Ageing and Frailty: International Study and Seminar
In October, a two-day seminar entitled ‘Ageing and frailty in Norway and Russia’ was held by HSE University’s International Laboratory for Population and Health. In addition to purely demographic results concerning the changing age structure of the population and growing life expectancy, most presentations were devoted to the comparative assessment of physical and cognitive status among elderly people, cardiovascular aging, as well as social and medical support for the elderly. We spoke with the organizers and participants of the seminar about their research findings and the implications for society and public health.
The Second International Conference on Experience Economy: Key Speakers and Sessions
The 2nd International Conference on Experience Economy: Museum, Event, and Tourism Management will be held at HSE University in Perm from October 20–22. The Ministry of Education and Science of the Perm Region will be the general partner of the conference. The HSE News Service highlights some of the key speakers and sessions of the event.
‘Today, Ethical Questions Are Front and Centre’
The conference on Philosophy and Culture in Time of Pandemics ran from September 30 to 2 October 2021. It was divided into seven sessions held in a hybrid format. The organizers and participants discussed major topics such as social transformation during the pandemic, the role of mass media in shaping perceptions of the pandemic, and the epistemological and ethical issues that have arisen as a result.
Customs, Career Choices and Self-discrimination: Why Women Earn Less
Experts from the World Bank and HSE University discussed the gender gap in salaries in different countries and the impact of socio-cultural, economic and behavioural factors on differences in earnings.
‘Our Students Were Lucky to Talk to Top Experts’
University of Hamburg professors Denis Nosnitsin and Magdalena Krzyzanowska delivered a series of online lectures dedicated to the study of Ethiopian manuscripts. The course, which was developed for first-year students of the Institute for Oriental and Classical Studies, was held as part of the Digital Professors project. In an interview with the HSE news service, the professors talked about their research, teaching approaches, and impressions of lectures.
‘We Want to Become a Centre for Generating Ideas and Sharing Experience’
On September 28, the HSE Centre for Cultural Sociology held the first session of the Moscow Culture Workshop 2021–2022 – a series of meetings where participants have an opportunity to discuss research papers prepared by prominent scholars. Jeffrey C. Alexander, Lillian Chavenson Saden Professor of Sociology at Yale University, delivered the first lecture, entitled ‘Nature as Iconic Object: Its Performative Creation’. Dmitry Kurakin, Director of the Centre for Cultural Sociology, spoke to the HSE News Service about the purpose and setup of the workshop.
‘Boundaries of History’ Seminar Starts New Season of Meetings
On September 30, Stephen Riegg, Assistant Professor of History of the Texas A&M University, presented his book Russia’s Entangled Embrace: The Tsarist Empire and the Armenians, 1801-1914 at the first seminar of this year’s Boundaries of History series.We spoke with Professor Alexander Semyonov, the seminar chair and the Director of the HSE Centre for Historical Research, about the goals of the seminar and to Stephen Riegg about his research.
‘Students Should Read Dostoevsky or Tolstoy Because They Help Readers See beyond the Noise of Our Present’
On September 23, the HSE School of Philological Studies launched the third season of its international academic workshop on ‘The 19th-Century Russian Novel: Corpus, Poetics, Social Imaginary’. We talked to Alexey Vdovin, Associate Professor at the School of Philological Studies, about the workshop’s plans and international cooperation, as well as to Ani Kokobobo, Chair of the Department of Slavic and Eurasian Languages and Literatures at the University of Kansas, who opened this year’s workshop with her report ‘Strange Bedfellows – Leo Tolstoy and Andrea Dworkin’.
The Dignity Factor: What Social Policy Should Look Like in the New Era
Abhijit Banerjee, one of the 2019 Nobel Prize winners in economics, spoke at a seminar at HSE University and explained why people trust economic forecasts less than a weather forecast and what can be done to bring this trust back.
What Can Make Robots More Human-like?
What is affect and why is it important for humans? How can feelings be defined and what is their relation to emotions and consciousness? What might be used in making a soft robot? Professor Antonio Damasio (University of Southern California, USA) discussed these and other questions in his honorary lecture, entitled 'Feeling, Knowing, and Artificial Intelligence'.The talk was delivered on April 16 at the at the XXII April International Academic Conference held by HSE University jointly with Sberbank.