topic of the year

The overarching interdisciplinary research theme at the School of Advanced Studies, University of Tyumen focuses on the emergence of a multipolar world in the face of the ongoing crisis. Our stance is not only descriptive but also prescriptive; we aim not only at analyzing the crisis and its causes, but also at anticipating and proactively take part in forming futures.

To this end a process of unlearning the theories rooted in the “center” is required. There is need for ex-centric paradigms facilitating the decolonization or knowledge and epistemology, which in its turn means tackling with “multi-polarity” seriously. Decolonization of epistemology does not simply signify a process of “thinking from the margins”, as such conceptualization recapitulates and sustains the center-periphery discourse, but a redefinition and reconstitution of novel poles in the face of the emerging political multiverse. Such an endeavour entails sublating the center-based “critical” theories—a critical appropriation of such critical attempts while identifying the reasons for their integration into the mainstream; a critique of criticism that yields the appearance of glogalities.

The faculty are expected, and highly encouraged, to take part in research activities that are directly related to the aforementioned overarching theme and actively collaborate with other faculty members to develop sub-themes and projects aiming for concrete outputs such as individual or joint conference presentations, journal articles, and books, organizing public talks, symposiums, and conferences. Collaborations may be short, mid, or long-term while individual faculty can take part in more than one project simultaneously and/or through the course of their academic work at the SAS. To facilitate such collaboration, there would be regular faculty meetings during the academic year where faculty can share their ideas, brainstorm, suggest new themes and projects to work on, and share the output of their research with other colleagues. The faculty may also cooperate with external researchers and apply for grants and external funding.