On 20 March 2015, the Students’ Scientific Society of the Department of Oriental Studies (SPbSU) organized the first cross-disciplinary conference “Religion as a Factor in Asian and African studies”. Students of different departments specializing in various fields of sciences and the humanities took part in the conference that elicited a lively interest on the part of a very diverse audience that included representatives of many research and teaching institutions.

The Laboratory members Vladimir Rozov and Oleg Sokolov made presentations on the following topics:

• ‘Discourse of Islamic Finances: Between tradition and modernity’ (Vladimir Rozov);
• ‘Publications of Radical Religious Organizations in the Middle East: The case of ISIS and al-Qaeda’ (Oleg Sokolov).