The Department of European and American Studies is one of the oldest departments of the School of International Relations which teaches courses on modern and contemporary history of European and American countries as well as country- and region-specific courses on history and politics. The Department was initially established as the Department of World History, and in 1978 it got its present name. For more than half a century the Department have established strong traditions of studying major Western countries with prominent members of the Russian Academy of Sciences at their origin. Since the 1990s apart from the traditional schools of American, German, French and British studies, the Department has been actively doing research on countries of Latin America, Northern Europe and the Balkan Peninsula.
Prof. Ludmila Okuneva became the Head of the Department in November 2018. She is Doctor of History, a well-known expert in history and current development of Brazil and other Latin American countries. Prof. Okuneva graduated from Lomonosov Moscow State University and received her PhD in the Institute of Latin America in 1980. She defended her Doctor’s thesis in 1994. Ludmila Okuneva has published more than 240 papers. Now she heads the Latin American studies section in the MGIMO Regional Studies Master Programme, co-chairs the MGIMO Council of Ibero-American Center, is the Director of MGIMO BRICS IIS, editorial board member of the MGIMO Iberoamerican Notes journal and the editor-in-chief of the Latin American issues of the journal, the editorial member of the Latin American History Almanac journal of the Institute of World History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, member of the Russian Association of Iberoamerican Researchers. In 2014 Ludmila Okuneva received a special award of the Russian MFA. In 2018 she was awarded «Honorary Employee of the Russian Ministry for Foreign Affairs».
The Department teaches students from two Schools (the School of the International Relations and that of International Journalism) and those at the Regional Studies Master Program and is responsible for the country-specific knowledge of the students studying Western countries. The Department reads courses on the modern history of the West, history, internal and external politics and systems of government of the USA, Germany, the UK, France, Italy, Spain, Northern and Eastern Europe, the Balkans, Latin America. Prominent experts from the Russian Academy of Sciences, Ministry for Foreign Affairs and other organisations are invited for some elective courses.
Preserving the best traditions of regional studies, the Department has recently started to broaden its sphere of research, including cross-border and interregional processes and phenomena. More and more attention is paid to the cultural and religious traditions of the Western civilisation, integration in Europe and in Western hemisphere.
In 2011 — 2018 the Department published nine textbooks. In the recent years our lecturers have developed a number of unique courses for the BA students of the School of International Relations such as: Western Countries and Globalisation (by Prof. Okuneva), Modern Political Processes in Western Countries (by Prof. Okuneva), Political Leadership Traditions in Western Countries (by Prof. Kapitonova), Relations of the Leading European and American Countries with Russia (by Prof. Pavlov), Role of Intelligence in Foreign Policy of France (by Associate Prof. Magadeev), European Monarchies (by Associate Prof. Vorotnikov), New Geopolitics in Western Hemisphere (by Associate Prof. Sudarev), lectures in Italian for students studying Italy (by Prof. Zonova) as well as lectures in English for Regional Studies: Europe and Asia cycle for the MGIMO School of Government and International Affairs (by Associate Prof. Magadeev). Moreover, in 2017 the Department has elaborated new courses for the Regional Studies Master Program.
The lecturers of the Department are actively engaged in scientific research, participating in Russian and international scientific events. Works by Vladimir Pechatnov on Cold War were published in the Cambridge and Oxford Universities Press, papers by Prof. Pechatnov and Prof. Kapitonova were published in the Cold War History scientific journal indexed in Web of Science/Scopus. The work by Vladimir Pechatnov and Iskander Magadeev, The Kremlin Letters: Stalin’s Wartime Correspondence (Ed. by D. Reynolds and V. Pechatnov with the assistance of I. Magadeyev and O. Kucherenko. New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 2018), was published in the UK, which gave a new impetus to the scientific work of the Department.
Prof. Pechatnov and Prof. Okuneva regularly participate in the preparation of analytical materials for the MFA and State Duma officials. Profs. Kapitonova, Kirillov, Okuneva, Pavlov, Pechatnov give expert comments on the relevant international issues for Russian and foreign mass media.
In 2015 — 2017 several lecturers of the Department went through scientific training in Spain, Germany, the USA, and France.
The Department actively works with young scientists. In 2012-2018 ten PhD theses were defended at the Department. Tens of Bachelor and Master theses are annually presented at the Department.
Last updated in February 2019
Staff
Igor Putintsev
Ph.D. in History, Associate Professor
Department of European and American Studies - Associate Professor
