On September 2, 2020, the fifth series of joint seminars by students of St. Petersburg State University and the University of Michigan (USA) started
on the initiative of the Scientific Laboratory for Analysis and Modeling of Social Processes, St. Petersburg State University. This time the subject of discussion will be the topic “The Qur’an and its Interpretations”. The course program was developed by Alexander Dmitrievich Knysh, head of the Scientific Laboratory for Analysis and Modeling of Social Processes of St. Petersburg State University, professor at the University of Michigan. Head of the Department of Arabic Philology of St. Petersburg State University, Professor Oleg Redkin and Associate Professor of the Department of Arabic Philology Olga Bernikova also take part in the organization and arrangement of the events. Video conferencing workshops will be held weekly during the current semester.

The website of the news agency al-Jazeera posted a review of the book by the head of the Laboratory A.D. Knysh “Sufism: A New History of Islamic Mysticism”. The full text of the review can be found here.

On July 2, a meeting was held between the head of the Scientific Laboratory for Analysis and Modeling of Social Processes, Professor A.D. Knysh and students enrolled in the Islamic Studies program of SPbU. Students told about their term papers and discussed topics for further scientific research. The results of the passed academic year and plans for the fall semester were also discussed. The seminar was held in English.

December 4, 2019 at 17.30 in the auditorium 175 of the Faculty of Asian and African studies of St. Petersburg State University the Russian Arabist and Islamic scholar, doctor of historical sciences, professor, deputy director of the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography named after Peter the Great RAS Efim Anatolyevich Rezvan will be giving a lecture “Museum of Islamic Culture in St. Petersburg: where, when, why?”
Students, teachers and staff of St. Petersburg State University are invited.

On November 29, 2019 at 17:40 at the auditorium 175 of the the Faculty of Asian and African studies of St. Petersburg State University Igor Leonidovich Alekseev, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor of the Chair of the Contemporary East will be giving lecture a “The idea of the caliphate in historical perspective”. Students, teachers and staff of St. Petersburg State University are invited.

November 26, 2019 at 17.30 in the auditorium 175 of the East Faculty of St. Petersburg State University the doctor of legal sciences, professor of the National Research University Higher School of Economics L.R. Sukiyainen will be giving lecture a “Islam and modern constitutions of Muslim countries”. Students, teachers and staff of St. Petersburg State University are invited.

November 19, 2019 at the Faculty of Asian and African Studies of St. Petersburg State University, there took place lectures by Aidar Nilovich Yuzeev, professor, head of the department of social and humanitarian disciplines of the Russian State University of Justice:
-Tatar religious reformism
-Tatar thinker S. Marjani (1818-1889)

During the first lecture, the students got acquainted with the main goals and directions of the reform movement in the Volga region of the 19th – early 20th centuries, various concepts of transformations and reforms proposed by the Tatar religious leaders of this period, as well as they learned about the interactions of Tatar thinkers with the other representatives of the Muslim intellectual elite in the world.

On November 13, Professor Oleg Redkin, Head of the Chair of Arabic Philology and Olga Bernikova, associate professor of the same chair, conducted webinar “Writing research and methodological works” for teachers and students of Dagestan Institute of Arts and Humanities. Their lecture was devoted to various aspects related to way to improve skills in academic writing. Researchers discussed possible models of a research paper structure, proper ways to select sources and scientific literature. Students also received answers to their questions related to improving the quality of publications and the preventing incorrect borrowing (plagiarism).

On November 13, Pavel Basharin, associate professor from the department of Modern History, Russian State University for the Humanities (Moscow), visited Saint-Petersburg State University for delivering his lecture “Early Sufism – the main movements and ways of evolution”. The lecture was dedicated to genesis of Islamic Mystical-Ascetic movements and their evolution to different medieval schools of Sufism.

On November 5, Professor Oleg Redkin read the lecture entitled “Digital Humanities: Innovations and Traditions in Arabic and Islamic Studies” at the Free University of Berlin (Freie Universität Berlin). The lecture, which was conducted within his visit to Freie Universität Berlin, aroused high interest from both students and teachers, participating in the Seminar for Arabic and Semitic Studies as well as members of the Seminar for Islamic Studies. Professor Redkin also had meetings with several teachers and professors from the hosting university. They discussed possible ways of academic partnership as well as ways of teaching subjects related to Islamic studies in the modern universities.