Russian State University for the Humanities
The Russian State University for Humanities is the largest institution in Moscow, specialising exclusively in social sciences and humanities. It was founded in 1991 and covers all related disciplines and various areas of research, both fundamental and applied.
The Center for the Study of Religion, RSUH, is one of the biggest multidisciplinary teaching and scientific institutions devoted to the study of religion’s various implications in modern and contemporary societies. Its specialists cover all world religious traditions, with a particular focus of their impact on current political, social and cultural developments. A special concentration in teaching and research is on the countries of the former Soviet Union and broader Eurasia. The Center has been integrated into European research projects such as “Eastern Orthodoxy and European integration” (2009‐2011); “Religion, nation and democracy in South Caucasus” (2011‐2014).
Prof. Dr. Alexander Agadjanian is professor of religious studies at the RSUH, Moscow. He studied history, sociology and religion at Moscow State University and the Russian Academy of sciences. He taught at Arizona State University, USA, until he was accepted as professor at RSUH in 2003. His research has focused on religion and modernity in Asia and Russia, on the impact of religion upon politics, nationalism and civil society in the states of the former Soviet Eurasia. He has participated in several international research projects. He is member of the editorial / advisory boards of Religion, State & Society, Social Compass, Gosudarstvo, Religija i Cerkov’ v Rossii i za rubezhom. Within the ISSICEU project, he will be contributing to WP2.
Ketevan Rcheulishvili is currently a PhD student in Sociology at University of Kassel. She obtained her BA and MA degrees at Ilia State University Tbilisi, with specialization in Sociology and Social Theory. In 2011 she started her PhD study at the same university. In 2011 Ketevan had a 2-month research stay at University of Fribourg, funded by Academic Swiss Caucasus Net (ASCN). In 2012, in the framework of her PhD project “Religion as resource of social capital in Georgia”, she received scholarship for 9 month research stay at University of Kassel, where she enrolled later as a PhD student at the Faculty of Social Sciences. Ketevan’s research interests focus on sociology of religion, concept of social capital and civil society theories. Within the ISSICEU project, Ketevan will study attitudes towards civic participation in Georgia.
Tigran Matosyan received his Kandidatskaya degree in History in 2004 from National Academy of Sciences (Yerevan, Armenia), and his MA degree in Social Sciences in 2007 from Tbilisi State University. Tigran’s primary research interests include value transformations in post-Soviet Armenia and South Caucasus. One of his most recent projects, funded by the Academic Swiss Caucasus Net, was focused on studying the role of long-term orientation values in the education system of Armenia. He also participates in the Swiss- and ASCN-funded research project “Religion, Democracy, and Nation in the Southern Caucasus”. Within the ISSICEU project, Tigran will study attitudes towards civic participation in Armenia.