PRESS RELEASE February 28, 2017 European University at St. Petersburg has signed a Memorandum to join the Climate Partnership of Russia on February 28, 2017.

A season of events marking the centenary of the Russian Revolution is organized in partnership with the State Hermitage Museum, the European University at St Petersburg and UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies supported by the Vladimir Potanin Foundation. As part of the series of events a round-table discussion took place on March 1 in London chaired by Maxim Bouev, Head of the Department of Economics of the European University, St Petersburg.

March, 13th (14:10 – 17:20), and March, 15 (14:10 – 17:20). Please contact Marina Kondrashova for additional course resources mkondrashova@eu.spb.ru. Course overview

On March 02, 2017 the Arbitration Court of Saint Petersburg has adjourned the EUSP license case hearing until March 20, 2017.

The Saint Petersburg Association of Sociologists (SPAS) is concerned about the pressure put by authorities on the European University at Saint Petersburg.

The Society of Historians of Eastern European, Eurasian and Russian Art and Architecture had published on its website a letter of support to EUSP.   SHERA Supports European University at St. Petersburg

On February 10, 2017 the Moscow Arbitration Court has ended the lawsuit regarding the EUSP claim against Rosobrnadzor. Despite extensive debate the court did not support the argument of the University that on September 16, 2016 the EUSP has fulfilled the initial requirements in respect of the disputed issues (gym, certification, practicing teachers). The EUSP is preparing to appeal the decision.

An analytical report titled "Indicators of the Effectiveness of the European University at St. Petersburg and the Place of Non-State Research Universities in the National System of Higher Education" was published on January 31. The author of the report is Dr. Mikhail Sokolov, Candidate of Science in Sociology and currently a Professor at the EUSP Department of Political Science and Sociology. The original document is available online in Russian. We are presenting a brief summary below.

The Department of Economics of the European University at St. Petersburg is organizing a two-day international workshop on May 25–26, 2017. The aim of the workshop is to promote research in dynamic macroeconomics with a focus on agents' heterogeneity and income distribution.

A press conference on the latest developments around the European University at St. Petersburg was held on January 26. The press conference was attended by the EUSP Rector and member of the Presidential Council for Science and Education Oleg Kharkhordin, EUSP co-founder and professor, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Nikolai Vakhtin, EUSP Vice-Rector for General Affairs Leonid Ravnushkin.

One of ECPR’s member institutions in the Russian Federation, the Department of Political Science and Sociology in the European University of St. Petersburg (EUSP), is currently at risk. Following a political complaint, the Ministry of Education’s inspectorate, Rosobrnadzor, has repeatedly claimed to have found violations of administrative regulations, including too low a percentage of faculty whose primary occupation is practical work in the field in which they teach – both in political science and sociology.

Starting in 2013 the EUSP has been developing a project to adjust the building it occupies since 1995 (the Palace of Kushelyov-Bezborodko on 3A, Gagarinskaia Street) for modern educational purposes.

A major campaign is currently underway to shut down low-performing educational institutions in Russia. The campaign’s own success, however, has been somewhat compromised as a result of its attempt to revoke the university's license.

The Order №3205-07, dated December 07, 2016 issued by the Federal Service for Supervision of Education and Science (Rosobrnadzor) “On the suspension of the educational license of the European University at St. Petersburg” has been suspended upon the decision (№ А40-235549/16-147-2076, dated December 13, 2016) of the Arbitration Court in Moscow.

In July 2016, the General Prosecutor of the Russian Federation began a series of inspections of the European University at Saint Petersburg. The basis for the conducting of these inspections was an official complaint by the deputy of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, Vitaly Milonov, to which other citizens’ complaints were added later.

On October 28th, the Russian Academy of Sciences announced the results of a customary election of members and associate members at a general assembly. Mikhail Piotrovsky, co-founder and a chairman of the Board of Trustees of the European University at St. Petersburg as well as General Director of the Hermitage Museum, was elected as a member of the historical-philological division of the RAS, working specifically with history.

Anthony Marra is a young but already renowned American writer, the winner of a Whiting Award, Pushcart Prize, and the Narrative Prize. His debut novel A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, a story about Chechnya of the 90s, was highly acclaimed by U.S. critics, who compared it to works of Leo Tolstoy. The book became a bestseller and won the National Book Critics Circle’s inaugural John Leonard Prize and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in fiction.

On September 14th-16th the Department of Anthropology at the European University at Saint-Petersburg held an interdisciplinary seminar for young scholars entitled “Theoretic-Methodological Approaches to the Study of Collective Social Memory and Individual Construction of Identity: A Dialogue between Russian and German Schools of Thought”. This seminar served as a continuation of another one which took place in November 2015 at Johannes Gutenberg University (Mainz) entitled “Russian Culture - German Culture. The Concept of National Identity in Modern Humanitarian and Social Sciences”.

Nikolai Vakhtin (Doctor of Philological Sciences, Professor at the European University at St. Petersburg, head of the program “Arctic Social Sciences”, Chief Research Fellow of the Institute for Linguistic Studies, and Assistant Editor of the journal “Anthropological Forum”) was recently elected as a Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Congratulations!

ARTEMY MAGUN: Welcome to the European University at Saint-Petersburg. In case you haven’t been here recently, we are very happy to see you again. Today is Jean-Luc Nancy Day, which will consist of two parts: a lecture titled «God Without Confession and Profession»; and a round table discussion concerning “Gods of Material Society”.