On June 16, 2023, the Department of Religious Studies and Cultural Studies of the Faculty of Philosophy and Political Science under the leadership of the head.by the department of A. Kurmanalieva, deputy.The Dean for Research and Innovation and International Cooperation       A. Alchimbayeva, as well as the teaching staff, held a meeting with the Candidate of Historical Sciences, a leading researcher at the Center for Eurasian Studies of Moscow State Institute of International Relations A. Sklykapov. The professor's research interests include ethnography (ethnology and anthropology), religious studies, Islamic studies, modern ethnopolitical and ethno-confessional processes, the population of the North Caucasus and Dagestan. He is a foreign scientific consultant of the doctoral student of the specialty «Cultural Studies» R. Zeynullin (2021-2024).

During the meeting, A. Sklykapov presented a collective monograph, in which he was a co-author, head of the Department of Religious Studies and Cultural Studies, Professor                     A. Kurmanalieva entitled «Sufism after the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics» (editors: Igor Pankov, Sergey Abashin, Alexander Knysh) for teaching staff and students of the department.