Аннотация:For the first time during a Russian Congress of Philosophy a special workshop was held on ‘Gender studies: Problems and Perspectives’. For contemporary Russian thought this is a really new approach to the classical philosophical topics of society, subjectivity, economics, politics and culture.
Russian philosophers are investigating the concept of gender as a new way of thinking about society. We have had an interesting ten year long scientific experiment in the form of the so-called Gender Summer Schools or Gender Conferences at Moscow State University’s Laboratory of Gender Education. It’s the only state center without foreign grant financial support. One of its aims is to introduce new ideas and new teaching methods into the Russian system of education, in the high school at first but later in the universities. The researchers of the Laboratory have prepared special courses for all faculties of Moscow State University, and in 2004 produced a university textbook called An Introduction to Gender Studies. They have invited professors from other Russian universities for master-classes and seminars, and collaborated with some experimental schools giving separate education. So it is rather different in its approach from the ‘gender centers’ that we see in US universities, for example, or from ‘gender research’ in Europe. In Russia, when we say ‘gender studies’ we mean a particular modern approach to understanding the humanities in general.