The Center
General Information. The Education, Research and Publishing Center (ERPC) "Acta Eurasica" (in Russian "Vestnik Yevraziyi") was founded on October 1, 2001 and registered on October 9, 2001 as an independent noncommercial organization (Certificate of the Moscow Registration Chamber № 002.060.473). At the same time the Academic Council of the Center under the leadership of its Chairman, deputy editor-in-chief of the journal of "Vestnik Evrazii", Professor of Moscow State University Institute of Asian and African Studies Grigorii Kosach was established (see Personalities, both in Russian and English). The Council confirmed Sergei Panarin(Ibid), the editor-in-chief of the journal Acta Eurasica (in Russian Vestnik Yevraziyi) and the head of the CIS department of the RAS Institute of Oriental Studies as the Director of the Center.
Causes of establishing, goals and tasks. The divorce between education and research persists to a great extent in post-Soviet Russia. There is also a continuing gap between an empiric vision of current developments in politics, culture and social life and their theoretical perception. Not infrequently, no less gap in scope and quality of interpretation, separates the versions of such developments, which are elaborated in provincial universities, from those produced in capital. Studies of the non-Russian parts of Eurasia are still at an embryonic stage; cooperation with scholars in other CIS countries is weak and weakening; and more than that, there is no training in the history, politics, economies, etc. of the former Soviet republics. Although praised as one of the best ways to instruct and upgrade students and postgraduates, teaching through participation has never enjoyed real support in Russia. And, while pretending to be pieces of academic discourse, many articles, written by younger Russian researchers, do not meet the internationally adopted demands of structure and style required in scholarly texts.
The project aims at resolving of the above-mentioned problems. The originality of the project consists of the use of an academic journal as the main tool for this. The author of the project believes that a journal of this kind might serve as an informal but pivotal link between the official agents of education and research. Yet, in order to achieve the goal, this journal should be both independent and inter-disciplinary, it should cover by its publication agenda the whole space of the former USSR and it should include the work of younger authors. Judging by published and unpublished reviews, these characteristics can be properly attached to the quarterly journal "Acta Eurasica". What matters is to strengthen them by transforming the journal - in the course of the project realization - from an ordinary periodical into an education, research and publication center.
For this, the following lines of activity are planned.
Promotion of education in the fields of social sciences and humanities - by means of:
сspecial training sessions in writing, reviewing and editing of scholarly texts;
a new journal's rubric centered on innovations in education and research;
a series of seminars in universities that are to be based on the journal's materials and which might provide a free exchange of opinions between lecturers and students;
distribution of the journal free of charge between university libraries in Russia and CIS countries.
Promotion of students who may suggest fresh opinion about the resolution of current research and education problems at "round tables" where different phenomena of everyday social life which, though meaningful for people, are generally omitted by academics, will be discussed, together with appropriate methods to study such phenomena and to transfer the adequate information about them into education programs.
Promotion of inter-disciplinary and inter-regional coordination of education and research programs - by creation of a network of professionals with experience in education and research who will contribute to and cooperate with, the journal in a systematic way.
Continuing publishing activities that help the journal to become a resource-base of comprehensive knowledge about Eurasia both in the past and present, always available for scholars, lecturers, and those who take political decisions.
The list of more detailed tasks looks as follows: a) to create a database that will draw potential contributors to the journal, as well as participants of training sessions and seminars; b) to organize four sessions with number of participants for one session amounting to 25-30; c) to conclude every session with "round table"; d) to conduct six seminars in universities; e) to prepare, by means of consulting with contributors and participants, the perspective research program with the emphasis upon "pioneer" and "frontier" studies; g) to open a new rubric in journal, to increase the volume of the journal by one third and the number of issued copies up to one thousand; h) while delivering the journal on the regular basis into 150 university libraries in Russia and CIS countries, to extend subscription in Russia and to expand it abroad.
The project has to be the first phase of a more ambitious long-term undertaking, its final result being the firmly established source of positive influence - both at level of education and research - on contents and methods of social sciences and humanities in Russia.
The project has a financial support granted by Education Programme of the Ford Foundation (Moscow Office).
Mailing Address: 119034, Moscow, B. Levshinsky pereulok, dom 8/1, stroeniye 2, tel/fax: 201 34 38;
e-mail: eavestnik@mtu-net.ru, sergpanar@mtu.ru
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