The Department of Kalmyk Literature was established in 1983. The first head of the department was the People’s Poet of Kalmykia, D.N. Kugultinov. From 1989 to 1990, the department was led by Doctor of Philology, Professor A.Sh. Kichikov. From 1990 to 2006, the head was Candidate of Philology, Associate Professor A.V. Badmaev. From 2006 to 2007, the department was headed by Doctor of Philology, Professor V.D. Pyurbeev. From 2007 to 2017, Candidate of Philology, Associate Professor S.N. Tsedenova served as head. In 2007, the department was renamed the Department of Kalmyk Literature and Folklore. Since 2010, the department has been training Bachelor’s students in the field of 42.03.02 “Journalism.” Accordingly, in 2013 the department was reorganized into the Department of Kalmyk Literature and Journalism, becoming a graduating department for the programs “Philology” and “Journalism.” Since 2017, the department has been headed by Doctor of Pedagogy, Professor B.B. Dyakieva.
Currently, the department staff includes one Doctor of Science, serving as professor (B.B. Dyakieva), four Candidates of Science, one senior lecturer, and two assistants.
Research Interests
Literary studies, folklore studies, history of Mongolian literature, Kalmyk literature, Kalmyk oral poetic creativity, folklore of Mongolic peoples, narrative genre traditions in Mongolic literatures, typological connections of Mongolic literatures, modern types and forms of journalistic activity, regional journalism, development of regional television in the information space, ethno-cultural processes in media development, history of world journalism, advertising and PR, modern press office operations, economic aspects of the journalism profession.
Department staff actively participate in international, Russian, regional, and republican scientific and practical conferences.
Alongside teaching and research activities, department members develop textbooks, anthologies, and teaching aids for higher and secondary educational institutions. They also actively contribute to organizing and conducting school literature competitions, serve as experts for new curricula and textbooks.
Grants
In 2019, the department completed projects funded by the Russian Humanitarian Science Foundation (RHSF): “Issues of Development and Preservation of the Literary Heritage of the Kalmyk People” (led by Associate Professor S.N. Tsedenova), “Kalmykia as a Cross-Border Region in Russia’s Eastern Vector” (led by M.A. Lidzhiyev) — a federal grant within the framework of a regional flagship university, and “Oirat Script ‘Todo Bichig’: Monuments and Studies” — an internal university grant.
In 2019, the department was awarded a grant by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR) and the Academy of Social Sciences of China on the project “Folklore of the Silk Road Peoples: Oirat-Mongols of China and Kalmyks of Russia (from Fairy Tales to Epics)” (Grant No. 19-512-93002), with Candidate of Philology N.Ch. Ochirova as the principal investigator (1,500,000 RUB).
Ongoing work continues under a government assignment grant from the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation (project No. 799): “Oral Folk Art of the Kalmyks in the Context of Preserving the Spiritual Heritage of the People and the Cultural and Linguistic Diversity of Russia.”