International conference, funded by Durham University’s Faculty of Arts & Humanities and its School of Modern Languages and Cultures, taking place in Durham on 19-21 September 2014 at the Institute of Advanced Study.

Professions and sciences form a complex, highly differentiated yet closely interconnected, field of expert knowledge and labour, vital to all modern states and societies. The focus of this conference will be on the dynamics of this field in Russian history in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The conference will re-examine the history of Russian professions and sciences from a new vantage point – that of interprofessional and interdisciplinary relations. This is a neglected aspect of this history, yet vital to understanding how Russian professions and sciences created, defined and legitimised their work, expertise and jurisdictions. The topic is particularly timely given the importance currently accorded to interdisciplinary and interprofessional collaboration in matters of academic and technological innovation, and the purported potential that this has for solving complex challenges, including those relating to the environment, healthcare, changing demographics, and the way new technologies affect society.

For further details see the conference website.