Elites and leaders are beginning to play the key role in the information society. One of the main features of elite are high-quality education and top-level competence. Formation of leadership qualities and elite is traditionally related to university education. A number of universities have applied the classical approach to reproduction of elite by implementing elite (i.e. closed) education; others have selected the democratic approach by forming a new system of elite (high-quality) education, which is available for everyone. Now issues of elite and leadership are topical and urgent research megatrends.
Nowadays Elitology is at a new stage of its historic and methodological development as an independent scientific discipline, which suggests a complex analysis of the phenomena of leadership and elite. The very term “Elitology” originated in the 1985 work by Professor G.K. Ashin “Modern Theories of Elite: Critical Review”. Since those times, this term has become quite widely spread in the Russian social science. Two congresses in Elitology, which were held in Rostov-on-Don in 2013 and 2016 on the base of the local elitologic school, confirm this fact.
A number of theses by Russian scholars present researches that they have conducted in the field of elite and leadership. Since 1990s, the first doctoral theses in political elites and leadership have been written and defended: S. A. Kislitsyn (1994), A. V. Ponedelkov (1995), O. V. Gaman-Golutvina (1998), A. K. Magomedov (1999), Iu. V. Iarmak (2002), A. M. Starostin (2003), A. E. Chirikova (2003), M. A. Kazakov (2005), D. G. Seltser (2007), etc. At the turn of the centuries, Elitology-related doctoral theses in Philosophy, History, Sociology, Pedagogics, Psychology, and other Humanities were also presented: E. V. Kudriashova (1996), M. N. Afanasyev (1997), V. P. Mokhov (1998), P. L. Karabushchenko (1999), R. G. Rezakov (2002), O. V. Kryshtanovskaia (2003), N. B. Karabushchenko (2009), etc. Thus, the issue of elite and leadership is of high priority for the Russian social science.
The Congress aims to discuss the most urgent and topical issues related to the notions of elite and leadership, their roles in the knowledge society, the present-day requirements towards these two phenomena, as well as issues relevant to elite education in the information society.
Alexander Pavlovich Lunev
D.Sc. in Economics, Full ProfessorChair of Organizing Committee
Alexander Mikhaylovich Treshchev
D.Sc. in Pedagogics, Full ProfessorCo-Chair of Organizing Committee
Anna Vladislavovna Fedotova
D.Sc. in Biology, Full ProfessorCo-Chair of Organizing Committee
Pavel Leonidovich Karabushchenko
D.Sc. in Philosophy, Full ProfessorCo-Chair of Organizing Committee
D.Sc. in Political Science, Full Professor, Deputy Director for Scientific Activities, Institute of Service, Tourism & Design (Branch of North-Caucasus Federal University, Pyatigorsk, Russia); Full Member of the Russian Political Science Association; Professor of the UNESCO Chair specializing in comparative research of spiritual traditions and their cultural specifics, as well as in interreligious dialogue.
Professional Elites & Political Issues: Manifestations of Regionalism & Separatism Tendencies in Elites’ Policies
Geesje van den Berg is an Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Curriculum and Instructional Studies at the University of South Africa, which is an open distance and e-learning institution. With more than 12 years’ experience in teaching, leadership and management in higher education, she has presented papers at conferences and seminars in South Africa and abroad and has widely published articles in local and international journals in various fields of education, including learning and teaching in online environments.
She has had extensive involvement in education. Her experience as an educator includes being a school teacher, as well as lecturing at different higher education institutions in South Africa mainly in the fields of adult education and curriculum studies.
Open education: innovation in leadership and student support
Rebat Kumar Dhakal is an emerging education scholar in Nepal. As an educator at Kathmandu University School of Education (KUSOED), he teaches graduate courses on education policy, school leadership, and qualitative research methods. He chairs KUSOED Integrity Alliance, a network of educational organizations that promotes academic integrity and innovative education practices among faculty and students. He is currently carrying out his doctoral research on school governance. He is a pioneer online educator in Nepal, who started Online degree program in education in 2011 at his university, first time of such program in Nepal. He is an editor of Journal of Education and Research, a biannual journal published by KUSOED. He is also a government approved textbook writer, who mostly writes English textbooks for primary to secondary level school children. He speaks and writes about pedagogical innovations, educational technology, and educational leadership, transformative learning and practitioner research. He researches on teacher support, teaching effectiveness, student achievement and school governance. His current research interest include educational leadership and management, e-Learning, and trends and issues in education. He is also a life member of International Forum of Researchers in Education (IFORE).
