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The Maurice Thorez Institute of Foreign Languages
Moscow State Linguistic University

Research Centres and Labs

Research at Moscow State Linguistic University is inspired by both fundamental and empirical studies. Our researchers are engaged in innovative interdisciplinary research projects in various fields such as theoretical and applied linguistics, comparative linguistics, cognitive sciences, psychology, pedagogy, philosophy, history, law, and social sciences.

The research centres and labs at MSLU focus on many fields and languages, including English, German, French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Korean, Dutch and many others.

We collaborate with researchers worldwide applying new methods and technologies, organize and participate in international conferences and symposia, carry out projects funded by the Ministry for Science and Higher Education, the Russian Science Foundation, and the Russian Foundation for Fundamental Research.

· SCoDis

Researchers at SCoDis (The Centre for Socio-Cognitive Discourse Studies) analyze the diversity and effectiveness of discourse practices in various languages from a socio-cognitive perspective.

SCoDis consists of three laboratories integrating the social and cognitive studies with fundamental and empirical research:

· The Multimodal Communication and Cognition Laboratory (PoliMod)

· The Gender Laboratory

· The Laboratory for the Study of Sign Languages

SCoDis website: http://scodis.ru/

The PoliMod Lab focuses on

· Multimodal communicative complexes (the way interactants integrate gestures with their speech),

· Communication within various professional settings, e.g., debates between politicians, sales pitches by entrepreneurs, trials in courtrooms, etc.

Detailed micro-analysis of video-recorded interactions provides a starting point for interpretive analysis of processes of sense-making and sense-giving in situ. Data on spontaneous gestures accompanying speech can be used in research on processes of thinking for speaking.

The Gender Laboratory approaches discourse from a social perspective which implies the social identity of the speakers, i.e. gender, age, social roles, ethnocultural characteristics.

The Laboratory for the Study of Sign Languages focuses on sign language discourse. It conducts empirical research in collaboration with the Centre for Neurology to study the role of sign language use in bilinguals’ brain plasticity.

The research of the Centre and its labs is mainly theoretical and fundamental in nature, however some issues that we consider concern patterns of communicative behaviour in different discourse types and languages, including in sign language communication, which can be applicable to real-world problems.

· The Experimental Phonetics and Speech Lab(oratory)

· The Centre for Information Security and Linguistic Studies

· The Centre for Fundamental and Applied Speech Studies

· The Centre for Russian Language Studies

· SocLab

Sociology Language Research Laboratory (SocLab) was established on February 25, 2018, on the basis of MSLU Sociological Centre (established in 2000). The Laboratory is an independent functional division of the Moscow State Linguistic University and reports to the Rector and Vice-Rector for Research.

SocLab has been set up

1. to analyze sociological aspects of the Russian market of translation services and demand for foreign languages; to study problems of “minor” and endangered languages in Russia; to research social policies in relation to the promotion of the Russian language in the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and other territories;

2. to analyze the market of commercial educational services in foreign languages training; monitor the state and content of training in foreign languages in higher and secondary education in Russia;

3. to participate in various research projects funded by the Russian Science Foundation and the Ministry for Science and Higher Education;

4. to monitor educational trends and innovations in various areas of scientific knowledge, theory and practice of multicultural interactions, to analyze communicative practices given the diversity of cultural, social and media contexts;

5. to monitor and enhance MSLU educational performance; and to integrate modern educational programmes and methods in its work.

Igor V. Obraztsov – Director of SocLab, Ph.D, Dr. habil. (Sociology), Professor of Sociology Department of IIR&SPS. Prof. Obraztsov's research interests include history and theory of sociology, sociology of management, political and militarysociology, sociology of education, sociolinguistics.

Andrey V. Polovnev – Senior Researcher, Ph.D., (Sociology), Associate Professor of Sociology Department of IIR&SPS. Ass. Prof. Polovnev's research interests include sociology of the media, sociology of education, sociology of professions, demographics, data analysis in sociology.

Sergey S. Solovyov – Senior Researcher, Ph.D., (Sociology), Associate Professor of Sociology Department of IIR&SPS. Ass. Prof. Solovyov's research interests include sociology of market and sociology of marketing, methodology and methods of sociological study, data analysis in sociology.

· The Psycholinguistics Laboratory

· The Department of Research Management and Statistics 

· Research Laboratory for Comparative Literature and Artistic Anthropology

The laboratory was established in 2021 in order to:
- modernize the research process and the scientific and project activities of MSLU in the field of comparative literary studies and artistic anthropology;
- support of the international publication activity of MSLU;
- training of MSLU research personnel in the field of literary studies and related humanities.
The activity of the Laboratory is aimed at solving research, organizational, as well as educational and enlightening tasks.
Research tasks:
- Development and implementation of fundamental and applied research projects in the field of literary studies and related humanities through grants from the Russian Academy of Sciences, RFBR and other foundations, state assignments, on an initiative basis.
- Presentation of research results in the form of scientific reports at All-Russian and international conferences, scientific articles in journals, including indexed in Web of Science and Scopus databases, collective and author's monographs and doctoral dissertations.
Organizational tasks:
- Organization of scientific events: round tables, seminars, conferences.
- Expert and advisory activities.
Educational tasks:
- Participation in the modernization of work programs of disciplines implemented at the Department of Russian and World Literature; development of university-wide electives on topical issues of literary studies.
- Participation in the organization of the practice of undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate students.
- Modernization of the postgraduate educational program in the profile of “World Literature”.
Enlightening tasks:
- Organization of public lectures at the university and at external venues.
- Participation in intellectual competitions.
- Organization of discussion events.
Laboratory’s team:
Dmitry A. Belyakov – Head of the Laboratory, PhD in Philology
Elena I. Seifert – Leading Research Fellow, Advanced Doctor in Philology
Pyotr V. Abramov – Senior Research Fellow, PhD in Philology
Yulia V. Chernova – Senior Research Fellow, PhD in Philology
Militsa Nikolich – Junior Research Fellow, Postgraduate Student
Ekaterina Golub – Academic Assistant
Anastasia Vedeneeva – Academic Assistant
Sofya Arifulina – Academic Assistant
Roman Petrochenko – Academic Assistant