Summary
Since 1991, the chair has maintained an active partnership policy with research and teaching institutions, most prominently located in Russia, Poland, and Mongolia. Apart from DFG-funded research projects in the social sciences, economics and the humanities, the focus initially lay on projects related to reforms of the curriculum in the context of the European Union’s TEMPUS-Tacis program. In the course of these projects, the chair, in conjunction with the respective partner university, worked on reforming curricula and scholarly approaches. Upon expiration of EU funding, additional means could be acquired from the DAAD in order to continue work in this area (Yaroslavl’ Pedagogical State University, Mongolian State University for Pedagogy, 1999-2009). Projects no longer funded by these institutions are continued and financed by the universities involved, and supported by third-party funding where applicable.
All of these projects aim at the exchange of scholars and students, acquainting them with the approaches and courses of studies of the partner university. Special emphasis is put on the exchange of junior scholars in order to foster their ongoing education and qualification. Summer schools, including specially designed seminars for teacher (re)training at the partner universities serve to demonstrate the projects’ progress. In addition, study internships offered to students of history and cultural studies take place in Bielefeld regularly. MBA students specifically have the opportunity to partake in on-site visits in enterprises as well as one-month internships (in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Helmut Steiner, managing director of Westfälisch-Lippische Universitätsgesellschaft).
An important part of our collaborations is the exchange of faculty members in order to establish lasting and enduring contacts. Bielefeld as an academic site has enabled us not only to work with our fellow historians, but also to include colleagues from neighboring disciplines such as philosophy, law, economics, pedagogy, sociology, political science and German as a Second Language. Presidents and prorectors participate in matters of university reform and university management, most recently in November of 2010 during the forum held in Yaroslavl’. 2010 saw 41 visiting fellows and students (including MBA students) and doctoral candidates from Mongolia, Russia, Poland and the USA.
All cooperations involve the exchange of faculty, junior scholars and students. Moreover, there are specific aims in the realms of research, education or curricular development in the following projects:
Since 2009, the VW foundation has been financing the research project “From Kolkhoz to Jamaat. The Transformation of Rural Islamic-Background Communities in the Former USSR: An Interregional Comparative Study, 1960s-2000s”, conducted by Christian Noack (Maynooth University) and Stéphane Dudoignon (EHESS), with Dietmar Wulff serving as project coordinator. Scholars working on this project come from a number of different institutions, such as the Centre d' Études Turques, Ottomanes, Balkaniques et Centrasiatique (EHESS, Paris), the University of Amsterdam, the Institute of Oriental Research and the Institute of Anthropology and Ethnology at the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow), the Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography at the Scientific Center at Makhachkala (Dagestan, part of the Russian Academy of Sciences), the Institute of History at the Tartar Academy of Sciences (Kazan’), the Beruni Institute of Oriental Research as well as the Institute of History at the Uzbek Academy of Sciences (Taschkent) , the Institute of Oriental Research at the Kazakh Academy of Sciences (Almaty), as well as one Tadzhik historian. It is the intention of the project to extract and identify the Soviet-induced causes of the resurrection of Islam in the Volga-Ural region, in the northern Caucasus as well as in central Asia.
Cooperation with Yaroslavl’ Pedagogical State University has been on the agenda since 1994, particularly intending to improve the approach to history and the training and education of history teachers at Russian schools, which is a significant prerequisite for Russia’s gradual progress towards a more democratic society. Measures include working out appropriate teaching materials for students, seminars for faculty members and doctoral candidates, summer schools for junior scholars from all CIS countries, tertiary didactic education and retraining, teacher retraining as well as the initiation of common research projects.
Our cooperation with the Mongolian State University of Pedagogy in Ulaan Baatar commenced in 1996. Since 2004, the focal point has been to reform the curricula of the MA programs, intending to improve their quality, and to render them fit for international standards. All Mongolian higher education institutions offering degrees in the social sciences and the humanities are involved in this project. This cooperation includes the subject of German as a Second Language.
Our cooperation with the International University of Business and New Technologies (Mubint) in Yaroslavl‘ has been in effect since 1999. It aims primarily at the reform of the curriculum in economics, and furthermore supports a Russian-language MBA program. Annual international conferences for the exchange of ideas pertaining to the introduction of consecutive degrees at Russian universities began in 2006. Beginning in 2010, the conferences became embedded in an annual forum hosted by the Yaroslavl’ regional government. Since 2008, the cooperation also comprises international student conferences, as well as the opportunity to complete study internships in Bielefeld.
Beginning in 1994, we have been collaborating with the Academy of National Economics under the Government of the Russian Federation. A German-language two-year post-graduate MBA was offered at the Academy between 1994 and 2010, supported by the German Embassy in Moscow and the DAAD. More than 300 prospective management executives graduated from this program, obtaining a German diploma from the state of Saxony-Anhalt as well as a Russian diploma from the Academy of National Economics. Internships in renowned Bielefeld enterprises were awarded to the best graduates of the program. Future cooperation will likely involve research projects on agrarian and economic history.
Our collaboration with the National University of Tashkent in Uzbekistan from 1999 to 2005 helped establish a new MA degree in “European Studies”. This two-year MA program was hosted by the faculties of politics and sociology, economics, law and history as an interdisciplinary program.
Cooperations with the European University of St. Petersburg and the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, both in effect since 2010, seek to host summer schools and foster the exchange of doctoral candidates as devised by post-graduate education.
Beginning in 1993, we have maintained research cooperations with the respective historical institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Collaboration was particularly thriving from 1993 to 1997, when we jointly worked on the topic of “Urban Self-Administration and pre-1914 Bourgeois Elites: Russia and Germany in Comparison”. This cooperation entailed regular visits and at this point also relates research conducted in the context of the new Bielefeld SFB “The Political as Communicative Space in History”.
The Agrarian Institute at the Russian Academy of Agriculture (now renamed the Russian Institute of Agrarian Problems and Informatics) has been our partner since 1993. Between 1993 and 1996, the DFG-funded project “Institutions in the Transformative Process of Agriculture: The Historical Examples of Russia and Germany in Relation to Recent Problems” was worked on collaboratively, which also entailed an international conference. In conjunction with and upon completion of this project, there were informational visits to agricultural businesses and farms in the former GDR. Scholarly contacts and regular visits have continued to this day. At present, we are working on a new project on Russian agrarian/agricultural history.
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