Research & Expertise

The Russian Science Foundation has announced the most recent winners of three-year grants for scientific research. Among the recipients are a number of projects carried out by scientists at the Higher School of Economics.

After receiving her PhD in Psychology from the University of the Basque Country, Beatriz Martín-Luengo arrived in Moscow in 2015 to join the Centre for Cognition & Decision Making at HSE as a Research Fellow. Since then, she has pursued research interests that focus on the ecological study of human memory (i.e., variables that affect our recollection) and metamemory, which is the introspective knowledge of one's own memory capabilities (and strategies that can aid memory) and the processes involved in memory self-monitoring.

The Master Programme "Psychology in Business" HSE, together with the European Association of Cultural and Emotional Intelligent Projects (EACEIP), the International Center of the Coaching Training Consulting (CTC), and the International Network of Children's Schools for the Development of Emotional Intelligence (EI CHILDREN) took part in the organization and holding of the First International Science -Practical Conference "Working Emotional Intellect in Business and Education".

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.