Elitism in Educational Leadership: The Rise of a Necessary Evil?
Bruce Leimsidor has, for over a decade, taught European asylum law at Ca’ Foscari University, Venice. He has been concurrently counselor for asylum affairs in the Venice municipality’s program for asylum seekers. Prior to his positions in Venice, he was a senior resettlement expert at UNHCR’s central resource center in Nairobi, Kenya, covering east and central Africa. He has also served as director of the US State Department’s Overseas Processing Entity in Vienna, Austria, the central office covering US refugee admissions through Central Europe, and was the director of the Central European office of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS). He has taught at the American University, Paris; Oberlin College; Occidental College; and Indiana University. He is the author of numerous scholarly articles on immigration and asylum and has also published on this topic in the New York Times, International Herald Tribune, and in major European dailies.
Western Elites and the Multicultural Society
D.Sc. in Pedagogics, Full Professor. Currently heads the R&D Directorate of Moscow City University; Full Professor of the Chair of Theory & History of Pedagogics of the Institute of Pedagogics & Psychology of Moscow State Pedagogical University.
Prof. Rezakov’s main research interests relate to Pedagogics, Psychology, History, Sociology, Political Science, and Elitology.
Prof. Rezakov has profound research experience in the field of education quality assessment, arrangement of events for target programs of education development, models of educational centers (regulating and methodical documents), expertise and accreditation of educational institutions located in Moscow.
Honored University Lecturer of the Russian Federation.
Elite & Education: Correlation Genesis
D.Sc. in Philosophy, Full Professor of the Chair of Political Science & International Relations of Astrakhan State University; Honored University Lecturer of the Russian Federation; Editor-in-Chief of the annual edition “Issues of Elitology: Philosophy, Culture, Policy”; Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the scientific journal “Caspian Region: Policy, Economy, Culture”.
Elitology of Education & Personality: from Oligarchic Elite to Meritocratic Elite
Professor of Kanagawa University (Yokohama, Japan), Faculty of Economics, Department of Economics/Department of Contemporary Business.
Since 1992, Prof. Oyama Kazunobu has been conducting research in the field of management and business decision-making techniques. Since 2011, he has been heading the Strategic Center of Mass Media Messages Research.
The Theory of Leadership
Doctor of Political Science, professor at the Department of Politology and Ethnopolitics of South-Russian Institute of Management – branch of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, professor at the Department of Humanities and Socio-Economic Disciplines of Rostov Institute (branch) of the All-Russian State University of Justice, expert board member of the Chernomorsk-Caspian Information-Analytical Center of the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies.
The research interests are mainly in the domains of sociology, politology, elitology, conflictology, theory of political violence.
Cultural elites in the processes of people’s diplomacy
(July 23, 1945, Rostov-on-Don Region, Ust-Donetsk District) is a D.Sc. in Political Science, Full Professor, Honored University Lecturer of the Russian Federation, Full Member of the Russian Political Science Association; Head of the Chair of Political Science & Ethnic Policy, Chief of the Laboratory of the State & Municipal Administration Efficiency Enhancement Issues of the South-Russian Institute of Management of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy & Public Administration (Rostov-on-Don, Russia).
Honored Scholar of the Russian Federation, as well as Honored Scholar of Chechnya, Adygea, Dagestan, Ingushetia, Karachay-Cherkessia, North Ossetia-Alania, and Kabardino-Balkaria. Awarded with the Order of Friendship, the Order “For Merit” of Ingushetia, medals “For Merit to Chechen Republic”, “For Outstanding Contribution to Development of Kuban Region” of the 1st and the 2nd degrees, and “For Merit to Stavropol Krai”.
In December 1995, he defended the first doctoral thesis in Russia that was related to political elite – “Political Administrative Elite: Genesis & Development Issues in Modern Russia (Regional Political Scientific Analysis)”.
Jointly with Professor Alexander Mikhaylovich Starostin, Professor Ponedelkov established the research school of elitology in Rostov-on-Don.
Hekyung Kim, PhD, is a Professor of the English Department at Dongseo University in Korea, where she teaches English prosody, presentation skills, self-directed English learning, and approaches to teaching English as a foreign language. She has conducted research on English intonation in discourse and its application in English education. She published a series of English books for college students. She received a Professor Award issued by Minister of the Korea Ministry of Education, Science and Technology in 2006 and a Best Professor Award from the President of Dongseo University in 2001.
