International Exchange of Ideas and Practice in Psychology
Dr. Virginia Moreira visited HSE in late January-early February 2016 at the invitation of the Department of Psychology of Personality (School of Psychology of the Faculty of Social Sciences), and taught several classes at the Master’s Programme 'Consulting Psychology. Personology'.
— What is your research focus in psychology? How did you learn about HSE and why did you decide to collaborate on teaching?
— I have been a psychotherapist for many years now and also a Professor at Universidade de Fortaleza in Brazil where I do phenomenological research in psychotherapy and psychopathology, in person-centered approach in the laboratory APHETO – Laboratório de Psicopatologia e Clínica Humanista Fenomenológica. It is one of the main approaches taught in the Master Programme 'Consulting Psychology. Personology' at HSE. Professor Veniamin Kolpachnikov and Professor Alexander Orlov have known me for some years now from conferences, and they invited me to teach a short series of lectures and seminars based on my research in Brazil. It’s my second time in Russia, I first came to a conference in 2010 organized by the Department.
— How do you find the students? Is teaching here different from your home university?
— It’s my third class here already, and it’s a very good experience so far. The first day was somewhat difficult; a Brazilian professor giving classes to Russian students in English – it’s a challenging situation, but it turned out well. The students have quite a good level of English and a very good background in the person-centered approach in psychology.
— How are the classes organized?
— I sent the syllabus for this seminar series Phenomenological Research in Person-Centered Approach, and I am doing a mix of lectures and workshop. The other day we had a hands-on session on how to practice phenomenological research in their own experience as consultants and researchers. I do my best to provide theoretical background for them as well, but without practice it’s difficult to understand how to apply the principles they learned in their research and work. My colleagues from HSE, Prof. Orlov and Prof. Kolpachnikov came to some of the classes as well, and I think that all in all it’s an enrichening experience for the students. I hope that I provided a good contribution to their knowledge and skills.
It’s always good to come into contact with other perspectives, and some of the students are helping me navigate the campus, etc., and we have the chance to discuss interesting topics outside of class as well. They are getting excited about opportunities for participating in mobility programmes. At Universidade de Fortaleza – UNIFOR we have a lot of mobility opportunities for graduate and post-graduate students, and since I have strong contacts here at HSE, I am hoping we can figure out a way to do student exchanges as well. Our Brazilian PhD students may apply for a grant for doing part of their degree at another university abroad, and one of the crucial conditions is an established contact between the research advisor at our university and a professor at the host institution who will be supervising this exchange student.
Of course, if the exchanges work well and the programmes see the potential, there is also the possibility to do a cotutelle agreement about joint supervision of PhD students. But it’s best to start with the basics before developing more complex forms of collaboration.
— Do you have plans for collaborating on research projects?
— We’ve been discussing ideas at conferences for some time now, and we have shared research interests with Prof. Orlov and Prof. Kolpachnikov. We do not have any specific plans but we would like to do some joint research in the future. I think that this visit is a good opportunity to start a more detailed discussion of possible projects – as far as I understand, HSE professors are encouraged to involve students in research and publish with them, and it’s the same for my university in Brazil.
The full text of the March issue of The HSE Look can be found on the website. For more information please visit ifaculty.hse.ru
See also:
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