Research & Expertise

On October 19, the HSE School of Sociology hosted Dr. Kerstin Jacobsson, Professor of Sociology at the University of Gothenburg (Sweden), for a seminar entitled ‘Emotions and Morality in a neo-Durkheimian Perspective on Social Movements’. Held as part of the International Sociology Seminar Series, Dr. Jacobsson’s talk was based on the book Animal Rights Activism: A Moral-Sociological Perspective on Social Movements (co-authored with Jonas Lindblom), which develops a novel theoretical perspective on social movements. Following her lecture, she spoke with the HSE News Service about some of the key findings in her research on social movements, including as they relate to the post-Soviet space.

Springer, one of the world's leading publishers of scientific literature, has launched a new book series, entitled ‘Societies and political orders in transition’. The series has been initiated by the HSE Faculty of Social Sciences, and three HSE representatives are members of the series International Advisory Board, with the other four members coming from universities in Germany, UK and the USA.

On Tuesday, May 23, William Reisinger, Professor of Political Science at the University of Iowa, will deliver a seminar at the HSE School of Political Science entitled ‘The Impact of Petty Corruption on Political Support in Post-Soviet Societies’. Ahead of his seminar, Professor Reisinger spoke with the HSE News Service about the topic of his research, how his impressions of Russia and the post-Soviet world have changed since he began visiting the region, and the changing interest in Russia that he has observed among Western students over the past several decades.

Several studies have indicated that schizophrenic patients are likely to show high levels of nicotine dependence. Scientists from HSE Centre for Cognition and Decision Making, Institut Pasteur, the CNRS, Inserm and the ENS employed a mouse model to elucidate how nicotine influences cells in the prefrontal cortex. They visualized how nicotine has a direct impact on the restoration of normal activity in nerve cells (neurons) involved in psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia. These findings were published in a paper that appeared in the journal Nature Medicine.

While mortality in Moscow is much lower than in other Russian regions, it does not compare favourably with death statistics observed in metropolitan areas of other countries, according to Andreev, Kvasha and Tatiana Kharkova, Senior Research Fellow of the HSE Institute of Demography Centre for Demographic Studies.Their study 'Mortality in Moscow and Other Megacities of the World: Similarities and Differences' compares mortality rates in Berlin, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, New York, Singapore, Tokyo, Moscow and St. Petersburg.

People with sleep disorders tend to misperceive their own appearance.

Navid Hassanpour, Associate Professor in the Faculty of Social Sciences (School of Political Science) at the Higher School of Economics, is the author of ‘Leading from the Periphery and Network Collective Action’ published by Cambridge University Press in December 2016. He recently spoke with the HSE News Service about his current course at HSE, expansion of the Master’s programme in Applied Political Science, and his plans for upcoming research.

On January 25, the Faculty of Social Sciences held the first meeting of its interdisciplinary seminar 'Challenges of Social Development'. Boris Kapustin, Professor of the HSE School of Political Science gave a presentation on Interdisciplinarity as a Research and Teaching Strategy.

On December 5, HSE’s School of Public Administration held a lecture by Szabolcs Pasztor, Assistant Professor at the National University of Public Service (NUPS) (Budapest, Hungary), entitled ‘Clientelism in Central and Eastern Europe’. The lecture was the tenth event in the School’s Public Administration Discussion Meeting series, which aims to bring international scholars to HSE and increase global cooperation.

Joint work led by David Horton Smith, Leading Research Fellow at the Centre for Studies of Civil Society and the Nonprofit Sector (CSCSNS) (Research and Emeritus Professor of Sociology, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, USA), and director of the Centre, Irina Mersiyanova has received the Felice Davidson Perlmutter Award for the best theoretical research work into the non-profit sector.