‘Candidate of Sciences’ degree theses defended
From December 23rd to December 25th, 2015, in the framework of the Dissertation Council D 212.267.03 of National Research Tomsk State University, two ‘Candidate of History’ degree theses were defended by LSAR junior research fellows Kseniya A. Zharchinskaya and Anastasia M. Pogorelskaya.
The thesis by K.A. Zharchinckaya ‘The Slavic-Aryan Myth in Historical Consciousness of Russian Traditionalists’ discusses the historical myth-making of neo-pagans in the context of interaction with a changing cultural and information environment that is scientific rationality, new religiosity and everyday practices of Slavic traditionalists. It describes the influence of the new information environment on the formation and reproduction of their historical perceptions. The author defines functions of the reality’s interpretation, motivation and emotional objectification of activity in the studied phenomenon of historical consciousness and characterizes the role of historical trauma in the construction of quasi-scientific historical mythologies.
Official opponents, in their positive reviews of the thesis, stressed the relevance, research novelty and representativeness of the sources used. In the review of K. Zharchinskaya’s thesis made by the leading organization that is Institute of ethnology and anthropology n.a. N.N. Miklukho-Maklay (Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow) it was pointed out that research on contemporary myth-making deserves particular attention in societies where process of national, ethnic or religious self-identification have not yet been completed. The thesis’s research novelty, as experts said, is determined by the fact that few publications have so far been made on that topic in Russia and by the author’s novel research perspective itself. Authors of reviews of the thesis’s abstract emphasized the interdisciplinary character of this research and the possibility of using the produced research results in expert and analytical work.
In her thesis ‘The Formation of Foreign Policy’s Tools for Regulation of Immigration in the European Union in the Years 1992-2014’, A.M. Pogorelskaya traces the evolution of indirect methods of migration control and analyzes the EU vision of the relationship between migration and development of migrants’ countries of origin as well as defines the specificity of international cooperation for managing migration in the framework of regional advisory processes and interregional fora.
The study results show the importance of EU immigration policy’s ‘external dimension’ that has increased since 1992. The author carried out an extensive analysis of EU legislation, studied the evolution of EU development policy and defined the results of EU participation in international migration management mechanisms.
In their positive reviews of the thesis, official opponents stressed the indubitable relevance of the topic and the author’s meticulous analysis of extensive and diverse sources of information. The leading organization – Kemerovo State University – noted in its review that the thesis ‘makes a significant contribution to the study of EU history and ethno-political problems’.
The project "Man in a Changing World. Identity and Social Adaptation: Past and Present" is funded by the Russian Government 