Department of History, Higher School of Economics St. Petersburg
The HSE University was founded in 1991 in Moscow, soon followed by campuses in St. Petersburg, Perm, and Nizhniy Novgorod. Today, the HSE is consistently ranked as one of Russia's top universities, especially in the subject area of History.
The campus in St. Petersburg was founded in 1998 and the Department of History was created in 2012 together with the Center for Historical Research. The Department's mission is to develop a new type of historical undergraduate and graduate education in Russia and to pioneer new research fields in Russian historiography in dialogue with the global historical profession. Right now, 250 undergraduate and graduate students are enrolled, 10% coming from abroad.
The Department of History's overarching mission is to systematically develop methodologies and approaches of global, comparative, and transnational history as a potent tool of overcoming the limitations of national history canon, fostering interdisciplinary dialogue in the field of social sciences and humanities, and brining new public relevance to historical knowledge. The Center for Historical Research is both an independent research unit and a platform for academic development, e.g. it hosts a regular research seminar “Boundaries of History.”
Fields of Research Excellence:
• Russian Empire and the Soviet Union
• Comparative history of empire, colonialism, and nationalism
• Environmental and technological history
• Social and cultural history of borders and borderlands
• Intellectual history and history of science
• History and anthropology of religion
• History of Parliamentarism and Constitutionalism in Russian and Eurasian History
• Historical Geography, digital humanities, and GIS
• Eastern and Central European Studies
The Department of History at HSE Campus St. Petersburg invites students for its ungraduated program in History, its Master’s Programme “Global and Regional History” and to its Doctoral Programs (the program in Russian and the international joint doctoral program "Global Histories of Empire" between the HSE University and the University of Turin "https://www.globalhistoryphd.unito.it/do/home.pl"). All three programs combine the fundamental training in historical research with new perspectives on the past coming from global, comparative, and transnational history. The programs also offer a possibility for exchange students to immerse in the study of the history of the Russian Empire, Soviet Union, and post-Soviet space, including the diverse and interlinked history of different regions of Eurasia (the Arctic, Caucasus, Siberia and the Far East, East-Central Europe), as well as access to unique archival, library, and museum collections located in St. Petersburg.
Cooperation Projects with the Professur für Neuere Geschichte Osteuropas in Goettingen
• Student mobility
The Department of History at HSE St. Petersburg and in Goettingen regularly exchange students for the duration of one or two semesters in order to experience different cultures of studying and acquire a better language proficiency. Link to resumes
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• Summer School
The HSE regularly organizes a three week Summer School on “The Topography of Imperial Power”, which includes a course on Russian History, a Russian language course, and excursions within Greater St. Petersburg. The DAAD generously supports students who wish to visit the Summer School. In 2021, the summer school could be held successfully as part of the Göttingen curriculum despite the pandemic. Experience reports will follow shortly. Link to resumes.
Coordinator: Pavel Vasilyev and Phillip Schroeder.
• Summer Workshop
In the summer 2021 both departments planned and succesfully held a digital Workshop titled “E pluribus unum? Possibilities and Limits of a Shared (Eastern) European Collective Memory of the Second World War” together with the Stiftung Adam von Trott in Imshausen, Hessen.
Contact: Ekaterina Kalemeneva and Kerstin Bischl.
• Study Day
In January 2019 eight researchers from the HSE visited Goettingen to talk about common interests and future programs. Link to Program.
• Field trip
In summer 2018 nine students from Goettingen visited the HSE during a field trip to St. Petersburg and Moscow. Link to resumes.
Fotos: Phillip Schroeder, Blick auf die Isaakkathedrale, Eingang der HSE, Straßenzug in St. Petersburg
Die Professur für Neuere Geschichte Osteuropas trauert um Prof. Dr. Dietmar Wulff
Dietmar Wulff, der in der Nacht vom 12. auf den 13. Februar 2020 plötzlich und unerwartet verstarb, war als DAAD-Langzeitdozent an der Higher School of Economics in St. Petersburg nicht nur ein wichtiger Partner für die Hochschulkooperation unserer Universitäten, sondern wir verlieren mit ihm auch einen langjährigen Freund und Kollegen. Zudem war Dietmar Wulff wie kein Zweiter „Herz und Seele“ des deutsch-russischen Austauschs weit über die Geschichtswissenschaft hinaus.
Als Dozent in Berlin, Voronesch, Bielefeld und St. Petersburg und als Organisator unzähliger Sommerschulen und Exkursionen hat Dietmar Wulff es verstanden, deutsche wie russische Studierende nicht nur für die Geschichte des jeweils anderen Landes zu interessieren, sondern sie auch in direkten Kontakt zu bringen. Dabei hat er – als wohl einziger deutscher Historiker, der russische Geschichte in Russland auf Russisch unterrichtete – Wissenschaftlichkeit mit gegenseitigem Verständnis zusammengedacht und stand Studierenden wie auch Kolleg_innen stets mit Rat und Tat, trockenem Humor sowie praktischer Gastlichkeit bei.
Wir hoffen, die in Zusammenarbeit mit ihm entstandenen Kooperationsprojekte in seinem Sinne fortzuführen, und erinnern ihn in deren Mitte. Wir sind dankbar für die Kontakte und Freundschaften, die durch sein Wirken entstanden sind. Und wir sind in Gedanken bei seiner Frau, seinen Kindern und seinen weiteren Verwandten.
