In earlier work Allan, Vucetic, and Hopf argued that the rise of China was unlikely to be accompanied by Chinese hegemony because of the distribution of identities among the world's great powers. In particular, the only great power in the world with which China's "authoritarian capitalism" resonates is Russia. In this work we extend our analysis to China's more immediate neighborhood. As William Wohlforth argued in 1999, China faces a regional hegemony problem long before it faces a global one.

On Monday, October 7, 2019, EUSP hosted a representative delegation from Hamad Bin Khalifa University (Doha, Qatar) and the Embassy of Qatar in Moscow. The head of the delegation Prof. Emad El-Din Shahin, Interim Provost and Dean of the College of Islamic Studies presented the university and noted that EUSP and HBKU have much in common. Both postgraduate schools are relatively young and dynamically developing. HBKU is a member of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science, and Community Development.

Russia's regions and republics with Muslim majorities (e.g. Tatarstan/Volga region; Daghestan/North Caucasus),  have traditionally been studied in isolation from each other, with the result that also the particular practices and concepts of Islam have been understood as "national". In recent years scholars and activists have established overarching cupola constructions like "Russian Islam", "Traditionalism" or "Islamic Eurasianism".

In Russian/Soviet studies in the West, historians and literature scholars have played central roles. Social scientists, mostly in political science, stepped into the ring after World War II, often pursuing modernization and totalitarian theories whose insights ultimately were overshadowed by errors of logic and fact. Political scientists have returned with useful insights on political economy, voting, and policy-making. But what about sociology-what has it offered in the past, and what can it offer in the future?

Irene Herrmann (University of Geneva) will speak at the seminar "Swiss Republicanism through Russian Eyes : Uses and Usefulness of an Ideal Image".  

On Monday, September 16th EUSP will host Timothy Nutter, American theatre director, to discuss how to talk about climate change in the theatre.

  With the support of  The French Institute in Saint-Petersburg.  Free entrance, registration.   CRITIQUE ET INSTITUTIONS   A discussion with Oleg Kharkhordin, Victor Kaplun, Artemiy Magun.  

On September 7, 2019, Katri Kulmuni (IMARES 2011-12) was elected Party Leader of the Centre Party (Suomen Keskusta). Since 6 June 2019 to present, Katri is Minister of Economic Affairs, Finland. She is the youngest Minister in the Antti Rinne's cabinet. Katri is also a Member of the Finnish Parliament acting on behalf of the Electoral District of Lapland.

The history of the procuracy illustrates that Stalinist justice was more than orchestrating show trials. Ordinary state prosecutors very rarely dealt with political enemies. Their main task was to investigate and prosecute millions of non-political offenses, such as theft, murder, or rape. At the same time, they bore responsibility to enforce legal norms within the state apparatus. All branches of government, including police work, were subject to prosecutors’ supervision. The procuracy not only was a crucial instrument for controlling the Soviet populace.

Confronted in the second half on the eighteenth century with unemployment and food crises and with the multiplication of vagrants and beggars, the government turned to civil society to find solutions.

EUSP will host Professor Derk Loorbach to discuss oil and gas in transition for its first ENERPO Workshop Series lecture this year.

The Russian Science Foundation will support a research project headed by Ekaterina Borozdina, Candidate of Sciences in Sociology, Dean of the EUSP Department of Sociology and Philosophy.

The European University at St. Petersburg received a positive expert opinion based on the results of the accreditation assessment of master's programs on July 3, 2019. The positive findings established the full compliance of the content and quality of EUSP programs with state educational standards. We are now waiting for the official order of Rosobrnadzor to issue accreditation.

On Wednesday, June 19, 2019, at 18:00, Ben Grunwald, Assistant Professor, Duke Law School will make a presentation on "The Wandering Officer". 

Professor Gur Huberman will deliver a public lecture at EUSP on June 19.

This talk offers an in-depth analysis of “spatializing culture,” an idea that grew out of my work on the Latin American plaza (Low 2000) and Deborah Pellow’s (2002) ethnography of West African socio-spatial organization and institutions. Through subsequent research and theory-building “spatializing culture” has evolved into a multi-dimensional framework that includes social production, social construction, embodied, discursive, emotive and affective, as well as translocal approaches to space and place.

St. Petersburg's leading business daily Delovoi Peterburg has published a special issue dedicated to higher education in the city. They have ranked Petersburg's universities based on data about alumni salaries. European University at St. Petersburg tops the ranking with a significantly higher average salary paid to its alumni.

June 8th, Svetlana Erpyleva, a graduate of the Department of Political Science and Sociology at EUSP successfully defended her doctoral thesis entitled The New Local Activism in Russia: Biography, Event and Culture at the University of Helsinki. Supervisors: Dr. Tuomas Ylä-Anttila and Dr. Risto Alapuro (University of Helsinki). The opponent Dr. Elena Zdravomyslova (EUSP). Full text of the thesis is available here: https://helda.helsinki.fi/handle/10138/301023  

  The Charisma of Invented Traditions: Religious (and Academic) Communities in the Search for Legitimacy European University at Saint Petersburg Department of Anthropology Center for Anthropology of Religion Committee for the Scientific Planning  

Department of Economics of the European University at St. Petersburg and Chair of Economics / Resource Economics, ETH Zurich are organizing the 5th International Workshop on Economic Growth, Environment and Natural Resources on May 31 – June 1, 2019. The aim of the Workshop is to promote the use of advanced economic theory in the fields of growth, environment and natural resource economics.