The Black Sea Region Research Centre

The Black Sea Region Research Centre (BSRRC) of Shaanxi Normal University was established in January 2020, and was officially approved as the Belt & Road Area Studies Research Centre by the National Ethnic Affairs Commission of the People’s Republic of China in August 2020. The director of the centre is Professor Li Bingzhong, with 14 full-time researchers and 27 part-time researchers.

Based on the discipline of world history of Shaanxi Normal University, the centre gives full play of the world history research advantage in the fields of Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Central Asia. Taking the Black Sea and its periphery as the research objects, it explores the generation and evolution of the Black Sea Region under the alternating influences of ancient Greeks, Romans, the Byzantine Empire, the Ottoman Empire and Tsarist Russia in history. It also studies the complex geopolitics and development dilemmas of the Black Sea region under the games of major powers such as Europe, USA, Russia and Turkey as well as some other regional powers.

Taking the Black Sea Region as the research focus, the centre expands it research scope of research to the Middle East, South Caucasus, Eastern Mediterranean, Caspian Sea and Balkan and other hotspot areas around the Black Sea, and comprehensively applies the research methods of history, ethnology, religious studies, political science and international relations, aiming to carry out the targeted, academic and practical country and regional research based on the evolution of the real logic of the Black Sea region reality, and to launch the knowledge popularisation activities and think-tank construction while doing a good job of basic research, so as to make the Black Sea Region Research Centre a first-class regional research centre in China with international influence.

At present, the centre is closely focusing on the national goal and positioning country-specific regional research centres, and has made many constructive achievements in talent team building, improvement of scientific research capability, enhancement of social service and quality of think-tank construction. For instance, the centre has successfully obtained the approval to carry out the research project of “A General History of the Black Sea” which is one of the major research projects of the Ministry of Education in 2022. It has published a number of monographs such as From City State to Empire: The Origins of Russian Autocracy and A Study of Russian Judicial Reform in 1864 and so on. It has also published many papers in domestic and foreign core journals such as Collected Works of History Studies, Modern International Relations, Contemporary World, The Problems in History Teaching, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies and Turkish Historical Review. It has published many knowledge popularisation articles in newspapers and magazines such as Global, Insight and World Affairs. Professor Li and some other researchers have been interviewed by many domestic and foreign media such as Russia’s Sputnik News Agency, South Reviews and Tianmu News. In 2023, the case submitted by the centre, “Deeply Involving the Research on the Black Sea Region and Actively Responding to the Evolution of the International Pattern”, won the CTTI (Chinese Think Tank Index) 2023 Annual Best-Case Demonstration for Think-Tank Construction (39 cases nationwide).

In the future, the Centre will adhere to the principle of integrity and innovation, give play to advantages in basic theoretical research, and improve the quality of think-tank construction. It will also deepen the reform of talent cultivation mode, give play to the characteristics of country and region research, closely follow the development goals and the construction goals, and make concerted efforts to push forward the various construction work of the centre to a higher level, so as to establish the centre into a regional research centre of great influence in China at an early date.

We warmly welcome scholars come to the centre for lectures or visits, and are looking forward to having colleagues and doctoral students from home and abroad too, so as to jointly promote the quality of the centre’s construction and improve its ability to serve national strategy.

Email: bsrrcsnnu@163.com

Address: Room 209, West Annex Building of the Education Museum, Chang’an Campus, Shaanxi Normal University,

No.620 West Chang’an Street, Xi’an, Shaanxi Province