Research & Expertise news at HSE University

This year’s field season is over, and despite the difficulties caused by the pandemic, archaeologists from the Centre of Classical and Oriental Archaeology at the Institute for Oriental and Classical Studies (IOCS) were able to undertake their scheduled expeditions to Italy, Turkey, and Abkhazia. The Centre is the only Russian institution that conducts regular archaeological research in the Mediterranean region—the heart of ancient civilization, where neither Soviet nor Russian classical archaeologists have ever worked before.

The 2nd International Conference on Experience Economy: Museum, Event, and Tourism Management will be held at HSE University in Perm from October 20–22. The Ministry of Education and Science of the Perm Region will be the general partner of the conference. The HSE News Service highlights some of the key speakers and sessions of the event.

Volume of R&D funding and number of Scopus-indexed publications of the BRICS countries in total already exceed those of the EU-total and the United States. These metrics have opportunity for further growth if the five developing countries strengthen scientific cooperation with other countries from Global South that have significant growth potential. Researchers from the Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge Alexander Sokolov, Sergey Shashnov, and Maxim Kotsemir analysed the opportunities for research collaboration within these clusters of countries along with the obstacles standing in the way of greater cooperation.

Storing the data collected during folklore expeditions in a convenient and accessible way is not an easy task. As a solution, HSE researchers studying folk traditions have created an Electronic Folklore Archive. Anastasia Smirnova, research assistant and, until recently, staff member of the HSE Faculty of Humanities Laboratory for Theoretical and Field Folklore Studies, where the electronic archive was designed and developed, talks about how it was created and why the skills of collecting and digitising folklore are so important, particularly at the outset of one's academic career.

The conference on Philosophy and Culture in Time of Pandemics ran from September 30 to 2 October 2021. It was divided into seven sessions held in a hybrid format. The organizers and participants discussed major topics such as social transformation during the pandemic, the role of mass media in shaping perceptions of the pandemic, and the epistemological and ethical issues that have arisen as a result.

Researchers of the HSE Graduate School of Business have presented a new method of forecasting bankruptcies in businesses using machine learning. The method makes it possible to fully utilize information on a company’s financial state and to make more accurate predictions than traditional statistical approaches. The research has been published in the journal Expert Systems with Applications.

Experts from the World Bank and HSE University discussed the gender gap in salaries in different countries and the impact of socio-cultural, economic and behavioural factors on differences in earnings.

The pandemic has forced many companies to rethink their approach to charity and to change their priorities in terms of corporate social responsibility. Meeting the needs of the elderly, women, and people with disabilities is a top priority, and the social agenda is becoming a key part of HSE University’s educational programmes. These topics were discussed at the business dialogue on Corporate Social Responsibility Beyond COVID-19 hosted by the HSE Graduate School of Business.