The Department of Social Sciences and Humanities (previously known as the Department of Theory and Practice of Social Work) originated from the Department of Sociology created in 1990 and included the Department of Methodology of Science, Social Theories and Technologies in 2023. Over the years, the department has been graduating professionals in the area of social work.

Nowadays, the department implements the degree programmes devoted to social studies, social and cultural activities. Its Bachelor’s degree programme was included four times in the register of the best educational programmes. Previously, the department ran the post-graduate programme “Social Philosophy”, while currently it offers the post-graduate programme with the focus on philosophy, ethics and religious studies. Throughout the university, it teaches the following disciplines: sociology of labour, economic sociology, conflict studies, sociology of organisations, public relations, forecasting, design and modelling in social work, ethnography, demography and others.

The department designs and implements the lifelong learning programmes for state and municipal officials, social service workers and university teachers within and across the Penza Region, such as “Organising and managing social work”, “Social rehabilitation and social support for families with disabled children”, “Features of training citizens with disabilities”. Since 2017, professional retraining has been carried out under the programme “Social work in the system of social services”.

The teaching staff initiate and conduct research on justifying social work, modelling rehabilitation of persons with disabilities, promoting health among student youth, exploring social thought and social reform in modernising non-Western countries. They participate in scientific conferences at various levels, particularly “Women’s voices outside the West”, “Alternatives for social and economic development at the regional level” and “50 years after 1968: does socialism have a future?”. Annually they submit applications to participate in competitions of the Russian Science Foundation and other foundations with such projects as “Information impact on the individual in the context of digitalization of culture and education: risks and potential”. Within different initiatives and projects, the department regularly creates a discussion platform, which brings together researchers, public officials and civil society representatives to explore such issues as prospects for preserving and developing a welfare state in the context of the global crisis, non-economic factors of regional development, discriminatory potential of gender stereotype, non-western models of women emancipation and many others.

Since 1999, the department has been annually holding the conference “Sociological readings”. The event brings together teachers, researchers, postgraduate students and students, who cover such issues as humanitarian problems, digital society and humanities knowledge. In addition, the department encourages the students to engage in research through the student research teams “Sisyphus” and “Rehabilitation technologies in social work”.

Through the social studies laboratory, the department conducts monitoring studies that contribute to optimising the teaching and learning process at the university and adopting effective management decisions in the economic, social and cultural life in the region. The students are engaged in these social studies to master skills of collecting, processing and analysing data.

DEGREE PROGRAMMES

Bachelor

     Social and Cultural Activity
     Social Studies
     Social Work

Master

     Social Work: History, Methodology and Theory of Social Work

Post-graduate

     Philosophy, Ethics and Religion Studies

RESEARCH

Research topics

•    Complex approach to rehabilitation of disabled people in modern society
•    Social ideas and social reformation
•    Civic initiatives in helping children in need
•    Health saving technologies
•    Informational impact of society on the individual
•    Social and cultural transformations
•    Social assistance in modern society
•    Value status of labour in the context of social transformations
•    Motivation of social and political behaviour
•    Social activity and protest behaviour
•    Social structure transformation of and social inequality
•    Social problems of modern education
•    Sociology of education
•    Social policy
•    Modern practical philosophy
•    Modernization and globalization at the present stage of social development
•    Transformation of professional and labour relations
•    Position of the individual in the context of informatisation
•    Sociology of professions
•    Sociology of personality
•    Gender relations and gender inequality
•    Gender aspects of political activity
•    Social and philosophical aspects of gender
•    Disintegration of the matrix of traditional consciousness in Russia
•    History of Russian philosophy of the 19th century

Collaboration

Russian Mercy and Health Fund
Lui Quarter Organisation
Penza Branch of Russian Children Fund
Penza Region Centre for Rehabilitation of Disabled Persons
Penza City Centre for Urgent Social Assistance to Population
Integrated Centre for Social Assistance to Families and Children
Ministry for Labour, Social Protection and Demography in the Penza Region
Russian Social Insurance Fund
Scientific Research Institute of Physical Measurements
Centre for Marketing Communications
Multifunctional Youth Centre of the Penza Region
School No. 28 in Penza named
Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Faculty of Philosophy at M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University
Faculty of Sociology in the Higher School of Economics
Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Confederation of Labour in the Russian Federation
Department of Philosophy at Saratov State Law Academy

CONTACTS

Dr. Tatyana Lavrenova
Candidate of Philosophical Sciences, Associate Professor
Head of the Department of Theory and Practice of Social Work

37 Lermontova Street, building 12, office 219
Tel: +7 (8412) 20-37-89
E-mail: sr@pnzgu.ru
Web-page of the Department of Theory and Practice of Social Work (in Russian)