‘It Is Absolutely Necessary for Scholars and Students to Be in Contact with Peers Around the World’

Photo courtesy of Bruno de Conti

Bruno de Conti, Assistant Professor at the University of Campinas (Unicamp, Brazil), has been cooperating with the HSE School of International Regional Studies for a few years. In his interview with the HSE News Service, he talks about the importance of developing academic cooperation between Russia and Brazil and shares his impressions of HSE University and Moscow.

Bruno De Conti is an Assistant Professor at the University of Campinas (Unicamp, Brazil). He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Paris 13 (France) and Unicamp. His research interests include the international monetary system, as well as the economies of China and BRICS.

— You have been successfully cooperating with HSE for a few years. What do you value in this partnership? 

— The partnership with HSE University is one of the most important partnerships of the Institute of Economics at the University of Campinas. For economic and political reasons, Brazilian universities have been historically collaborating much more with universities from the USA or Western Europe and I have always claimed that it's necessary to collaborate with universities from other parts of the world.

This partnership with HSE is very eloquent in showing how much we can learn from Russian universities.

Over the last years, we have been intensively developing academic collaboration through the exchange of both scholars and students, joint organisation of seminars and roundtables, and co-authorship in articles. 

— What is planned for the nearest future?

— Prof. Alina Shcherbakova will be one of the lecturers at the IV BRICS Network University Winter School, which we are organizing in Campinas in July 2024. We are working on the establishment of a joint-degree Master’s programme between HSE and Unicamp. Yulia Khamaganova da Silva is a PhD student whose thesis is supervised by me, and she has just arrived in Moscow to spend one academic semester developing research at HSE. Hopefully, her thesis will result in the first double degree issued by HSE and Unicamp.

— What do you think about international cooperation between researchers and Universities today in the world of globalisation? 

— It is absolutely necessary for scholars and students to be in constant contact with their peers all over the world. There is no better way to create new knowledge, to disseminate and adapt it to the needs of the population. We are now facing existential challenges, such as climate change, and if we do not face them collectively, we will perish collectively.

In April 2024, Bruno De Conti delivered an open lecture on Brazilian presidency in G20 at the HSE School of International Regional Studies.

Bruno De Conti's lecture at HSE University, April 2, 2024

@ HSE University

— What are your impressions of the lecture at HSE University?

— For me, it was very interesting to share my thoughts on Brazil's G20 presidency with a large audience of scholars, students, and even a member of the Brazilian Embassy in Moscow. The questions raised by the audience were extremely interesting and we had a nice moment for discussions.

I think Russia and Brazil have a lot of common ground in the efforts to change the current international order.

I am very thankful for the invitation made by Ana Livia Esteves and to all scholars from HSE who gave me the opportunity to give this lecture. For those who are interested in these discussions, the article is here. 

— How do you feel about Moscow? 

— Moscow is one of my favourite cities in the world! I am always happy to spend some time there. In the current context, the most impressive thing is realising that the Russian economy is doing very well, in spite of the sanctions imposed by the USA and some other Western countries. Walking in Moscow for a week made me realise that unlike what one could imagine from a foreign perspective, the city keeps developing successfully.