Terra Hominis 2026 Ignites Dialogue between Renowned and Prospective Researchers
The HSE Faculty of Humanities has held the fourth Terra Hominis conference, a scientific event for students, doctoral students, and prospective researchers. This year, more than 700 applications were received (1.5 times more than last year) and more than 400 participants and 200 attendees from different regions of Russia and foreign countries took part. The conference partners were the Main Information and Computer Centre of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Centre.
The participants included students, doctoral students, and prospective researchers from various departments across all HSE campuses, as well as universities in Kazan, Omsk, Kaliningrad, Vladivostok, Tyumen, Chelyabinsk, Rostov-on-Don, and Yekaterinburg. Representatives from Austria, Germany, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Serbia, China, and Israel were also in attendance.
In his opening speech, Felix Azhimov, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, noted that the faculty has a developed academic environment, its researchers have achieved impressive scientific results, and by the end of their studies, students usually finalise their research results as publications (both co-authored and individual) in high impact journals. About 50 scientific events are held at the faculty throughout the year, and Terra Hominis is the largest and most popular among them.
The dean stressed that the conference is interdisciplinary, representing all scientific fields of the faculty. It ran for three days and included 20 sections and one workshop, with two sections—'Cinema Studies’ and ‘Material Culture of Ancient and Medieval Societies: The Archaeology of East and West’—organised and conducted by corresponding members of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexander Pavlov and Askold Ivantchik, respectively.
‘As a rule, representatives of the Russian Academy of Sciences do not deign to pay attention to this kind of conference. However, our renowned colleagues communicate on equal terms with those who are just starting their scientific careers,’ added Felix Azhimov. He noted that the conference provides an opportunity to get acquainted with the community of early-career researchers, from undergraduates to PhD students, and to witness their developing careers. ‘We are pleased to observe this growth, to see the results of studies at our faculty and at HSE University as a whole,’ he said.
The partners of the conference were the Main Information and Computer Centre of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Centre, which signed a cooperation agreement with the Faculty of Humanities in December 2025. On April 6, the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Centre opened the exhibition ‘Jewish Maps—2025. Perm: Local History and Urban Environment,’ dedicated to the study of the local Jewish history and urban space. The exhibition presents the results of field work in Perm: a mental map of the city, research hypotheses, interview excerpts, as well as visual and audio materials.
Anastasia Deka, curator and manager of the main exhibition at the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Centre, said: ‘The pilot wave of the educational project was conceived as a live immersion in the environment, as field work for young researchers that goes beyond standard anthropological practices.’ Alina Shmiglyuk, a bachelor's degree participant of the first wave, believes that participating in the Jewish Maps project has opened up new perspectives and allowed her to immerse herself in the closed world of the Jewish community. ‘This experience has expanded my skills and cultural perspectives, and I will always remember it with kindness and gratitude!’ she added.
‘The first project that we implemented jointly with the Faculty of Humanities was the opening of the exhibition ‘Jewish Maps — 2025. Perm: Local History and Urban Environment’ within the framework of the Terra Hominis—2026 conference, where the museum also acted as a partner of one of the sections. The exhibition summarised the first wave of an educational project for prospective researchers organised by the museum's Research Centre. The exhibition is based on field work in the Perm Jewish community. This year, the project is continuing its work, and participants will travel to Yaroslavl to get to know the local community. We also plan to develop educational and research projects with HSE University and hope for long-term, fruitful cooperation,’ said Svetlana Amosova, Director of the Research Centre of the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Centre.
Igor Starkov, Head of the Department of Digital Development of the Scientific and Cultural Centre of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, and Mira Bergelson, Director of the HSE Centre for Sociocultural and Ethnolinguistic Studies, spoke at the plenary session of the conference.
Igor Starkov's report was dedicated to digital humanities in the field of culture. In particular, he spoke about the Main Information and Computer Centre of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, which develops information systems in the field of culture and provides digital support for cultural processes (such as the Pushkin card). ‘We strive to establish strong relations between culture and IT,’ he said.
He pointed out that digital humanities in the public administration system are not a collection of IT services for compiling reports, but a toolset for observing cultural life, comparing various kinds of data, and quickly understanding what is really happening in institutions, foundations, classrooms, and at the territorial level. ‘More precise tools help us develop a clearer management system and cultural environment,’ said Igor Starkov.
Mira Bergelson presented a report on ‘Language Policy: Cognitive and Anthropological Perspectives.’ She noted that 2026 has been declared the Year of Unity of the Peoples of Russia, and her centre is primarily engaged in research on the languages of the peoples of the country. ‘Language policy is not a science, but an activity. We talk about managing linguistic diversity, but we cannot do this without understanding what we want to manage, what happens to what we manage, and which methods are most relevant,’ she added.
Bergelson added that language policy is a dynamic system at the intersection of ethnology, sociology, politics, history, and culture, with language at its heart. Classical ethnography is complemented by data science methods. ‘At the same time, the future of languages is determined not only in classrooms, but also in the language code itself and in the minds of its speakers,’ believes the expert.
The conference ran from April 8–10 and included sections on ‘The Elder Scrolls Universe: From Sword to Magic,’ ‘India: Religion, Culture, and Society,’ ‘Material Culture and Everyday Memory,’ ‘Theoretical and Typological Linguistics,’ ‘Philosophy: The Territory of the Inhuman,’ and others. More information about the conference programme and the list of reports can be found here (in Russian).
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