Summer University 2023: ‘A Good Introduction to Urban Studies’
At the start of August, HSE University held the tenth annual Summer University. This year’s programme took the form of a workshop on urban studies. The participants attended four courses from HSE University faculty and invited experts and worked on their own projects to develop a cultural heritage site. Jung Woo Lee, from South Korea, shares his impressions of the Summer University.
Participants of this year’s Summer University had the opportunity to expand their knowledge of urban studies, geography, anthropology and ethnography. The programme also included historical tours and visits to the Zotov Centre constructivist space and the Shchusev Museum of Architecture.
The Summer University was open not only to students of various universities, but also to practicing specialists.
Oxana Chernenko, Director of the Summer University, said that when the project was launched (in 2014), its goal was to showcase HSE University in all its diversity. ‘At the time, we were primarily associated with economics, and not everyone realised that we offer programmes in many different fields. We put together courses representing various subject areas. We have a new format this time, but the tradition continues. Now we are running a workshop on urban studies, with the opportunity to take courses on urban ecology and anthropology. The key feature of this project is to give participants the opportunity to expand their professional horizons and get to know HSE University better,’ she explains.
This year, the Summer University is oriented not only around the Faculty of Urban and Regional Development, but also the Faculty of Geography and Geoinformation Technology, explains Kirill Puzanov, Associate Professor at the Vysokovsky Graduate School of Urbanism. ‘I believe this is quite important, because the ability to work with space is not limited to urban development. You must also feel and understand how spatial logic works,’ he said.
Jung Woo Lee, master’s student at Seoul National University, Graduate School of International Studies
I’m currently majoring in international cooperation with research interests in security studies. My bachelor’s education was at MGIMO University studying international relations.
I had planned on visiting Moscow this summer and was looking for academic programmes available at Russian universities. During this search, I found the Summer University 2023 while browsing the HSE website. My current major and specialisation are quite distant from the main theme of the Summer University, but I decided to participate in the hope of getting insights into this new subject. Furthermore, I expected that many of the subjects would be handled in the context of Russia, which would be a good opportunity to learn more about the country, culture, and population.
I was very satisfied with the organisation of the Summer University from the very beginning. The coordinator of the programme helped make the application straightforward and the organisational materials (schedule etc) easy to follow!
I attended courses on anthropology (taught in English), digital ethnography, analysis of urban data, and development of cultural heritage sites. I also participated in field trips to the Museum of Architecture and the Zotov Centre.
Thanks to the professors’ efforts, the classes were very interactive, making them student-centric and setting up an environment where you can learn each other’s opinions
Through discussions during the seminars, I found interesting, subtle (and sometimes large) similarities and differences between my past understandings and those of my peers on approaches to various topics. As a novice to this field, I found the introduction of methodologies and theories by the professors helpful in getting a good introduction to urban studies.
I am very pleased with my two weeks at the HSE Summer University 2023 and would recommend it to my friends
It was a great learning opportunity as well as a chance to meet talented and hardworking peers from various academic and professional backgrounds. Finally, it was a great chance to experience the beautiful HSE campus and its surrounding environment!
See also:
Researchers at HSE University Identify the Most Walkable Areas in Moscow
Experts at HSE University and Lomonosov Moscow State University examined the available data on Moscow's walkability and found the central and south-western parts of the city to be more walkable than others. However, the eastern and south-eastern areas are in need of improvements to make them more pedestrian-friendly. The study has been published in Cities.
HSE University Urban Planners Take Part in Global Mayors’ Forum in Guangzhou, China
A team from HSE University's Faculty of Urban and Regional Development took part in the Global Mayor’s Forum—a global event in urban development. Held in December 2023 in Guangzhou (PRC), the largest congress of urban planners brought together more than 800 guests from 65 cities and 37 countries, as well as nine international organisations.
‘I Will Use the Holidays to Reflect on my Plans, Recharge, and Refresh Myself’
Over 450 international students from all over the globe currently study at the HSE Faculty of Economic Sciences. Some of them have recorded video greetings, talked about celebrations in their home countries, and shared their ideas on how to spend the winter holidays in Russia. Below, we publish the second part of their interviews.
Card File: Travel Diary
Optimising a city's transportation system requires insights into the dynamics of urban traffic to understand where, how, when, and to what extent people travel within the city. The rationale behind route selection and the choice of transportation mode are also of importance. The primary source of this data is the travel diary, a tool designed to survey people's transport behaviour. Based on a paper by Maria Sergienko, a master's student of the HSE Faculty of Urban and Regional Development, IQ.HSE examines how people's daily travel can be described in detail and why an automated diary cannot yet completely replace its manual counterpart.
‘Seeing Moscow Ranked First among the Cities of BRICS Countries Is Pleasant, but Not Surprising’
An international consortium of research organisations from China, India, and Russia, including HSE University’s Faculty of Urban and Regional Development represented by experts from the Vysokovsky Graduate School of Urban Studies and Planning and the Centre for Social Research and Technological Innovation (CITY), is developing an index of technological and spatial urban development (the Urban & Innovation Environment Index). Recently, a list of the top 10 largest cities of the BRICS countries was published on the project’s website. The Russian capital took the first place in the ranking, followed by Beijing, Shanghai, Sao Paulo, and Guangzhou.
‘The Virtual City Is Joining the Real One at the Forefront’
HSE University has launched enrolment in a new online Master’s programme in Digital Urban Analytics. In this interview, the programme’s Academic Supervisor Ekaterina Zarudnaya and its Scientific Supervisor Kirill Puzanov speak about the processes and tasks generated by the online city, the demand for urban analysts, and the specifics of studying in the programme.
‘I Have Always Respected the University’s Comprehensiveness and Inclusiveness’
Throughout July, students of the HSE International Summer University are studying Russian History and Behavioural Economics. The courses are taking place in an online format—something that seemed unthinkable for a summer programme before the COVID-19 pandemic. Recent years have shown that online learning is a unique opportunity for students from all over the world to study with leading HSE University professors from the comfort of their own homes.
A City in Your Mind: HSE Urbanists on Perceptions of Place and Imagined Neighbourhoods
Associate Professor Kirill Puzanov of the HSE Vysokovsky Graduate School of Urbanism and HSE University Professor Oleg Baevskiy have held lectures at the Red Square Book festival. They talked about perceptions of the city, its private and public aspects, chamber and representative spaces, and imaginary (or ‘vernacular’) areas. The open lectures took place as part of the HSE University Open to the City project.
Two Worlds of Residents: Car Owners Look at Shared Urban Courtyards Differently from Pedestrians
Researchers from HSE University and St. Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering (SPSUACE) used eye tracking to study how residents who own cars and those who don’t look at the shared courtyards of multistorey apartment buildings. The study was published in Urban Forestry & Urban Greening.
Back to the Future: Is Manufacturing Returning to Cities?
Are cities set to become industrial centres again? Are migrants integrating in Russia? How are city dwellers taking advantage of micro-mobility? Experts from the HSE Faculty of Urban and Regional Development (FURD) took part in Moscow Urban Forum. This year the topic of the Forum was ‘Superstar Cities: Transforming for Success’.