Research & Expertise

On October 17–19, 2025, the third annual interdisciplinary conference ‘Researching the Deaf Community 2025: on the Periphery of Attention’ took place at GES-2 House of Culture in Moscow. The event was organised with the participation of the HSE International Laboratory for Social Integration Research. HSE University Vice Rector Irina Martusevich addressed attendees at the opening ceremony.

Why we make irrational decisions, how the brain responds to fakes, and whether neural networks are capable of thinking—these were the topics discussed by early-career scientists of HSE University during the NAUKA 0+ science festival. The event brought together students and experts from various fields, united by a common goal—to deepen their understanding of the human brain and cognitive technologies.

HSE University is now accepting proposals to present academic reports at the XXVI April International Academic Conference named after Evgeny Yasin. Applications can be submitted until December 16, 2025. The conference events will take place mainly on-site in Moscow from April 14 to 17, 2026.

World Deaf Day is traditionally celebrated on the last Sunday of September. This year, the HSE Faculty of Social Sciences joined the celebration and, together with the Moscow branch of the All-Russian Society of the Deaf (VOG Moscow), launched a study of the needs of hearing-impaired Moscow residents in terms of social services and accessible environments.

The annual Student Research Paper Competition (SRPC) offers students the chance to showcase their work, such as term papers or theses. It is a valuable opportunity to receive expert feedback and recommendations aimed at improving research, as well as to take the first steps in an academic career. Below we outline the key features and deadlines for submitting entries.

Researchers from the HSE Laboratory for Cognitive Psychology of Digital Interface Users have discovered how social cues in the design of news websites—such as reader comments, the number of reposts, or the author’s name—can help build user trust. An experiment with 137 volunteers showed that such interface elements make a website appear more trustworthy and persuasive to users, with the strongest cue being links to the media’s social networks. The study's findings have been published in Human-Computer Interaction.

HSE University and the Centre for International Policy Research (Qatar) have agreed to collaborate in the field of social sciences, with plans for joint research, academic exchanges, and regular expert engagement. The agreement was signed during the roundtable ‘State Capacity and State Resilience in the Global South,’ held as part of the 25th Yasin (April) International Academic Conference at HSE University.

A special session of HSE Science Battles has taken place at the HSE Cultural Centre. This time, the speakers represented their student organisations and scientific fields. The evening brought together ideas about the future—from metaverses and deciphering ancient languages to neuromodular chips and the prospects of social sciences.

The expert of the new issue of the "+/- 10 minutes" column is Anna Kartasheva, PhD in Philosophy, research fellow at the International Laboratory for Applied Network Research at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, and director of the publishing house "Business Book". In the lecture, we will look at how data becomes information, and information becomes knowledge. We will also discuss whether data can be a neutral and error-free record of facts, and how the specifics of knowledge formation affect modern information systems.

A special issue of the journal 'Sociology: Methodology, Methods, Mathematical Modeling' (Sociology:4M) has been published, dedicated to the methodology of network analysis in social sciences. The guest editor of the issue was the head of ANR-Lab Daria Maltseva, and 3 out of 5 articles were written by the laboratory members.

Irina Kulinenko, 2^nd year student of the program “Politics. Economy. Philosophy." took an active part in the VII BRICS International School, which was held from November 13 to 18, 2023.

On September 1st, a new season of the open Student Research Paper Competition (SRPC) started. This competition is aimed at developing the potential of university students who are interested in academic activities. Students, as well as 2023 graduates of Russian and foreign universities, can submit their papers for the competition until October 15^th, 2023. This year SRPC turns 20 years old, throughout the competition’s history, Vadim Radaev, HSE University’s First Vice Rector, has been the chair of the organising committee. In today’s interview, he talks about the history of the competition and the key stages in its development.

The journal 'Sociology: 4M' and the International Laboratory for Applied Network Research announce the preparation of a special issue of the journal dedicated to the methodology of network analysis in the social sciences. Guest editor – candidate of social sciences Daria Maltseva. Estimated release date of the issue is December 2023.

On April 12, 2023, within the framework of the XXIV Yasin (April) International Academic Conference on Economic and Social Development, a session "Sociocultural Potential of Museums: Identity and Local Solidarity" was held (Moderator: N. Bolshakov (ILSIR, HSE University). 

On March 15, Judas Everett defended his doctoral dissertation ‘The Effect of the Patterns in the Dissolution of Communism on the Transition to New Systems in Eastern Europe’, which investigates the relationship between the demise of communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe and the quality of democracy in the post-communist regime. The defence took place remotely. His academic supervisor was Professor Andrey Akhremenko of the HSE University School of Politics and Governance at the Faculty of Social Sciences. In his interview, Judas talks about the topic of his research and explains why political science is more important than ever.

The HSE Working Group “Russia Strategic Studies” in partnership with the IMEMO’s Center for International Security has conducted a joint seminar “The Role of Strategic Stability in Russian Foreign Policy”.

On 20-21 October 2022 School of Politics and Governance at HSE University hosted the Fifth International Symposium on Development and Governance in the BRICS.It gathered the speakers from ten countries, who discussed the public administration reforms in general, and such their aspects as tackling the consequences of COVID-19 pandemics, international project management, risk management and digitalization.

The start of a new academic year is an excellent time to plan the next steps in your academic career. On September 1, HSE University announced the start of its annual Student Research Paper Competition (SRPC-2022). Participation is open to students of Russian and international universities and to 2022 graduates. Last year, a total of 2,196 papers were submitted to the SRPC, of which 435 were from external participants.

In November 2021, HSE University’s School of Politics and Governance and the Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia (New York University) started a new partnership project that involves regular joint online seminars. Denis Stukal, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Deputy Director of the Institute for Applied Political Studies, has commented on the initiative.

In March 2021 the HSE University and Freie Universität Berlin (FUB) were awarded an institutional partnership grant from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation to foster cooperation between these two institutions and to involve in it a broader group of younger fellows and doctoral students. On May 27th this project will start with a digital workshop "Varieties of Populism in East and West" (deadline for submission is April 23rd; for more info about the workshop see the link at the end of the news). We interviewed Professor Dr. Katharina Bluhm, director of the Institute for East European Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin, about the goals of this project and prospects of cooperation between the HSE University and the FUB.