Darya Iskusnykh, a third-year student at the Institute for Oriental and Classical Studies of the HSE Faculty of Humanities, won first place in the Grammar and Composition category at the 18th Russian Olympiad of Persian Language and Literature. The finals of the intellectual competition took place in Moscow at the Institute of Asian and African Studies (IAAS) of Lomonosov Moscow State University with the support of the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubna hosted the Archival Impulse Summer School, co-organised by JINR physicists, historians from the HSE Faculty of Humanities, and staff from the Archives of the Russian Academy of Sciences (ARAS). This first archival summer school continued the joint initiative of HSE University and JINR to examine and preserve the unique historical legacy of physicists.

On February 22, the HSE University Faculty of Humanities held a Maslenitsa celebration at the building on Staraya Basmannaya. At the event, which was aimed at helping international students settle in, students learned about the meaning of Maslenitsa (or Pancake Week), enjoyed festive games and attractions, and feasted on pancakes with condensed milk. HSE students from various diasporas also showcased their own traditions for seeing off winter and offered a taste of their national dishes.

The start of a new academic year is an excellent time to plan the next steps in your academic career. On September 1, HSE University announced the start of its annual Student Research Paper Competition (SRPC-2022). Participation is open to students of Russian and international universities and to 2022 graduates. Last year, a total of 2,196 papers were submitted to the SRPC, of which 435 were from external participants.

Lev Manovich, Presidential Professor of computer science at the City University of New York and author of works on digital culture and new media, was one of the first foreign scholars to start remote work with HSE students this academic year. He is leading a project seminar at the Faculty of Humanities for students of the Bachelor’s programme in Cultural Studies.

HSE University Rector Yaroslav Kuzminov has welcomed first year students to HSE University. He told the newly enrolled students about the importance of wearing masks on campus, the autumn flu vaccination, as well as important changes in the educational process. The rector also congratulated them on starting their student life at HSE University.

Any student or 2020 graduate of a Russian or international university is eligible to take part in the Student Research Paper Competition. Papers can be submitted from September 1 to October 15. The competition has been held at HSE University since 2003.

From a northern village to an academic article, or How many linguists do you need to describe variation in Russian dialect?

The Linguistic Convergence Laboratory and the School of Linguistics are organizing an International Summer School on Areal Linguistics and Languages of Russia.

Language Science Press has published a book on the Mehweb language, edited by Michael Daniel and Nina Dobrushina of the Linguistic Convergence Laboratory and Dmitry Ganenkov of the Laboratory of Caucasian languages.

Oksana Osadchaya, a blind sophomore in the undergraduate philology programme, has developed a version of braille for Old Russian texts. Oksana recently defended her thesis on the subject. Together with her academic advisor Alexey Gippius, Oksana met with the HSE News Service to discuss her work, as well as the opportunities that she has opened up for blind researchers who study texts in Old Russian, Old Slavonic, and Old Church Slavonic.

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.

From October 7 - November 12, 2016 a school for undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students organized by the International Centre for the History and Sociology of World War II and Its Consequences was held in Germany. The school was dedicated to issues of memorialization and commemorating victims of terror and was led by the Centre’s Director Oleg Budnitskii. The trip was organized with the support of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.