Master’s students from North-Eastern Federal University held a seminar in the form of a video conference with the participation of students from Hokkaido University. The parties discussed the topic “Indigenous Peoples of the Asia-Pacific Region and the Far East of Russia: Cultural Identity and Media”.

According to Lena Sidorova, the head of the master’s program “Convergence: Culture in the Digital Age”, such seminars are part of the educational process in the master's program on convergence. “We planned to hold such seminars since opening - in the fall of 2019 - of our master's program under NEFU School of Law. These seminars are held in the framework of the course "Culture of the Peoples of the Russian North-East." The aim of these online meetings is to work together on joint publications and research,” said Lena Sidorova.

Students of the international program “Convergence: Culture in the Digital Age” and teachers of the Institute of Languages ​​and Culture of the Peoples of the Russian North-East considered various aspects of the manifestation of the identity of indigenous peoples, public institutions in Yakutia and Japan, and indigenous peoples’ media. Hokkaido University Ph.D. candidates talked about indigenous media and answered questions about the identity of the Ainu people.

The video conference was held on the Zoom communication platform, which made it possible to gather Japanese and Yakut participants. The seminar was attended by vice-president of the Association of Indigenous Peoples of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) Vyacheslav Shadrin, head of the Journalism Department Oleg Sidorov, and colleagues from YSAA. The moderators of the event were Jeffrey Gayman, professor at the Department of Intercultural Education at the Faculty of Media and Communications at the University of Hokkaido, and Lena Sidorova, associate professor at NEFU Institute of Languages ​​and Culture of the Peoples of the Russian North-East.