News

23 April 2021

7th Annual Toksovo Readings

On April 16. 2021. the 7^th Annual Toksovo Readings took place, basing at the premises of the

V.Petrov Toksovo Educational Centre, situated in the vicinity of St.Petersburg, Russia. This year the Readings were dedicated to the 70^th anniversary of a prominent local poet Anatoly Ivanen, who died a few years ago. A number of local historians, educators, and writers took part in the meeting. Ivonen was born into a local Finnish family, was a student of the Toksovo Education Centre, to become later a renowned Russian poet. His creative production embodied, inter alia, rich and varied intuitions concerning cultural dialogue of both nations. As usual, the Readings took place under the auspices of our Chair. D.Spivak took part at the meeting, giving an introductory address.
16 April 2021

International web conference ‘Religious Institutions and Practices during the COVID Pandemics: Challenges and Answers’

On April 15. 2021, International Web Conference ‘Religious Institutions and Practices during the COVID Pandemics: Challenges and Answers’ took place, basing at the premises of Al Farabi Kazakh National University (Republic of Kazakhstan). Speakers included a number of prominent scientists and religious leaders from Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkey, India, Tadjikistan. Our chair was represented by three fellows, i.e. by D.Spivak, who served as invited moderator of a plenary session dedicated to influence of the pandemic upon the religious education; G.Seidova, who gave a brief talk on Shiite religious life in times of pandemic; and by L.Yerekesheva. who served as the chairperson of the conference.

Programme
13 April 2021

Spring meeting of the Coordination Committee of UNESCO Chairs of the Russian Federation

Spring meeting of the Coordination Committee of UNESCO Chairs of the Russian Federation took place in St.Petersburg, Russia, on April 12, 2021, basing at the premises of Peter the Great State Polytechnic University of St.Petersburg. The meeting was chaired by the Executive Secretary of the Commission of the Russian Federation, Ambassador G.Ordzhonikidze, and Head of the Coordination Committee, Mr. V.Egorov. Applications of five prominent Russian universities (State Oil Technical University of Ufa, State Aerial Technical University of Ufa, State University of Bashkiria, State Polytechnic University of Ivanovo and State University of Pyatigorsk) were discussed. Preparations at the national level for World Conference in Higher Education scheduled to take place in Barcelona, Spain, in October, 2021, were regarded, as well as a number of urgent matters. Our Chair was represented by D.Spivak, who served as official reviewer of one of the applications for the creation of new chairs, and took part in general discussion.

Photo: D.Spivak.
16 March 2021

Περὶ ἀρχῶν

A new exhibition of religious painting, entitled Περὶ ἀρχῶν (De principiis) was opened on March 13, 2021 at the art place ‘More Place’, situated in St.Petersburg, Russia. The exhibition presents paintings of a number of prominent present-day local painters – A.Smolovik, L.Astrein, A.Gostintsev, V.Zagorov, and M.Tserush, as well as a classic of Russian spiritual painting, B.Smirnov-Rusetsky. Alexei Smolovik served also as the Curator of the exhibition, conceptually related to the First Biennale of Christocentric Art, which currently takes place in Moscow. Russia. Our chair took part in the elaboration of the conceptual framework of the exhibition, formulating its basic message, which was presented at the main poster. The exhibition was most positively evaluated at the official site of the St.Petersburg Archdiocese of the Russian Orthodox Church (see: Открылась выставка “О началах” – сайт Санкт-Петербургской митрополии (mitropolia.spb.ru) (in Russian).
19 February 2021

15th International Conference ‘Humanity, Economics, Society in Times of Pandemic: Regional, Global, and Federal Aspects’

On February 12, 2021, out UNESCO chair took part in the 15^th International Conference ‘Humanity, Economics, Society in Times of Pandemic: Regional, Global, and Federal Aspects’, which was conducted in the city of Stavropol in Southern Russia, under the auspices of Institute for Rapprochement of Nations of Caucasus, Eurasian Club of Scientists, and International Pedagogical Academy. The conference was combined with International Forum ‘Peacemaking Potential of Islam in the Development of Interfaith Connections’. Our fellows, professor A.Buttaeva, and Dr. G.Seidova, served as members of the Organization Committee of the conference. They also gave invited talks, entitled “Quality of Islamic Education in Present-Day Daghestan, in the former case, and “Theological Heritage of Northern Caucasus as Factor Counteracting Extremism and Terrorism”, in the latter one. Dr. M.Stepanov, Academic Secretary of our chair, gave a talk dedicated to “Dialogue with the Screen: Problems of Digital Communications in Times of Pandemic”.
24 December 2020

10th International Forum ‘Islam in the Multicultural World’

A number of professors of the North Caucasus affiliation of our UNESCO Chair, namely, V.Akayev, M.Bilalov, A.Buttayeva, S.Liausheva, N.Mamed-zadeh, G.Seidova, M.Shakhbanova, and A.Vartumian, took part in the 10^thInternational Forum ‘Islam in the Multicultural World’, which took place in Kazan, Tatar Republic, Russian Federation, from December, 22 till December, 26, 2020. The Forum was organized by a number of organizations,Foundation for Support of Islamic Culture, Science, and Education, Group of Strategic Vision ‘Russia-Islamic World’, Federal University of Kazan, Russian Academy of Sciences, and Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the Russian Federation, to name but a few. Talks given by our professors concerned primarily interfaith dialogue with Islam in Russia.
Program (In Russian)
21 December 2020

Journal of cross-cultural philosophy and humanities ‘Culture and Dialogue’

Professor of our UNESCO Chair, Dr. Gerald Cipriani, who serves, inter alia, as Editor in Chief of an international peer reviewed print and electronic journal of cross-cultural philosophy and humanities, entitled ‘Culture and Dialogue’, has submitted information on its two recent volumes, published in 2020.

