Department of Asian & African Studies

Head of the Department — Velikhan S. Mirzekhanov

Focus of research:

• Economic development and socio-political changes within Asian and African regions:

  • Social development, economic growth, political dynamics, international relations, cultural heritage, and historical evolution in South, Southeast, and East Asia.

  • Social development, economic structures, political power, international relations, and cultural dynamics in Africa and the Middle East.

  • Social development and power dynamics in Central Asia and Transcaucasia.

• Modernization efforts in public health within Asia and beyond:

  • Public health initiatives and modernization in China and India.

  • Public health strategies in modern Europe and Africa.

• Examining globalization within a comparative civilizational context:

  • European identity and the challenges posed by Muslim immigration.

  • The Muslims in France.

Formed following the Great Patriotic War within the Fundamental Library of Social Sciences, the Department was integrated into INION RAN in 1969. In 1972, it launched an academic journal “Social and Humanities. Domestic and Foreign Literature. Series 9: Oriental and African Studies.” Currently, the department's research staff is involved in academic, informational, and scholarly activities in the fields of Oriental and African Studies.

Key researchers:

• Velikhan S. Mirzekhanov, Dr.Sc. (History), chief researcher, professor; specialist in global history, colonial studies, intellectual history and African studies; editor-in-chief of “Social and Humanities. Domestic and Foreign Literature. Series 9: Oriental and African Studies”, “Modern and Contemporary History”, “Russia and the Contemporary World”.

• Alexander V. Gordon, Dr.Sc. (History), chief researcher, specialist in agrarian history and global studies.

• Dmitry V. Mikhel, Dr.Sc. (Philosophy), leading researcher, professor, specialist in intellectual history, history of public health, and medical humanities.

• Petr V. Mozias, PhD (Economy), leading researcher, specialist in Chinese economic policy and market dynamics.

• Irina V. Mikhel, PhD (Philosophy), senior researcher, assistant professor, specialist in public health history and philosophy of ecology in India.

• Svetlana E. Sidorova, PhD (History), senior researcher, specialist in history of British India and colonial studies.

• Larissa M. Alexanyan, PhD (Political Sciences), specialist in Transcaucasia studies and political history of Turkey.

Latest major publications:

Books

• Mirzekhanov V.S. (ed.) World history. Vol. 5: The World in the Nineteenth Century: Towards Industrial Civilisation. Moscow: Institute of world history, 2019. 943 pp. (in Russian)

• Gordon A.V. (2018) Historians of the Iron Age. St. Petersburg: Humanitas, 448 pp. (in Russian)

• Mikhel D.V. (2021). Medical anthropology. Moscow: INFRA-M, 338 pp. (in Russian)

• Mikhel D.V. (2021). Epidemics and global history. Moscow: Ves mir, 296 pp. (in Russian)

Articles

• Aleksanyan L.M. (2021). Foreign policy of the South Caucasian countries: results and new challenges. Central Asia and the Caucasus, vol. 24, no. 4, pp. 66-79 (in Russian)

• Aleksanyan L. (2023). Trade and economic relations between the EAEU member states and the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean at the present stage: the cases of Armenia and Kazakhstan. Post-Soviet issues, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 245-257 (in Russian)

• Gordon A.V. (2023). Moslem immigration as a threat to European identity: the doctrine of the great replacement. Russia and the Moslem World, no. 1, pp. 94–110 (in English)

• Gordon A.V. (2021). Chinese communities of Paris: Integration, preserving identity. Current problems of Europe, no. 3, pp. 136-163 (in Russian)

• Gordon A.V. (2022). Routes of identity in the Chinese diaspora in France. Dialogue with Time, no. 78, pp. 243-259 (in Russian)

• Mikhel D.V. (2023). Ali Shariati’s philosophy and the Islamic revolution in Iran. Russia and the Moslem World, no. 1, pp. 111–129 (in English)

• Mikhel D.V. (2021). Intellectual community discusses the Covid-19 pandemic: the coronavirus debate as a new cultural phenomenon. Ethnographic review, no. 6, pp. 314-330 (in English)

• Mikhel D.V. (2020). Michel Foucault and Western medicine. Philosophical-alternatives, no. 3, pp. 99-111 (in Bulgarian)

• Mikhel I.V. (2022). Sanitary reforms in Hong Kong (second half of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century). History, vol. 13, no. 12-1 (122) (in Russian)

• Mikhel I.V. (2019). Indian view of globalization: an analysis of the bioethical ideas of Vandana Shiva. History, vol. 10, no. 11 (85) (in Russian)

• Mikhel D.V., Mikhel I.V. (2021). Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone: on the crisis story of the pre-covid era. History, vol. 12, no. 6 (104) (in Russian).

• Mirzekhanov V.S. (2023). Ideological trends in European colonisation in the 1920s – 1930s. History, vol. 14, no. 10 (132) (in Russian)

• Mirzekhanov V.S., Trunov F.O. (2022). Features of armed conflict resolution in Asia and Africa from the late 2010s through the early 2020s. Herald of the Russian academy of sciences, vol. 92, no. 6, pp. 713-721 (in English)

• Mirzekhanov V.S., Lannik L. (2021). The Batum subsystem as a space of the ottoman hegemony in Transcaucasia in 1918: addressing the issue. History, vol. 12, no. 4 (102) (in English)

• Mozias P.M. (2023). Russia as a country of BRICS: issue of identification. BRICS journal of economics, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 321-333 (in English)

• Mozias P.M., De Conti B.M. (2020). “Belt and road initiative”: challenges and opportunities for China and for the world. Austral, vol. 9, no. 17, pp. 201-229 (in English)

• Mozias P.M., Mazerskaya E.A. (2023). Peculiarities of the demographic transition in Russia and China. Russia and the contemporary world, no. 3 (120), pp. 7-20 (in Russian)

• Sidorova S.E. (2020). The pain of the others: sati in British colonial narratives. History, vol. 11, no. 4 (90) (in Russian)

• Sidorova S.E. (2021). Muscular energy and water: servants and cooling technologies in colonial India. Dialogue with Time, no. 76, pp. 358-374 (in Russian)

• Sidorova S.E. (2021). The fall of the princely house of Bhosle: a three-part drama in letters. Vostok. Afro-Aziatskie obshchestva: istoriia i sovremennost, no. 6, pp. 213-224 (in Russian).

The Department organizes and hosts the section “Asian and African States and the Process of Shaping a New World Order” at INION's annual conference “Modernization of Russia in the Conditions of Forming a New World Order”