CONTENTS

Greetings from the new SRC Director

MOTOKI NOMACHI


野町 素己  (SRC)

This marks the 15th year since I joined the Slavic-Eurasian Research Center (SRC) of Hokkaido University. Ever since I took up my post, I have been working without worry, surrounded by wonderful clerical staff, under the guidance of talented predecessors and experienced senior colleagues. In line with my appointment as the director of the Center this April, I would like to thank all the SRC members who have provided an excellent environment to date, and as the director of the Center, I will strive to maintain and develop a workplace that the SRC staff will consider more rewarding to work in than ever before. Moreover, the maintenance and development of the SRC to date would not have been possible without the great support of the research community. As a Joint Usage / Research Center for Slavic-Eurasian area studies, we will implement a wide range of contributions to researchers at home and abroad, and the research community. We will also promote various initiatives that will contribute to the development of Slavic-Eurasian area studies in Japan and overseas, and the research fields included in them.

 

Almost 30 years have passed since the Revolutions of 1989 and the collapse of the Soviet Union, and during that time, the SRC sometimes felt a sense of crisis regarding its significance as a comprehensive research institute specializing in the region. But, over time, the need for Slavic-Eurasian area studies seems to be increasing. For example, recently two East and Central European writers won the Nobel Prize in Literature: Belarussian journalist Svetlana Alexievitch (2015) and Polish writer Olga Tokarczuk (2019), respectively. They became important opportunities to reconsider the universal value sent from Central and Eastern European literature.

 

Also, although it is unfortunate, there have been a series of events that have attracted worldwide attention, such as the large-scale protest in Kazakhstan in January this year and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February. As a research institution, along with being aware of the importance of Slavic-Eurasian area studies more than ever, we must conduct multidimensional analysis of that area, and disseminate meaningful research results. Furthermore, the relationship with China and the Middle East, which are important nations and regions adjacent to Slavic-Eurasia, is also pluralistic, and in the future, it is necessary to deepen cooperation with researchers in every region, both in Japan and overseas, and develop joint research. Of course, we will not limit the knowledge obtained to the world of professionals, but also will make efforts for social cooperation with the goal of sharing a wider range of results than ever before, by actively utilizing online methods gained during the coronavirus pandemic to organize public courses, lectures, and various seminars.

 

To this end, the SRC applied for an additional budget for the “Formation of a Research Hub for the Promotion of Area Studies beyond the Field” - which has been successfully adopted,- working with various departments of Hokkaido University. In line with this, the “Platform for Explorations in Survival Strategies” will be launched in April 2022 to gather interdisciplinary knowledge on how to survive this chaotic world. Through the collective expertise cultivated and promoted to date at the SRC, we hope to deepen our academic understanding in a broader disciplinary context and return the research results to the education and research community, and to the real world, in an easy-to-understand manner.

 

I feel that it is necessary to put more effort into training next-generation researchers. At present, the number of students who aspire to study different disciplines included in Slavic-Eurasian studies seems to be steadily declining nationwide, and considering this crisis, attracting the next-generation of researchers is also an important role of this Center.

 

I believe that some of the issues listed above are issues for the SRC, and at the same time, multiple communities share them and empathize with them in some form. Therefore, with the cooperation of all concerned parties, we hope to achieve fuller understanding and satisfying outcomes.

  April 1, 2022  

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