UNESCO Chair on Culture of Peace and Democracy

Introduction

UNESCO Chair on Culture of Peace and Democracy has organized conferences, round tables, workshops to supplement the ongoing research of modern cultural and political changes in European and Russian societies in 2018-2019. The research is funded by Erasmus+ Jean Monnet grant received by the Russian State University for the Humanities.

Along with the research and scientific events, the Faculty staff had created and successfully included new courses for students pursuing bachelor’s degree in History with potential of these courses being adapted for students pursuing bachelor’s degrees in Political Science, and Law.

Faculty staff had gathered materials and successfully published a monograph on risks and challenges of contemporary stage of political evolution in Europe along with a teaching guide for one of the courses, “Cultural Modelling of Contemporary European Political Design”.

UNESCO Chair on Culture of Peace and Democracy conducted studies and laid foundation for researching the rise of neopopulism and its influence on European political development. Additional research on history and potential of Russian constitutionalism has been done. Upcoming research of the Department shall focus on intercultural and legal implications on European businesses and industries coming from the new political systems. UNESCO Chair on Culture of Peace and Democracy has engaged in negotiations with Eastern Europe Research Center of University of Bremen regarding future potential joint academic research.

General Information

UNESCO Chair on Culture of Peace and Democracy was founded in 1997 and has been performing under the Paris accreditation within the UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs Programme.

Department staff engaged in international projects:

Alexander Logunov

Position Title: Department Chair (UNESCO Chair on Culture of Peace and Democracy)
Academic Title: Doct. of Sci. (History)
Field of Studies: Contemporary historiography, Contemporary Analysis of Historical Memory, European Studies.
Subjects Taught: Fundamentals of Tolerance; Fundamentals of Historical Analysis of Modernity; History of Historical Science; Political historiography; Historiography of Socio-cultural Communicatology; Cultural Modelling of Contemporary European Political Design; Practical Workshop on Conduction Academic Research Work.

Galina Michaleva

Position Title: Professor in the Department (UNESCO Chair on Culture of Peace and Democracy)
Academic Title: Doct. of Sci. (Political Science)
Field of Studies: Formation of Party and Electoral Systems in Russia; History of formation and institutions of EU; de-facto states and their institutional design; regional political development; political and cultural development of Russian regions; role of women in politics; human rights; information warfare; gender equality and women’s rights; transformation of post-Soviet states.
Subjects Taught: Politcal Process in Modern Russia; Contemporary Methodological Approaches to Political Science; Modern Territorial Conflicts and Unrecognized States; Research Seminar “Human Rights in XXI century Challenges”.

Maria Gordeeva

Position Title: Acting Department Chair (Department of Public Relations, Tourism and Hospitality); former Assistant Professor (UNESCO Chair on Culture of Peace and Democracy)
Academic Title: Cand. of Sci. (History)
Field of Studies: Mediatization of Public Memory; International Relations; European Studies; Public Relations and intercultural relations.
Subjects Taught: Cultural Modelling of Contemporary European Political Design; Analysis of Professional Texts in English Language; Specialty Seminars in English Language; Political Imageology.

Nikolai Medushevsky

Position Title: Assistant Professor (UNESCO Chair on Culture of Peace and Democracy)
Academic Title: Doct. of Sci. (Political Science)
Field of Studies: International relations and international cooperation; Ethno-conflictology; socio-conflictology; ideology of tolerance; politics of memory.
Subjects Taught: Fundamentals of Tolerance; International Relations; Theory and Practice of Societal Accords; Nation in Circumstances of Globalization; Ethno-political Conflictology; Political Discourse; Conflictology; Intercultural Communications; Intercultural Cooperation; International Media Industry; Applied Technologies of “Big Data”; Technologies of Negotiations Process; Ethno-conflictology; Theory and Practice of Negotiations; Political Conflictology; International Experience in PR; Ethno-Political Science.

Inna Logvinova

Position Title: Assistant Professor
Academic Title: Cand. of Sci. (Law)
Field of Studies: History and theory of law and statehood; history of constitutionalism; theory and practices of constitutionalism; legal regulation of international and external economics.
Subjects Taught: Legal Regulation of Advertising Practices; Legal Basis and Regulation of Tourism Industry; International Integration Processes and International Organizations; Legal Regime of Cultural Values; Legal Status of Citizens Abroad; International Protocol; State Regulation of Tourism; Legal Regulation of Communications Practices; Political Process in Modern Russia.

Alexander Akramov

Position Title: Lecturer
Academic Title: Postgraduate (History)
Field of Studies: Legal Bases of Tolerance; ideology of tolerance; periodical perception of historical processes; modern historiography.
Subjects Taught: Fundamentals of Tolerance; Conflictology; Technologies of Negotiations Process; Global Politics and International Relations; Political Conflictology; Political Imageology.

Anne Novikova

Position Title: Lecturer
Academic Title: Postgraduate (History)
Field of Studies: Tolerance and discrimination in multicultural societies; history of ethnical and religious minorities; judaica; medieval European history; cultural practices in modern communications.
Subjects Taught: Fundamentals of Tolerance; Analysis of Political Literature in a Foreign Language (English); Intercultural Communications; International Experience in PR.

Academic Scientific Research in recent years

Full list of publications is available at:

A. Logunov: eLIBRARY

G. Michaleva: eLIBRARY

M. Gordeeva: eLIBRARY

N. Medushevsky: eLIBRARY

I. Logvinova: eLIBRARY

A. Zakharov: eLIBRARY

A. Akramov: Cyberleninka

A. Novikova: Cyberleninka

2018

Hosted (UNESCO Chair on Culture of Peace and Democracy) – March, 30^th – Scientific conference “Europe after Brexit”

Participated (G. Michaleva) – International conference “Russia between the presidential election and 2018 World Cup. What’s next?” – University of Bremen

Participated (N. Medushevsky) – April, 7^th-8^th – II international scientific conference “Migration policy and socio-demographic development of the world” – Prague, Sociosfera-CZ

Participated (N. Medushevsky) – May, 13^th-14^th – V International conference “The culture of tolerance in a context of globalization: methodology of research, reality and prospect” - Prague, Sociosfera-CZ

Participated (G. Michaleva) – July, 3^rd – International conference “Russia after the Putin re-election)” – University of Bremen

Participated (G. Michaleva) – July, 20^th – All-Russian conference “Journalism and Power” – Union of Russian Journalists

Participated (G. Michaleva) – September, 18^th-19^th – International conference “Values and prejudices and politics. What connects Russia and Germany?” – Friedrich Naumann Foundation, Germany
Hosted (UNESCO Chair on Culture of Peace and Democracy) – October, 26^th – International conference “Political planning in spaces of social communications”

Participated (A. Zakharov) – November, 16^th – All-Russian conference “25 years of Russian constitution: the past and the future of the Foundational law” - Yekaterinburg

Participated (G. Michaleva) – November, 19^th – All-Russian conference “Cooperation of NCO and local authorities” – EU embassy in Russia

Participated (G. Michaleva) – November, 24^th – All-Russian conference “Protection of vulnerable groups in the workplace” – French Institute of Moscow

Participated (G. Michaleva) – December, 8^th – All-Russian conference “All-Russian Civil Forum” – Committee on Civil Initiatives of Moscow
Participated (A. Zakharov) – December, 11^th – International conference “25 years of Russian Federation’s constitution: lessons of the past as challenges of the future” – Yeltsin Center of Russia.

Hosted (UNESCO Chair on Culture of Peace and Democracy) - December, 12^th – II Interuniversity conference “Russian constitutionalism and its future in Russia in XXI century”

Additionally, in 2018 UNESCO Chair on Culture of Peace and Democracy published a teaching guide with the University of Bremen: Cultural Modelling of Contemporary European Political Design. Ed. By G.M. Michaleva, M.A. Gordeeva. OLMA-PRESS Publishing, 2018. – 176 p.

2019

Hosted (UNESCO Chair on Culture of Peace and Democracy) - December, 11^th – International round table “Civil activities: forms and efficacy. Intercountry analysis” (joint with Naumann Moscow foundation)

Hosted (UNESCO Chair on Culture of Peace and Democracy) - December, 12^th – III Interuniversity conference “Russian constitutionalism and its future in Russia in XXI century”

Hosted (UNESCO Chair on Culture of Peace and Democracy) – December, 16^th – Workshop and presentation of N.A. Medushevsky’s monograph “Remember all? Politics of memory of Modern Europe”

Additionally, in 2019 UNESCO Chair on Culture of Peace and Democracy had prepared materials for and published two monographs on the European Studies program:

N.A. Medushevsky, G.M. Michaleva, M.A. Gordeeva, G.I. Kutyrev. European Union. Risks and Challenges of contemporary stage of political evolution. Moscow: LENAND, 2019 – 352 p.

N.A. Medushevsky. Remember all? Politics of memory of Modern Europe. Moscow: Izdatelskie resheniya, 2019 – 160 p.

Moreover, I. Logvinova has edited and published a joint digest with A. Logunov on materials of I Interuniversity conference “Russian constitutionalism: history and modernity”:

Russian constitutionalism: history and modernity / Ed. By I. Logvinova, A.Logunov. Digest of materials of I Interuniversity conference “Russian constitutionalism: history and modernity”. Izdatelskiye resheniya, 2019. 90 p.

