From Mexico to China: St Petersburg School of Social Sciences Defines Workplan Following the International Partners' Week
The School of Social Sciences has summed up the results of the International Partners' Week 2025. The school representatives highlighted the productive dialogue with colleagues from universities in India, Latin America and other countries. They've reached agreements on mobility programmes, joint research and educational initiatives.
The St Petersburg School of Social Sciences presented the results of its participation in the International Partners' Week which united more than 100 representatives from leading universities from 23 countries. The event became an important platform for the development of international cooperation and experience exchange in the sphere of social sciences. The faculty experts share their impressions of the key achievements of the Partners' Week and plans for the future.
Alexander Sorokin
Dean of the School of Social Sciences
One of the main outcomes of the Partners' Week is a lively and substantial dialogue with colleagues. Each day was full of in-depth discussions of the gained results and implemented plans as well as new ideas and acquaintances. I am sure that the established communication will continue, and both the school and university will find new development vectors. The research and educational programmes of the school arouse great interest among international partners. It was proven by the fact that the majority of expert lectures at the International Partners' Week were offered to the students and employees of our school on such interdisciplinary problems as sustainable development, social entrepreneurship, artificial intelligence and so on. This event emphasised that social sciences were actively developing in international and interdisciplinary communications.
I will focus on specific examples. We have resumed the dialogue with Bennett University regarding a semester mobility programme and in the long term a double-degree programme for the students of the bachelor's programme 'Political Science and World Politics'. We already have a relevant work plan, and Gaurav Bhatnagar, head of International Relations and Corporate Outreach, agreed to help us organise and hold negotiations between the parties. We have developed the project of a network programme with Chinese universities through Sinobodo. Now, the company representative is looking for the most suitable Chinese universities for us. For the next year, we are planning to hold a new winter/summer school with UPES University which we are embedding into the project of the Mirror laboratory. We expect that the school will be devoted to the topic of the laboratory, which is international regulatory regimes, international organisations and compliance with international law. We also discussed the scaling up of this event with our colleagues from Latin America and agreed to invite professors and students from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul and the Centro Interdisciplinario de Investigaciones y Estudios sobre Medio Ambiente y Desarrollo (CIIEMAD). The representatives of the master's programme 'Data Analytics for Politics and Society' held efficient negotiations with Universidad Panamericana. The colleagues from Latin America show a great interest in mobility and double-degree programmes.
Yury Kabanov, senior lecturer at the Department of Political Science and International Affairs
It was important for me to continue the negotiations about cooperation with Latin American universities. We've managed to enhance our interaction with UPAEP University (Mexico) with which we plan student exchanges and a double-degree programme with the School of Economics and Management and the School of Social Sciences. We've reached an agreement with the representatives of Instituto Politecnico Mexico on signing the memorandum for further joint research projects. There appeared some ideas to attract visiting professors from Colombia and Brazil.
It's important that we were able to organise lectures for students. The guests liked our students, they made a positive impression. It will influence the cooperation well.
Yana Krupets, deputy Director of the Centre for Youth Studies
In the framework of the International Partners' Week, the researchers from the Centre for Youth Studies met and actively communicated with colleagues from the Department of Sociology at the University of Delhi. Together, we held the roundtable 'Current Research Agenda on Youth, Generations, and Family in Two Contemporary Societies: India and Russia', during which based on our research, we discussed the key trends in the youth's life in two societies. Besides, professor Janaki Abraham delivered a lecture on ethnographic research on weddings in India. For us, it was a unique chance to see Indian society through the eyes of our colleagues-sociologists and discuss opportunities and challenges in studying modern youth both at global and local levels. Such a dialogue allowed us not only to establish new professional contacts but also to bring out significant intersections in research and methodological approaches. We got an opportunity to get to know the colleagues' work better, discuss research interests and outline prospective directions for joint work.
What was especially valuable for us is the face-to-face communication—in such a short period of time, we've managed to build trusting relationships with the colleagues and understand better how research and teaching are organised at the University of Delhi. Among the specific results are agreements to prepare an application for an international mirror laboratory and preliminary discussions on creating a double-degree programme.
Dmitry Omelchenko, research fellow at the Centre for Youth Studies
The main outcome of the past week is the strengthening of our ties with colleagues-sociologists from the University of Delhi. It seems to me that an important stage of reporting the work, done over the past year, was the presentation of the exhibition and the research documentary about the results of the expedition to the Himalayas. We held three screenings, at the same time, during the whole event, the attendees could visit the exhibition, talk to me and my colleagues about the materials and possible future cooperation.
The chosen methods of visual representation of social and anthropological research fully justified themselves. Our format without excessive theorisation allowed us to demonstrate the difficulties and conflicts of international communication. For instance, after attending the screening of the film, the rector of the University of Delhi was pleased with the tangible demonstration of the rapidly growing cooperation between our universities (especially, in the sphere of field and applied research).
I think that in the future, we will use this format (photo exhibitions, film screenings) for targeted communication with partner universities. Obviously, academic papers influence the career figures and actual summary of projects but shared corporate spirit, cooperation efficiency and understanding of what you've done beyond the academia are captured exactly by joint media production.
Magdalena Gaete, head of the Laboratory for Reputation Management in Education
The participation in the International Partners' Week helped to establish closer ties with the university representatives from various countries. The discussions were intense and constructive which created a firm basis for future joint projects and initiatives. It is a wonderful opportunity for collaboration with colleagues.
We've managed to form the research agenda for 2025-2026. During the sessions and informal communication, we agreed on the key directions of research cooperation and outlined specific steps for carrying out joint research. It is truly important for long-term planning in international projects.
The format of 'Day 0' was quite useful. The participants of our consortium used this time for strategic brainstorming and detailed discussion of the tasks which helped us engage in the main programme more efficiently.
The event venue was organised greatly—both in terms of technical equipment and the atmosphere contributing to the open dialogue and cooperation.
The extended duration allowed us to have more calm and meaningful conversations with international colleagues which strengthen partnerships and help understand each others' interests and priorities better.