Gumilyov Medals Awarded to Foreign Professors at ENU

On 28 April, in the lecture theatre named after Academician R. Nurgali, a ceremony for the presentation of the L.N. Gumilev Medal was held as part of the celebrations marking the 30th anniversary of ENU. The event was organised by the Department of Russian Philology (Head of Department: Kadisha Nurgali, Professor, Doctor of Philology), with the participation of the Dean of the Faculty of Philology, Serikzat Duisenkazy, as well as faculty members and students of the Departments of Foreign Philology and Translation Theory and Practice.

The medal was awarded to visiting professors and representatives of partner universities: Veronika Razumovskaya, Professor at SFU, Candidate of Philological Sciences, and Enrique Federico Kero-Hervilla, Professor at the University of Granada (Spain).

The formal ceremony was presided over by the Vice-Rector for Research, Professor Abzal Taltenov, Doctor of Chemical Sciences. Professor Taltenov highlighted the contribution of international experts to the training of highly qualified research personnel, in particular first-year doctoral students, through the delivery of the courses “Academic Writing” and “Research Methods.” He also noted their participation as international consultants in the supervision of PhD candidates, their involvement in dissertation defences, and their membership of the jury of the 8th National Olympiad. The importance of the exchange of academic experience between international and domestic scholars was emphasised, and hope was expressed for the further development of fruitful cooperation.

Representatives from Siberian Federal University took part in the online broadcast on behalf of the Russian Federation. V.Razumovskaya highlighted the significant achievements of the partnership since the signing of the Memorandum of Cooperation between ENU and SFU in 2020.

Prof. Razumovskaya’s areas of research include translation theory, ethno-translation studies, the methodology and didactics of teaching translation and foreign languages, and Russian literature (as reflected in translation); language theory, comparative linguistics, phonosemantics, and intercultural communication; as well as cultural studies and the languages of the indigenous and minority peoples of Siberia. She is a member of the editorial boards of the academic journals Language Studies and Contemporary Humanities (A.I. Herzen State Pedagogical University, St Petersburg), Northern Archives and Expeditions, Siberian Anthropological Journal, Sociology of Artificial Intelligence, and Digitalisation (Deputy Editor-in-Chief). She is the author of over 350 publications, including those indexed in Scopus and WoS.

In his response, Professor Enrique Federico Kero-Hervilla also highlighted the high standard of academic training of doctoral students and the strong prospects of doctoral education in Kazakhstan.

Enrique F. Kero-Hervilla works at the Department of Slavic Philology at the University of Granada (Spain) as a lecturer in the Russian language, general translation, and specialised translation from Russian into Spanish. His research interests include the comparative grammar of Russian and Spanish, the Russian language, translation studies, the linguistic worldview of Russian from an intercultural perspective, methods of teaching Russian to Spanish speakers, and the analysis of political discourse.

Enrique Kero-Hervilla is the author or co-author of over 100 academic publications, including 7 monographs, 70 research articles, and around 50 other scholarly works. In 2008, he was awarded the Order of the “Good People of the World” Foundation, and in 2020, the F. Dostoevsky Medal, among other honours. He is also a recipient of the University of Granada’s Award for Teaching Excellence.

For 20 years, he served as Editor-in-Chief of the academic journal Mundo Eslavo // Slavic World, published by the University of Granada, and as Dean of the Faculty of Interpreting and Translation (2016–2025). He has led the research group “Studies in Slavic Philology,” supported by the Regional Government of Andalusia, since 2001. Since 2015, he has been President of the Professional Association of Teachers of Russian Language and Literature in Spain (AEPRU) and Director of the Centre for Slavic Cultures at the University of Granada. Since 2021, he has also been a member of the Presidium and Treasurer of CIUTI (Conférence internationale permanente d'instituts universitaires de traducteurs et interprètes).

The medal recipients highlighted ENU’s role as a platform for international cooperation between Kazakhstan, Russia, and Spain.

On behalf of the doctoral students who attended the courses taught by the visiting professors, gratitude was expressed for the valuable experience they gained. This included improving their academic English proficiency, mastering modern research methods and applying them in their chosen fields, developing skills in writing articles for high-impact journals, and gaining insight into the training of academic personnel abroad.

Following the formal proceedings, a research seminar was held, at which Professor Enrique Federico Kero-Hervilla delivered a presentation entitled “The Distinctiveness of the Russian Worldview as Reflected in the Works of Dostoevsky: A Translation Studies Analysis.” An engaging discussion followed.