HSE University Life

On January 25 the opening ceremony of the German section of the Richard Stites memorial library was held at HSE St. Petersburg. With the Deutsche Forshungsgemeinschaft (DFG) support and help from Department of History Associate Professor Dietmar Wulff more than 150 new books were added to the library’s collection. In addition to classic editions of modern German historiography and fundamental works on all areas of history, the German collection is in line with the History Department’s main research directions, such as the history of empire and nationalism, and technological and environmental history.

Navid Hassanpour, Associate Professor in the Faculty of Social Sciences (School of Political Science) at the Higher School of Economics, is the author of ‘Leading from the Periphery and Network Collective Action’ published by Cambridge University Press in December 2016. He recently spoke with the HSE News Service about his current course at HSE, expansion of the Master’s programme in Applied Political Science, and his plans for upcoming research.

On January 18 at VDNKH, the winter weather failed to stop people from coming out to celebrate the Epiphany with a plunge into icy waters. While traditionally considered a religious event to celebrate the baptism of Jesus, nowadays it has become a famous tradition when people all over Russia go out and immerse themselves in icy waters.

Svetlana Cecovic, Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Humanities (School of Philology), came to the Higher School of Economics with the aim of working in an international environment, which she had become accustomed to during her PhD studies at the University of Louvain in Belgium.

Giving a presentation at a research conference, especially in a different city, and all the more so in a different country, is an important event in the life of any philology student. Viktoria Buyanovskaya, third-year HSE philology student, told us about her presentation at the University of Oxford.

Adapting to a new university environment can be a difficult process, especially with such a thing as teaching classes, where not only teacher’s own abilities but also formal requirements and the academic culture of the institution come into play. In previous issues of The HSE Look (October 2015, May 2014, September 2013) we covered different aspects of teaching at HSE, such as the module system, assessment regulations, syllabus design, finding teaching assistants and using electronic Learning Management System.

Albert Arutiunian, second-year HSE Master’s student, chose Tilburg University as a place to study abroad in autumn 2016. There, he joined the Tilburg University team, and here is his story.

On December 22-23, 2016, the 7th International 3D-stereo Film Festival was held in Moscow. At the opening of the festival Nadejda Trubochkina, Professor at HSE School of Computer Engineering, presented a report on fractal technologies in cinema.

This is the second time the HSE Extreme Sports Club has organized a trip to Krasnaya Polyana in the month of February. This time, the trip will take place on February 5-12, 2017. Everyone who likes mountains and wants to spend a week in great company is welcome to take part. This year, the participants will be staying close to the ski lifts, which means that they will be the first to ski on fresh snow slopes.

In late 2016, the legendary international lawyer and legal scholar Martti Koskenniemi held a series of lectures and seminars at the Faculty of Law of HSE. Press-Centre of the Faculty of Law was fortunate to join Prof. Koskenniemi's talks and discuss before the New Year his diplomatic and academic career.

In December 2016 Beryl ter Haar, Assistant Professor at Leiden University (Netherlands), delivered a series of lectures on labor law in the European Union, as well as several workshops for students on the MA programme ‘Legal Support for Personnel Management ‘, the BA programme in Jurisprudence and doctoral students at HSE's Law Faculty.

Each year HSE hires post-doctoral researchers, accepting applications from all over the world, and they join various laboratories and centres. Some of them kindly provided additional information about their research interests and background, and The HSE Look continues the tradition of introducing HSE’s new international faculty and researchers.