Polotsk State University

http://www.psu.unibel.by/

Polotsk State University (PSU) is located in Novopolotsk, Belarus, which is a former Soviet Republic in Eastern Europe. PSU was founded in the late 1960s as a branch of Minsk Technological Institute. Its original mission was to provide young people in the region an opportunity to study various areas of chemical engineering because two chemical giant companies were being constructed in the region and there was a great demand for highly educated professionals in the field.

Later other engineering departments were developed at PSU and by the early 1990s the university included six engineering departments and had been designated a Polytechnic, which is a higher education institution offering advanced degrees in chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, geodesy, civil engineering, heat, gas and water supply, ventilation and air conditioning.

During perestroika, PSU was transformed into a classical university modeled on the famous Polotsk Academy, first established in the sixteenth century. As a result, PSU’s curriculum now includes the humanities, economics, foreign languages, and law.

In 1998, PSU faculty formed a gender studies discussion group that led to the establishment of a Research Center in Gender Studies. Its main aim is to carry out cross-cultural study of communicative behavior informed by an interdisciplinary approach grounded in linguistics, psychology, sociology, education, literature, and law.

The PSU Research Center in Gender Studies participates in faculty exchanges with the Women’s Studies Program at Purdue University Calumet and other universities in the US and Europe.