Center for Political Studies
Institute for Social Research
University of Michigan
P.O. Box 1248
Ann Arbor, MI
48106-1248
Voice: (734) 763-1348
Fax: (734) 764-3341
Title
Training a New Generation of Russian Social Scientists and Diffusing Social Science Expertise to Russian Regional Universities
Direct Source
Carnegie Corporation
Abstract
The University of Michigan, in continued collaboration with the European University in Saint Petersburg, seeks renewed support from the Carnegie Corporation in developing the social sciences in Russia. The two universities have very close ties. To illustrate: two University of Michigan Ph. Ds are faculty members of the kafedra of sociology and political science; scholars from the two universities have had repeated joint conferences and joint projects; one senior historian at the University of Michigan is heading up an effort to secure private funding in the United States for an endowment at the European University. This proposal to continue a program designed to train a new generation of Russian social scientists and to diffuse social science expertise to Russia's regions is another major example.
The long-term goals of this program are to create a cadre of young scholars who are prepared to participate internationally on an equal basis with scholars from North America and Europe and to strengthen the social sciences in Russian regional universities by exposing those universities to well-trained, modern social scientists. There are three major components to the grant: a University of Michigan program of training young Russian scholars products of the European University (to be termed Carnegie Visiting Scholars); the placement of young scholars from the European University at regional universities; and various efforts to "network" between and among the regional universities, the European University, and the University of Michigan.
In previous grants from the Corporation to the University, the prime focus has been on deepening and extending ties between regional Russian universities and the national and international community of scholars. That will continue as a major goal of this proposal. In particular, a key aspect of the grant will be to continue to support young scholars from the European University so that they might teach at three regional universities with which Michigan and or the European University has close ties: Petrozavodsk State University, Tver' State University, and either Kazan State University or Cherepovets State University.
The requested renewal, however, will devote the majority of its funds to enhancing the skills and substantive expertise of the best young political scientists products of the European University by providing them with the opportunity to spend a year (if the grant is for two years only) or more (if the grant is renewed once more) doing research and taking advanced courses in the University of Michigan's graduate program in political science. The two goals are linked. The Carnegie Visiting Scholars will in most instances be those young scholars who will teach at one of the three regional universities under the auspices of the grant.
The proposed project speaks to the long-standing emphasis of the Foundation on education and its commitment to "outreach and capacity-building programs" in social science for Russia. It provides the opportunity to enhance the skills and expertise of a younger generation of Russian scholars in such topics germane to the mission of the Corporation as the study of "states at risk" (states that may not have the political capacity or resources to provide basic needs for their citizens) and the diffusion of weapons of mass destruction in an era in which non-state actors increasingly have the potential to acquire such weapons.
It is, moreover, thoroughly congruent with the missions of both the University of Michigan and the European University. For the Center for Political Studies and the Political Science Department at the University of Michigan, the proposed grant is illustrative of their central mission of training the next generation of international social scientists, ones who have the requisite training such that they can function both in their local environment and can also participate actively and equally in the global interchange of scholarly ideas. Approximately one-third of the political science graduate students at Michigan are foreigners. For the European University in St. Petersburg, this project is also a natural. The European University was established in 1995. The faculty are well trained, active participants in the global social science "invisible college" and they seek to place their products in Russian universities and to encourage the latter to acquire additional tools and substantive expertise so that they too can actively participate at the international level.