On 8 April, the All-Russian Scientific and Methodological Conference with international participation “Contemporary Arts and Crafts in Higher Education” opened in the main building of VSU. The conference was organised by the Faculty of Philology of VSU. The conference’s organising committee was chaired by Professor Olga Berdnikova.
The plenary meeting was opened by Larisa Rybacheva, deputy chair of the organizing committee, Associate Professor at the Department of Russian Literature of XX–XXI Centuries, Theory of Literature, and Humanities at the Faculty of Philology of VSU. Oleg Kozaderov, Vice-Rector for Research, Innovations, and Digitising at VSU, read out a welcome address from the Rector of the University, Dmitry Endovitsky. He noted that the international conference proved once again that there could be no such thing as “cancel culture”.
Zhanna Gracheva, Dean of the Faculty of Philology at VSU, recalled that it was the first time the conference was being held. She pointed to the thoughts of Nobel Prize Laureate Konrad Lorenz, who believed that only culture could stop aggression.
“Culture is the mechanism that is meant to save life on Earth,” concluded Zhanna Gracheva.
Larisa Rybacheva, curator of the “Arts and Humanities” academic programme, spoke about the programme, as it is currently gaining a special status (including during the conference) and is attracting the interest of students. Polina Bobrovskaya, lecturer at the Department of Russian Literature of XX–XXI Centuries, Theory of Literature, and Humanities, graduate of the programme “Arts and Humanities”, presented the Russian Fairy Tale Festival. The festival has been held at the Faculty of Philology for many years.
After the official opening ceremony, the main part of the conference began. The conference programme included reports and speeches by lecturers and students of humanities disciplines from Voronezh and international universities, educational institutions, representatives of cultural institutions and organisations in the city, and leading figures of culture, art, and science in the region.
