Vadim Atnash

My objective as a teacher is to motivate my students to develop their own learning interests and critical thinking – to establish a learner-centered environment in the classroom. In particular, teaching a wide range of during my rather long career has made me aware of the needs and interests of a culturally and ethnically diverse student body. As a result, I prepare lesson plans always considering the interconnection between the student’s own knowledge, culture and learning abilities, the subject matter discussed in class, and current debates on international issues. I choose content and activities that are both significant and challenging for the students so that they feel involved in their own learning process. Similarly, the activities and class discussions I facilitate encourage students to make connections between my field of study and other disciplines. 

Collaborative learning is also central to my teaching philosophy in order to promote reflective thinking and improve the students’ communicative and trans-cultural skills. The application of art, literature, cinema materials are helpful tools in the promotion of meaningful learning through collaborative work as well. 

From 2013, I am teaching my original course “International legal aspects of the ethno-political conflicts resolution” for MA students. The course examines the interaction of ethnic and political factors in emergence and development of conflicts in various regions of the world; forms of national movements; activities of international organizations in sphere of conflicts’ prevention and resolution. By cases of different ethno-political conflicts in many countries, political and legal means for their resolution are examined, primarily based on norms and principles of international law. 

Another course that I prepared – “International law in the field of ethnic and confessional interaction” – has been implemented within the additional professional program of retraining "State and municipal administration in the sphere of ethnic and confessional relations". The aim of the course is to develop existing and acquire new competencies in the field of international legal protection of fundamental human rights and freedoms, rights of ethnic, religious, cultural, and linguistic minorities.

In my further career as a lecturer, I look forward to working in a collaborative learning and teaching environment with both faculty and students, where I can develop courses incorporating teaching techniques and recent research results through an interdisciplinary approach. 

As a scholar, I believe teaching and research should go hand in hand. When teaching international law and human rights law courses, I try to incorporate my own research on class representation by providing additional materials that complement regular class content. Currently, my interdisciplinary research brings together political and legal perspectives to explore ethnic and religious minorities under hard pressure or repressions, from general discrimination to deprivation of basic rights, and genocide against Muslim minorities.

My commitment to university education, experience with teaching different courses, and interdisciplinary research background make me a terrific fit. 

My approach to teaching has been rewarded with high teaching evaluations at the North-West Institute of Management (Faculty of Law) in St. Petersburg, Russia. At the international level, I was the academic coordinator of the project “The influence of migration and socio-demographic processes on the periphery of the European integration. Legal political and humanitarian aspects” (2018-2021). It is presumed that the Module has had a positive impact on the students’ sense of justice, political pluralism, and tolerance. 

List of my other courses taught: International Public Law; International Humanitarian Law; International Legal Aspects of the Ethnopolitical Conflicts Settlement; International Private Law; International Law in the Field of Ethnic and Confessional Interaction.

I have PhD in Asian studies (2001), being the first Russian specialist in Cham studies. Also I am an habilitated associate professor in International law, European Law (2014).