Alisa Shishkina

Congratulations to our colleague Miсah Zing on the successful completion of the Master's programme "Politics. Economics. Philosophy"! Mikah was one of the brightest and most active students in his graduation class. Micah Zing was awarded a diploma with distinction for his diligence and energy.

On 23 June, the Faculty of Social Sciences hosted a round table ‘Federalism in Russia and Ethiopia: Origins, Development and Prospects’ with the participation of scholars from the Ethiopian Policy Studies Institute. The Ethiopian delegation was led by Professor Petros Beyene, Director of the Institute. He shared his experience of working in Ethiopia's Transitional Government in the early 1990s, which drafted the country's current constitution, which provides for a transition to a federal model. On the FSN side, First Deputy Dean Mikhail Mironyuk took part in the roundtable, noting the stabilising role of federalism in Russia in recent years.

On March 1-3, the scholars of the Center for the Study of Stability and Risks Analysis (CSRA) and Saint-Petersburg School of Social Sciences HSE University took part in the international academic conference "The Place of Africa in the World: The Past and the Present" which was held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, at the Russian Center for Science and Culture. This conference was devoted to a wide range of research topics and brought together experts from various fields. Beside scholars from Russia and Tanzania, researchers from India, South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria and Holland presented their papers. The conference drew great attention of the Tanzanian academic community.

The session was held on the basis on Yasin (April) Conference organized by HSE University annually.
During the session the speakers talked a lot about the challenges Africa is facing in the 21st century, as well as the opportunities that appear for this continent in a changing geopolitical context. The prospects for cooperation between Russia and African states were discussed in particular.

An electronic version of the article "A Troubled Return to the Homeland: Syrian Circassians in Southern Russia" has been published on the Europe-Asia Studies journal website. The article covers issues related to the migration of Syrian Circassians (Adyghe) to the Russian regions of the North Caucasus. With the outbreak of conflict in Syria, hundreds of Syrian Circassians decided to move to the Caucasus, where their ancestors lived. Since the Caucasus is perceived by the Syrian Circassians as their historical homeland, they believe that this is not just migration, but repatriation. However, the institutionalization of repatriation took a long time, since there was a risk that supporters of Daesh (the terrorist organization is banned in the Russian Federation) could ifiltrate to Russia.

The South African Journal of International Relations (SAJIA) has published an article by laboratory scholars Leonid Issaev, Alisa Shishkina and Yakov Liokumovich entitled 'Perceptions of Russia's 'return' to Africa: Views from West Africa'. The article is included into the special issue covering the Russia's 'return' to Africa.

Leonid Issaev, Alisa Shishkina, Yevgeny Ivanov, and Yegor Fain, scholars of the Laboratory for Monitoring the Risks of Socio-Political Destabilization (HSE University) stayed in Tatarstan from 10 to 14 July 2022 to investigate the approach to Islamic education in the Republic.

Springer published the book "Handbook of Revolutions in the 21st Century". The Lab's leading research fellows A.V. Korotaev and L.E. Grinin contributed as co-editors of J. Goldstone, one of the most famous researchers of revolutionary processes in modern political science.

On March 31, 2022, another seminar was held, organized by the Lab for monitoring the risks of socio-political destabilization.

On March 16, a meeting of the Lab's staff with students of the master's programs "Politics. Economics. Philosophy", "Applied Political Science" and "Russian Studies" was held.

From February 27 to March 7, Laboratory staff Leonid Isaev, Alice Shishkin and Yakov Lokumovich visited Tanzania.

The publication was based on the results of the expedition to Dagestan, organized by the laboratory, with the support of the HSE project "Discovering Russia again".

The Laboratory's researchers Leonid M. Issaev and Alisa R. Shishkina visited Cairo, Egypt. The trip was organized as a part of the project "Analysis and Modeling of African Development in the Context of Russia's Foreign Policy Interests". The visit lasted from 6th to 12th, November.

Correlation between the level of happiness and the Arab Spring