Since 2015, she serves as the Dean for the Global Studies Institute, which offers Bachelor‘s degree and credit programs to international students whose major fields are Business Administration, Computer Engineering, Film & Video, Digital Contents, International Studies, and Biomedical Science. With her new job, her current interest shifted to administrative procedures and curriculum development for lifelong leadership skills. Prior to her current job, she had developed and supervised a course for anhonor program for outstanding achievement students at Dongseo University.
Elite Selection and University Mission
The International Congress “Elites & Leaders: Formation Strategies at a Modern University” (April 19-22, 2017) shall take place in the city of Astrakhan, the most ancient economic and cultural center of the Lower Volga and the Caspian Littoral Regions. Owing to abundance of rivers and channels, this city is often called the Caspian Capital or the Southern Venice. Astrakhan is one of Russia’s 115 cities that are recognized as historically valuable ones.
The first written records about Astrakhan date back to the 13th century. Over the past time, the city bore different names (Hashtar Khan, Hajji Tarkhan, Xacitarxan, etc.). Being located at the crossroad of trade routes, Astrakhan quickly developed to become the Golden Horde’s major commercial center. In the 13th and 14th centuries, Hajji Tarkhan became a large center of transit trade along the caravan route that linked the Occident with the Orient.
In 1459, Hajji Tarkhan (Astrakhan) became the capital city of a new state, a remnant of the Golden horde – the Khanate of Astrakhan. In 1556, the Khanate and its capital were annexed by the Tsardom of Russia. At the same time, the city was moved from the Volga’s right bank to its left bank, and the Kremlin fortress was erected.
Upon Peter the Great’s decree of Nov. 22, 1717, the city became the seat of Astrakhan Governorate. Over the following years, the territory occupied by Astrakhan Governorate underwent a number of changes.
Nowadays Astrakhan is a major economic and cultural center of the Lower Volga Region. It is famous for its carefully preserved architectural, historical, and cultural memorials, which represent both religious (the Assumption Cathedral, the Trinity Cathedral, the Roman Catholic Church of the Assumption of Mary, the Cathedral of Saint Vladimir, a number of mosques (the White one, the Black one, and the Red one), etc.) and secular constructions (the Kremlin, the building of the former Azov-Don Bank, the mansion that used to belong to Alexander Gubin, who owned large fishery industrial facilities, Oriental residences of trade and commerce, etc.). For tourists, Astrakhan Region is well-known not just for its unique historical and cultural heritage, but also for a large natural diversity of flora and fauna in the Volga River’s Delta, especially for its rich fishery resources.
Astrakhan is also well-known for its multiculturalism; people of over 150 ethnic communities and 14 religious confessions live here; 17 societies of ethnic cultures operate in this city. The multicultural environment definitely contributes to Astrakhan’s bright and unique image.
Astrakhan State University (ASU) is the oldest classical university of Astrakhan. ASU was founded in 1932; nowadays it is a large educational, research, and social cultural center of Russia’s South-East. It participates in the World CDIO Initiative; it is a member of the Association of Universities of the Caspian Region. ASU has become one of Russia’s 16 basic universities that form the University of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
Students from Iran, Korea, Italy, France, Turkey, Syria, Morocco, Congo, and many other countries study at the University. A number of its educational programs have been certified by the European Credit Transfer & Accumulation System (ECTS). ASU has been selected by Harvard University (USA) as a pilot site in Russia to deliver an educational program in international competitiveness.
Delivery of international master programs is of top priority for ASU. In 2007, ASU signed “double-diploma” agreements related to joint master programs with Clark University (Massachusetts, USA) and has been delivering them since then. The same year, it signed a similar agreement with the University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis (France) to deliver the master program “Multimedia Tools, Databases, and System Integration” (MBDS) for the first time in Russia.
Since 2011, ASU has been delivering the master program “Theory of Translation & Interpretation: Intercultural / Interlingual Communication” by the Caspian Higher School of Interpreting & Translation; it is the second master program in Russia to be supervised by the European Commission and by the European Parliament.
20a Tatischev Str., Astrakhan State University, Astrakhan 414056 Russia
Bus Stop “Tsentralny Stadion”
Minibus Taxis, Trolleybuses, Buses: