IRGS students visited the BRICS summer school in South Africa
In early September, students Daria Gribanova and Alexei Vorobei took part in the BRICS Summer School in South Africa. They went to the event both as employees of the Laboratory for Political Geography and Contemporary Geopoliticsand as students of our educational program. Daria and Alexei talked about how this trip became possible, as well as about the peculiarities of this event and their emotions in an interview with the press center of the International Relations and Global Studies program.
How to turn a dream into reality and get funding
Daria:
“I have been working for a year and a half as a research assistant at the Laboratory for Political Geography and Contemporary Geopolitics. My professional interests include the BRICS alliance. Just in the beginning of June, my first article, written in co-authorship with my senior colleagues, was published. In the article we analyze trade and investment flows between the BRICS countries. In the summer, I came across an announcement in one of the Telegram channels I’m subscribed to about a BRICS summer school in South Africa. The organizers promised to cover all expenses except for the flight tickets. Not having high hopes, I decided to try and apply. When I found out that I had been selected, at first I couldn't believe it for a long time. But once I took the first step, I didn't want to stop. I don't often get the opportunity to attend such an event, so I decided to share this opportunity with a colleague and friend. Alexei and I have been working together since the start and have been in the same academic group for over a year. I knew that he was very interested in Africa and was preparing a publication on the region. Naturally, he was very excited and agreed to participate in the summer school.
The only problem was paying for the tickets. I knew that the HSE has different grant systems. The website is very detailed, but without experience it is hard to know which one to apply for. Once again I would like to express my gratitude to our program, which financially supported the trip, and to Elizaveta Zakharova, Assistant Dean for Science, for her help and support at all stages of the grant process. The entire procedure for obtaining funding took us two to three weeks. Unfortunately, because of this, we broke the deadline set by the organizers of the school for ten days to buy tickets. But we are very grateful to Shivam Patel for giving us an extension. As he later told me when I met him, HSE is a very reliable university whose staff and students are always welcome at the BRICS Summer School.”
Alexei:
“I learned about this opportunity from my colleague Daria Gribanova, she found the description of the event and the registration form and suggested that the two of us go together, as she is interested in BRICS-related issues and I am researching geopolitical issues in Africa. Initially we couldn't even think that we would be approved for funding as we are research assistants at the moment, so it's quite surprising that we got a grant. The process itself was quite difficult, but we did well. In the end, thanks to Daria, Elizaveta Zakharova and Dmitry Novikov. Thanks to our program, we were approved for funding and given the opportunity to go to the summer school.”
How the BRICS summer school is organized
Alexei:
“The BRICS Summer School was organized by the non-governmental organization SABYA (South Africa BRICS Youth Association) in Johannesburg, South Africa. The organization aims to provide opportunities for young scholars to express their opinions on possible paths of BRICS’ development. The school itself was held at the University of Johannesburg. During the three days that the school took place, we had time to get acquainted with almost the entire SABYA management team, participate in 5 lectures, visit historically important places in South Africa and take part in the first simulation of the BRICS decision-making model. All participants (delegates) were divided into 10 teams, each representing a country from BRICS+. During August, the teams created the Zero draft resolution, and in South Africa, the team representatives directly amended the resolution through negotiations, following the principle of unanimity.
The lectures focused on everything related to BRICS, from International Relations without “eurocentricity” to Economic History and economic models that will help BRICS countries increase cooperation and speed of economic development. The topics of education among the BRICS countries and the main goals of the association were also touched upon.”
Daria:
“As much as we loved the lectures, the breaks in between were equally enjoyable. We met aspiring researchers from BRICS and other world-majority countries. With specialists from South Africa, India, Brazil, China, Egypt, we discussed their views on the association as a whole and on certain aspects of cooperation. There were also delegations from Tanzania, Lesotho, Namibia, Mauritius, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. We had a constructive dialog on the topics of multilateral cooperation of the Global South, barriers to its development, prospects for overcoming them, as well as Russia's multilateral relations with African countries. I really enjoyed the experience of communicating with like-minded people who had a unique perspective on various aspects, backed by experience and cultural outlook. Unfortunately, the extracurricular program was extremely limited, primarily due to the unsafe streets of Johannesburg, as well as time constraints. But the highlight for us was the gala evening.
It fully revealed the hospitality of South Africa, the love of the locals for their culture and their desire to share it with the world. We listened to songs in local languages and at the end they even tried to teach me folk dancing. We also visited the Nelson Mandela Square, the constitutional court, and the former prison building where Mahatma Gandhi and Mandela were held at various times in history. This place is a reminder to citizens and visitors to South Africa of the abolition of apartheid, which only happened 30 years ago. Much to our regret, we didn't get to visit the safari, but that just gives us an extra reason to come back.”
New knowledge and skills for the future career
Alexei:
“The most useful thing for me was the exchange of experiences with people interested in science. It was also interesting to understand how African countries approach the study of International Relations, as the European discourse was not at all present at the summer school. As for practical skills, I'd better list them:
- Interacting with people from different cultures and gaining knowledge not only from professors but also from students, employees and organizers. In this way, it was possible to get opinions from both people from different parts of the world and people who faced organizational problems regarding international treaties;
- Studying the processes within BRICS, i.e. how exactly the countries negotiate, what problems they face and what mechanisms they use to solve common problems;
- Studying the local culture and approach to working moments. We tend to talk, first of all, about security, while this topic was almost never raised, as more attention is paid to researching possible ways of development of African countries through cooperation with BRICS colleagues;
- Networking - almost every participant is interested in communicating with you even after graduation, even Daria and I still communicate with representatives of other countries on the topic of regional or global problems”.
Daria:
“Our business trip was very short. But nevertheless it was filled with a great number of bright events and therefore became very memorable. We gained the energy for the upcoming academic and working year. Moreover, the theoretical knowledge, practical skills, as well as the connections with researchers from the World Majority Countries proved to be a great help for us as novice researchers. It helped us to focus our research interest on the association even more, gave us motivation to explore BRICS even more deeply, as well as to work on publications with foreign colleagues.’
The material was prepared as part of the International Relations and Global Studies Press Center project. Interview and text: Veronika Lyamtseva (2nd year), editing: Timofey Petrov (2nd year, Press Center Coordinator)