October 22 to November 11, the NSU Humanities Institute hosted the Second International Scientific "Heritage" Forum. Most Forum events, including discussions on studying national cultures and values amidst the challenges of globalization, were conducted using a video conferencing format. In addition to the usual number of speakers representing leading Russian scientific and educational institutions from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan and Vladivostok, speakers from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Czech Republic, Austria, Spain, Mongolia, Japan, China, and Korea also participated in the Forum.
The first Heritage Forum took place in 2018 and included 14 different events. This year, the organizers expanded the number of events and included international scientific conferences that were organized in close cooperation with NSU partners. Overall, six all-Russian and international level scientific conferences were conducted as part of the Forum. Among the topics discussed by participating scientists were trends in the development of museums and museology, current issues related to studying the history, international relations, and culture of Eastern countries, challenges in source study and archaeography, and communicative culture.
For the first time, the International Scientific Conference “Russia - Spain: Comparative Studies on History and Culture” was held. According to the organizers, this is the first major event in the Russian Federation that directly addressed the topic of comparative research in the history of Russia and Spain. This Conference was possible thanks to the professionalism of NSU Humanities Institute linguists and the Spanish Language Center staff.
High level Oriental conferences were also organized including the International Scientific and Practical Conference "Current Issues in Studying the History, International Relations, and Cultures of the Eastern Countries" (October 29-30) and the International Scientific and Practical Conference "The Silk Road: Historical Heritage and Modern Development" ( October 30 - November 1). Oriental studies is a complex specialization that requires knowledge of the language, history, and culture of the country. There are not many specialists in oriental studies in Russia, and the NSU Oriential Studies Section is one of the leading centers in this sphere east of the Urals.
Victoria Slugina, Deputy Director of the NSU Humanities Institute, talked about the Forum,
The Heritage Forum integrates all scientific topics pursued at the Humanities Institute. This was the second time we organized the event and our focus was to devote these three weeks to presenting the leading research conducted by experts at our Institute, creating an effective communication platform for scientific exchange, and attracting various levels of partners to speak at the conferences. Our partners from State Institutes (SB RAS institutes and European, Central and Far East universities) were actively involved in preparing the Forum.
The Forum was also organized to address practical problems. First, to help scientists from different parts of the world maintain contact and share their results. Moreover, during the discussions, current problems requiring further research were highlighted and new scientific collaborations were formed as scientists agreed on joint publications and exchanging materials. Last but most importantly, since a special regime for visiting libraries, archives, and museums, has been introduced, the humanities have limited access to materials necessary for research. The research results presented by Forum speakers will be published in a collection of articles.
NSU Rector Mikhail Fedoruk commented on the Forum,
Moscow and Leningrad State Universities History Department graduates and researchers at the USSR Academy of Sciences institutes started the impressive academic tradition that continues to inspire the research conducted today at the NSU Humanities Institute. One of the events at the previous Forum was dedicated to the 90th anniversary of Academician Nikolai Nikolayevich Pokrovsky, one of these founders and the creator of a unique school of source study and archeography.
