Open air lectures
English-language lectures ‘HSE Open Talks’
Time: 3 p.m. – 7 p.m.
How to get there: location on the map 4
| Time | Topic | Lecturer |
| 15:00 | ‘Mosaics, Melting Pots, and Big Ideas: The Experience of an Immigrant in Three Countries’ Across the world there are over 230 million migrants in almost every country of the world. Migrants, people who move away from their country of origin, are motivated by diverse interests: better job opportunities, better social opportunities, family reunification, or simply because they cannot continue living in their own countries. As people from different countries migrate for different reasons, receiving countries then have to manage greater diversity. Some encourage diversity, others try to reduce the importance of diversity, and still others do not address it at all. Migration thus causes changes in social environments. In this talk I address my own personal migration experience to understand differences in the social and political responses to diversity. I came to Canada at a very young age, where the social model is a mosaic.I then immigrated again to the United States, where the social model is a melting pot. I have now moved once again internationally to Russia, which has no single model, but has moved through several national ideas over the past century. |  Yuval Weber, PhD, an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs, HSE |
| 16:00 | ‘Performance Incentives and Economic Growth: Regional Officials in Russia and China’ Both China and Russia combine centralized personnel selection with substantial administrative autonomy for regional officials. However, Russian and Chinese regions differ markedly with respect to economic dynamism and economic performance. Why do we observe such continuing divergence in performance, despite both systems having become more comparable in recent years with respect to their administrative structure? Based on the findings of a growing empirical literature, this talk illustrates how the incentives for regional officials differ significantly between both countries. These differences can be traced back to different objectives of the ruling elites, which in turn are influenced by the economic structure of both countries, as well as the way history has shaped the institutional architecture in China and Russia during the last 30 years. |  Michael Rochlitz, PhD, an Assistant Professor at the Department of Politics, HSE |
| 17:00 | ‘Social Capital and Friends: How Sociology Helps us Make Sense of the World’ Sociology is about finding recurring patterns in society and uncovering explanations for those patterns, to help us make sense of the world. One topic in this field goes by the intriguing name ‘social capital.’ But what IS social capital? How do you get it? How does it help you if you have it? How does it affect society if there is more or less of it? At the societal level, how do we in fact tell whether there is more or less social capital? Scholars have diverse definitions of ‘social capital’, as well as many different ways of measuring it. We will discuss a few of these competing ideas, and explain why it is important for us to be clear about what we are measuring and why. This talk should help you not only understand a very popular new term, but more importantly, how studying sociology can help you understand the world around us.
|  Sarah Busse Spencer, PhD, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Social Sciences, HSE |
| 18:00 | ‘Management: Myths and Reality’ The word ‘management’ is used in many different contexts. What are the common myths about management and what is actually true? Dr. Valentina Kuskova will give the audience a quiz to unveil common misperceptions about management in society. Over the course of her lecture, she will explain what management really is in terms of managing self, other people and companies. Managerial skills can be useful in practically any business situation, so professionals specializing in very diverse fields will all take something away from this talk that they can apply in their careers and everyday lives. |  Valentina Kuskova, PhD, an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Management and the Director of the International Laboratory for Applied Network Research, HSE |
University for the City Lectorium
Time: 3 p.m. – 7 p.m.
How to get there: location on the map 5
| Time | Topic | Lecturer |
| 15:00 | ‘The Byzantine University and the Beginning of Education in Rus’ | 
Andrey Vinogradov, |
| 16:00 | 'City and University' The most vivid stories of symbiosis, which forms city and university culture.
| .jpg) Vitaly Kurennoy, Candidate of Science, Head of the School of Cultural Studies and the Department Head of the school’s Department of Cultural Sciences (Faculty of Philosophy, HSE) |
| 17:00 | ‘Despicable You: How Do Cities Influence Universities?’ What do modern universities acquire and what do they do away with under the influence of the urban environment. Учеба и научные занятия требуют уединения. Лужайки, гребные каналы, гроты, холмы, парки и сады – таков исторический антураж многих университетов. Но далеко не всех. Иногда университет размещается прямо в центре города, даже образует собой город. Именно из университетов выходит мода, они дают образцы поведения и культуры. Самокаты, бородки, роговые очки – не поставляют ли сегодня университеты стиль жизни для капиталистического города? А значит, города отучили-таки университеты от сладкого уединения и включили в экономический обмен. От чего отказываются и что приобретают современные университеты под влиянием городской среды – вот основной вопрос нашего разговора. |  Peter Safronov, Associate Professor, Department of Educational Programs, HSE |
| 18:00 | ‘What It Means to Be a student: the Balance Between Theory and Practice’ Creating an individual educational trajectory as a combination of theory and practical skills. |  Anna Zavaley, Candidate of Sciences, Manager in the School of Cultural Studies (Faculty of Philosophy, HSE) |