Announcement C&D 8.1
Announcement C&D 8.2
19 November 2020

Scientific paper in a peer-reviewed journal “Psychological Peculiarities of Shiite Muslims in Russia”

Spivak D., Seidova G., Venkova A.Psychological Peculiarities of Shiite Muslims in Russia: Factor Analysis// International Journal of Cultural Research. 2020. № 2. P. 147–167. DOI: 10.24411/2079-1100-2020-00028

A new paper dedicated to the peculiarities of religious psychology of Shiite Muslims in Russia has newly been published by our UNESCO chair. The paper presents new results of a long-term project conducted by our Chair, which is dedicated to the analysis of Muslim religious psychology (both Suni and Shiite) in present-day Russia.
A group of 100 dwellers of the city of Derbent, Republic of Daghestan, active practitioners of Shiite Islam, were interviewed by us in the framework of the project, basing on the facilities of the Juma Mosque, which is focal for religious and societal life of the corresponding community. Differences and similarities between four subgroups of our respondents, i.e. aged / young Shiite women / men, formed the main topic for four formal factor analysis, which was divided into three blocks, directed at measurement of the degree of (a) psychological activation / tension, (b) activation of basic defense strategies, (c) involvement of psychological reserve mechanisms, including intrinsic religious attitudes, applied for the purpose of coping with life stress.
Our basic conclusions consist in the following regularities:
– inner structure of the integral index of psychological activation is based upon a constellation of two hidden factors, which tend to contribute to the feeling of inner balance in different ways. The first one comprises psychological agility, positive mood, and sufficient level of involvement; the second one involves the existence of moderate psychological tension. This structure, which is highly characteristic for both aged Shiite women and men, is proper for young people as well, although in a somewhat reduced form;
– inner structure of basic defense strategies comprises the action of two hidden factors, one of which includes projection, negation, and intellectualization; another one is mostly based upon regression, and substitution. Basing on the results of content analysis, the former factor may be regarded as based upon mature and complex defense strategies, while the latter factor comprises less sophisticated ones. Being characteristic for all the four subgroups of our respondents, this structural pattern may be regarded as specific for the subculture of Shiite Muslims in general;
– inner structure of intrinsic religiosity of aged Shiite men and women is defined by balance of two hidden factors, one of which is based upon the feeling of one’s ‘proximity to God’ or, ‘a mighty spiritual force’, while another one is formed by conducting ‘constant spiritual practices’. This structure tends to be quite static (especially in the case of the former factor), and to include phenomena bordering on the extrinsic religiosity (as in the case of the latter factor);
– contrary to this, inner structure of the intrinsic religiosity of young Shiites, especially male ones, tends to be much more dynamic, interiorized, and insight-oriented. This set of results seems to corroborate our hypothesis that there exist two focal types of intrinsic religiosity in the present-day Shiite community, one of which is proper for aged Shiite people, another one – for young people, particularly young Shiite men.
The results obtained in the framework of our project seem to be most constructive for the purpose of structuring systematic intercultural dialogue with Shiite Muslims, particularly the interfaith one. UNESCO approach to the interfaith dialogue seems to be most fruitful in this respect.
10 November 2020

Proceedings of the 6th Toksovo Readings

Proceedings of the 6^th Toksovo Readings have just been published in St.Petersburg, Russia, in Russian and, partly, in Finnish. The book, entitled ‘Evangelic Lutheran Congregation of Toksovo: a 400 Year Long Way’, is dedicated to the history of Protestantism in the North-Western Russia, and to the present-day status of interfaith dialogue between Protestants and the Orthodox Christians in this region, forming integral part of the intercultural dialogue between local Russians and Finns.
The book was published under the auspices of our UNESCO Chair. The Chairperson, Dr. D.Spivak, served as a member of the Editorial Board, and wrote the initial chapter, which was entitled ‘Shared Cultural Heritage’. Its main objective consisted in outlining the concept of shared cultural heritage in the strategy of UNESCO.
2 November 2020

2nd International Forum ‘Theological Legacy of Muslims in Russia’

Our UNESCO Chair took part at the 2^nd International Forum ‘Theological Legacy of Muslims in Russia’, which took place from October 26 till October 30, 2020, at the historical town of Bolgar, which is situated in Tatarstan Republic, Russian Federation. A number of Muslim scholars and activists took part at the Forum, as well as the representatives of the major religions in this country, along with prominent specialists in interfaith dialogue. Head of the North Caucasus affiliation of our UNESCO Chair, Dr. Gulchohrah Seidova, gave a plenary talk entitled ‘Religious Education of Young People as Factor of Stability in Present-Day Russia’.

Program of the International Forum.