. Illegal downloading has succumbed to the laziness of the honest user, who is now able to watch films online for just 30 rubles. The Managing Director of Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, Andrei Gromkovskiy, tells Success Builder about the danger and allure of investing in media products, as well as whether there are ways to manipulate people through TV and whether art or business is most important in the world of film.