Univiersities in Modern Russia

[ulvesang.livejournal.com]

Hopefully this doesn't turn into yet another "Moscow vs. Saint Petersburg" post...

Which (state) universities in Russia have the most respected linguistics departments? Is much research done on Finno-Ugric (or other indigenous) languages in Russia?

In general, which universities are most respected? Traditionally MGU may be "the One", but really how less-impressive are other large ones like KRGU or SPGU? Even further: which would be most prestigious to work for and have on one's CV?

Срасибо большое (many thanks)

Comments

[kappa-aka-lex.livejournal.com]

The indigenous languages are researched mostly in local institutes but Saint-Petersburg and Moscow state universities are a good variant too. For Finno-Ugric languages - to Saint-Petersburg.

PS: In Russian "many thanks" is "спасибо большое" :-)

[brazzaville.livejournal.com]

Russian State University for the Humanities!!!

http://rggu.com/

http://rggu.com/section.html?id=1556 Russian Language Center

[ulvesang.livejournal.com]

Я пишаю очень плохо по-русский :(

[edricson.livejournal.com]

Work on minority languages is largely done in the respective regions' leading universities, but they have very very backward theoretical backgrounds: you will most likely find it quite incompatible with anything you might have been taught about linguistics.

In Moscow, there are three linguistic departments: one at MGU (http://www.philol.msu.ru/~otipl) (where Prof. Kuznetsova is the leading specialist in Uralic, and she organizes field trips, mostly to Finno-Ugric languages each year), one at the RSUH (http://il.rsuh.ru), which also has a good theoretical grounding and some people working on Uralic), and one at the Moscow State Linguistics University, which I know very little about (I don't think many active Russian linguists are its graduates).

In St Petersburg, you have the Philological Faculty (http://phil.pu.ru), which has a Dept. of Linguistics (quite peculiar), but also a Department of Finno-Ugric languages, probably the leading one in the country, but as far as can be seen from their site, it's mostly Finnish or Hungarian). Then there's the Herzen Pedagogical Institue with a very long tradition of minority languages study.

Plus, there are the institutes of the Academy of Sciences (Institute of Linguistics (http://www.iling-ran.ru) in Moscow and Institute of Lingustic Studies (http://iling.nw.ru) in Saint-Petersburg, where quite a lot of specialists in Uralic do their work).

There's also the Siberian Dept. of the Academy in Novosibirsk, who do work on minority languages, but their brand of linguistics is quite esoteric.

Probably the best departments for linguistics in the country are the ones at MSU, RSUH and SPbSU (if you mean university education), plus the two RAS institutes. That is, assuming you want the linguistics to be compatible with what is done in the West. There are loads of other places offering more or less updated versions of Soviet linguistics, but I'm not sure why anyone would want that.

I'm in the final year at MSU, so I might be biased (but hopefully I'm not); but feel free to ask more, of course.

[ulvesang.livejournal.com]

My vice is that (for now) I won't actually be doing linguistic work: as part of my joint degree (linguistics and russian studies), I will be placed as a teaching assistant in the English department of a Russian university, in order to have documentable paegagogical experience. However, whilst there I plan to start looking into doing research toward a Ph.D.

MGU may be impressive, but it will be equally difficult to land a place there. This, plus considering expenses, requires me to find other good options in Russia. I know no matter where I go, pay for such a placement will be very low, but hopefully costs of living might not be so high either. SPGU seems another obvious choice, but I honestly don't know what to expect in a "non-Western" linguistic atmosphere in ANY uni.

Just my ramblings...

[basile.livejournal.com]

You can search throuh Petrozavodsk (Karelian) State University (http://www.petrsu.ru/Structure/structure_e.html) for Faculty of Baltic and Finnish Philology and Culture (http://www.petrsu.ru/Faculties/baltfin_e.html).

[rusl.livejournal.com]

But russians I think will understand your language. Don't despond. :)

[edricson.livejournal.com]

Ah, I see.

Well, basically what you get at an average Russian university is a version of structuralism, spiced up with lots of rhetoric on how language is a system of communication, plus perhaps some catchwords such as "cognitive science". This may indeed be frustrating; however, if you concentrate on doing some real, down-to-earth work, such as collecting data or something, you may be very well-off, just avoid the theorizing.

Basically, of course, there's a good correlation with the status of the university and its location thus, universities in Ekaterinburg are not too likely to be doing work on minority languages, since not may are around over there). Good universities outside the two biggest cities include Kazan, Tomsk, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, Petrozavodsk has already been mentioned, Izhevsk, Voronezh (but not a lot of minority languages, and the city has had problems with foreigners, infortunately)

[ulvesang.livejournal.com]

So, in terms of sheer CV flashiness, unis in Moscow and St Petersburg would both be quite eye-catching?... and both unis have well-established Finno-Ugric dept's (if StPb would be even better), and most likely connections to more suitable regions, with which to use to possibly move on to where I would need to work? So perhaps StPb would be the better choice between it and Moscow, if purely because it's cheaper... hmm...

[edricson.livejournal.com]

More or less, yes. I'm not sure on "connections with suitable regions" (don't know about SPb, here in Moscow we basically do it all ourselves, with little if any support from local universities, but still if you want I think you might get involved; foreign scholars have also been known to come on our field trips, having received grants from institutions at home), but bascially that's correct. I mean, it's not always necessary to work at a local university if you want to get involved in minority language documentation (community work is different of course).