Baltic Practice International Summer School: From Local Identity in a Global World to Organizing Next Year’s School ’Europe in Russia’

On November 18, the HSE International Summer School ‘Baltic Practice’ held a presentation about the results of the 13^th School and announced the theme for next year’s School.

The 2013 School — ‘Russia and Europe: Choosing Identities in a Changing Global World’ — was held from July 28 to August 4 in Karelia by the department of Public Policy. The School was conducted in English, and during the week, the participants listened to lectures by HSE professors and local policy experts, worked in research groups devoted to their topics, held discussion clubs in the evenings, worked on their essays, and prepared for the final debates. The 13^th School was concerned with the question of how local and global identities go together in a contemporary world, and how they are changing. Each day one of the four groups presented its view on the topic through the lens of their research. The fifth day ended with the final debates between the ’local’ and ‘global’ identity teams.

The four groups, each led by an HSE professor and an outside expert, were the following:

Russia-EU Troubled Communication: Do We Fail to Understand Each Other?

The group was led by Anna Potsar (HSE, Public Policy Department) and Edgar Demetrio Tovar Garcia (HSE, Center for Monitoring Education Quality);

New Challenges to Human Rights

The group was led by Kirill Entin (HSE, Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs) and Furkat Tishaev (Human Rights Center “Memorial”, Moscow);

Identity Dynamics through Collective Actions 

The group was led by Dmitriy Zaytsev (HSE, Public Policy Department) and Leonas Tolvaisis (Singidunum University, Serbia);

Soft Law and Soft Power in Russia-European Relations

The group was led by Yuri Fogelson (HSE, Public Policy Department) and Peter Isackson (EUBAT).

In addition, the School had a guest lecturer, Dr. Gerhard Ermischer (Wurzburg University, Germany), and was visited by representatives of the Karelian branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

On November 18, several participants of the 13^th summer school — Marina Fadeeva, Jonny Dzhilbadze, and Victor Sokolov — described their experiences and work to first-year Master’s programme students.Apart from receiving certificates with 3 ECTS credits for successfully completing the School’s programme, they also shared how getting fresh inspiration and feedback from fellow participants and Russian and foreign group leaders helped them shape their research.

During the 13^th School, the participants spent a great deal of time discussing the format and possible topics for next year’s school, and now the Baltic Practice team is again recruiting new participants.

The Summer School in 2014 is going to take place near St. Petersburg from June 28 to July 5, and will be devoted to the topic ‘Europe in Russia: Business, Culture, Values’, which provides potential working groups with considerable latitude. Baltic Practice has long been a student-driven project, and we welcome those who want to help shape it for 2014. The topics, arrangements, group work — everything is in your hands, and the previous team will gladly share its experience and participate as well.

If you are an active student who is interested in gaining or polishing research skills, has the ability to present your arguments and conclusions in a concise and persuasive fashion, and want to participate in an intensive, weeklong programme with students from different HSE departments and programmes, other universities, and international students studying in Russia — contact us at balticpractice@gmail.com and join the organizing team!

Maria Shabanova

(Photo credits: Ksenia Barakovskaya, Jonny Dzhibladze, and Marina Fadeeva)