Professor Piotr Dutkiewicz awarded Honorary Doctorate from The Russian People’s University of Moscow – May 22, 2006

Message from Professor Joan DeBardeleben, Associate Director, Institute of European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies and Professor of Political Science, Carleton University:

Faculty and students . . . congratulate Piotr Dutkiewicz on the receipt of an “Honorary Doctorate — honoris causa” from the Russian People’s University of Moscow, awarded for “excellence in scholarship and contribution to the development of Russian-Canadian relations.” The degree [was] conferred [on May 22] of this year in Moscow.

Professor Dutkiewicz’s outstanding commitment to improving the lives of everyday Russians through joint Canadian-Russian efforts is evident in the range of activities he has undertaken to this end over his career. Piotr’s academic ties to Russian extend back to receipt of his Ph.D. from the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1981. He has since participated in numerous joint Canadian-Russian projects, leading to a Letter of Recognition from the Russian Minister of Education “for the great contribution to the development of Russian-Canadian relations in the area of education” in 2002, and a Diploma/Letter of Recognition from the Ministry of Health and Social Development of the Russian Federation for his “great contribution to the development of the labour market for women” in 2004. The latter caps five years of work as director of a CIDA-funded project, “Women and Labour Market Reform in Russia,” which had among its outcomes a key contribution to the adoption of a gender strategy by the Russian government. In addition to this achievement, Piotr also served as director for highly successful projects on “An Unemployment Insurance System for Russia” (1996-97) and “Local Governance for Russian High Schools” (1999-2000), both funded by the University of Calgary-Gorbachev Joint Trust Fund.

In addition to these projects, Piotr Dutkiewicz has published several academic works in Russia (in Russian), most recently including two articles co-authored with Vladimir Popov: “The Worst is Over?”, Contemporary European Quarterly, no. 4 (20), October-December 2004, pp. 42-56; and, “Democracy Without Liberalism,” Politicheskii Zhurnal, no. 37 (40), October 2004, 8 pages; and an edited volume (with Dejan Guzina and Vladimir Marakhov), Teoria i praktika grazhdanskogo obshebestva y Rossi (Theory and Practice of the Civil Society in Russia), St. Petersburg State University, 2005, 269 pages.

We congratulate Piotr on his achievements!