Student participation in projects and academic life.

Students of the university in general and of Faculty of History, Political Science, and Law in particular are always invited to attend and/or take part in conferences, round tables, workshops organized by the UNESCO Chair on Culture of Peace and Democracy. Invites are regularly sent out to Russian and visiting foreign students via email addresses to encourage student participation.

In 2019, a digest of best student and expert materials of a conference on Russian constitutionalism had been published. In 2020 a similar digest shall be published with the materials from the II conference on Russian constitutionalism. Currently, UNESCO Chair on Culture of Peace and Democracy is exploring any and all potential of creating and hosting an online publication to highlight best student research and to share academic and scientific findings of Department’s professors and students writing their thesis under their guidance.

Plans for 2020-2021

In 2020, UNESCO Chair on Culture of Peace and Democracy will host a number of conferences and round tables on research subjects of Jean Monnet grant and will conduct further academic research that aligns with UNESCO Sustainable Development Goals:

February, 21^st – Round table “Tolerant Europe: yesterday, today, tomorrow”

March, 10^th – All-Russian round table “Image of a female politician in Russia and in Europe”

April, 23^rd – II Round table “European Union: risks and challenges of contemporary stage of political evolution”

October, 22^nd – Conference “Modern political discussion on mediaspaces of Internet”

November, 20^th – All-Russian conference “History of memory in Russia and Europe: political aspects”

December, 12^th – IV Conference “Russian constitutionalism and its future in Russia in XXI century”

A fourth monograph - on modern political discussion and its influence on public perception of politics – is in development.

In 2021, UNESCO Chair on Culture of Peace and Democracy shall continue its research and expand its publishing activities.

Conclusion

UNESCO Chair on Culture of Peace and Democracy has conducted, executed, and published academic research to fulfill its obligations to its international and domestic partners.

Current and future research shall align with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of UNESCO, particularly:

Goal No. 4 – Quality Education

UNESCO Chair on Culture of Peace and Democracy is dedicated to ensuring access to high-quality education for students of RSUH and will uphold its high standards until year 2030 and more. UNESCO Chair on Culture of Peace and Democracy is dedicated to providing relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for future successful employment of students. UNESCO Chair on Culture of Peace and Democracy is dedicated to ensuring the elimination of gender and other disparities between the students in their access, and ability to participate in, training of technical and vocational skills.

In the future, UNESCO Chair on Culture of Peace and Democracy hopes to offer the expanded courses and programs on European and Russian studies, increasing the supply of qualified professionals and educators in relevant fields through means of international cooperation, including the developing regions of Russia and Europe.

Goal No. 5 – Gender Equality

UNESCO Chair on Culture of Peace and Democracy seeks to study the root causes of gender-based discrimination against people or persons in their relevant fields. Study of gender-based discrimination and violence will impact the perception of equal rights and ability for people or persons. UNESCO Chair on Culture of Peace and Democracy shall dedicate its resources to undertake the development of needed reforms to ensure equal access to opportunities for employment and ability to perform in a tolerant workplace for all people or persons.

Goal No. 8 – Decent Work and Economic Growth

UNESCO Chair on Culture of Peace and Democracy shall study the ability of European and Russian households to sustain per capita economic growth under the circumstances of contemporary political and cultural evolutions. Researches shall engage in analysis of higher levels of productivity through diversification of workplaces and branches of economy; research on potential of high-value and labour-intensive sectors of Russian and European economies shall provide background for assessing ability of political elimination of forced labour and protection against human trafficking.

Goal No. 9 – Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

Research resources of the UNESCO Chair on Culture of Peace and Democracy shall be used to assess regional and federal infrastructure of Russian Federation and Europe, providing expert analysis on the potential of development of industry and on the possibility of innovation in said regions by 2030. Research on technological performances shall impact the importance of updating infrastructure framework within each region and highlight the troubles of updating the said framework through local municipalities and authorities.

Goal No. 16 – Peace and Justice Strong Institutions

UNESCO Chair on Culture of Peace and Democracy shall study and research possibility of establishing peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development of European and Russian regions. Research shall focus on researching the ability of Russian, European and International Law to reduce the current levels of violence and death rates in selected regions; analyze the roots of abuse and exploitations of protected groups in the world; study ways of reducing illicit financial and arms flows to ensure the stabilization of societies.

Within this goal, UNESCO Chair on Culture of Peace and Democracy shall engage in analyzing levels of corruption and bribery in the relevant fields, seeking ways to reduce and to eliminate them in all of their forms.

UNESCO Chair on Culture of Peace and Democracy shall research ways to create and ensure the work of responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative bodies on all levels regarding political, social, economical, cultural and other decision-making.