News

Armenia

Azerbaijan

Georgia

USA

ARISC is pleased to announce that we have been awarded a grant by the Leon Levy Foundation.  This grant will help ARISC plan for the next five years of its organization.  We thank the Leon Levy Foundation for its support!

Armenia:

 

Norsavank.  Photo courtesy of Pamela Cardwell.

Medieval Archaeology at the Crossroads: Excavations at the Arai Caravanserai

Kathryn Franklin, PhD Candidate
University of Chicago Department of Anthropology

2 September 2011 2:00pm
Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography NAS RA
Charents Str. 15
Yerevan, Armenia

This presentation will provide an early summary of results from this summer's excavations at the Arai Caravanserai site. This caravanserai or road-inn was a node in the late medieval world trade network, which intersected the Armenian Highlands and connected Europe and the Far East. As the presentation will discuss, local sites such as the Arai caravanserai are interesting because they connect this large scale trade with questions of local politics and social life during the medieval period.

Kathryn Franklin is a senior graduate student at the University of Chicago in the Department of Anthropology. For the last four years she has worked in Armenia in connection with the joint American-Armenian Project for the Archaeology and Geography of Transcaucasian Societies (ArAGATS). Kathryn's research focuses on political economy of the late medieval period, specifically the links between local highland perceptions of politics and long distance trade. This research is fueled by a wider interest in trade as a cultural practice, and in the history of the Armenian highlands.

This event is co-sponsored by the American Research Institute of the South Caucasus (ARISC), the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography NAS RA, Project ArAGATS, and the Wenner-Gren Foundation. For more information, please visit https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=270650042947803

Courting the Nation Abroad: Diaspora Policies in Post-communist Armenia, Croatia and Serbia

Sarah Garding (PhD candidate, University of California, Berkeley; ARISC Fellow)

August 27, 2010
14.00-16.00
CRRC-Armenia
52, Abovyan Street
3rd floor, room 305
Yerevan, Armenia


Over the last several decades, a growing number of contemporary and historical sending states have developed policies to engage their diasporas in the politics and economy of the homeland. In Eastern Europe and Eurasia, the collapse of communism presented a unique opportunity for new governments to reconfigure relations with their diasporas and overcome the antagonism that had hitherto marred state-diaspora relations. This talk addresses the varying approaches to engaging the diaspora in post-Soviet and post-Yugoslav Armenia, Croatia, and Serbia.  Specifically, I focus on citizenship policies, extraterritorial voting, parliamentary representation, and the creation of diaspora bureaucracies -- policies that are often used by sending states to deepen emigrants' political ties to their country of perceived origin.  These three postcommunist countries simultaneously grappled with war, independence, state-building, and economic collapse, and thus one might expect to find strong policies to engage the diaspora.  In fact, governments in these three states showed varied willingness to deepen state-diaspora ties. This talk assesses the sources of this variation.

Sarah Garding is a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. Her dissertation looks at the policies of post-Soviet Armenia and post-Yugoslav Croatia and Serbia towards diaspora populations, and the participation of the latter in homeland political affairs in the wake of independence. She carried out the research for this project in Croatia and Serbia during 2009-2010 as an IREX fellow, and is currently in Yerevan as a fellow with the American Research Institute of the South Caucasus.

This talk is co-sponsored by the American Research Institute of the South Caucasus (ARISC) and the Caucasus Research Resource Center (CRRC). For more information, please visit http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=146138098747342

The Kura Araxes Culture in Regional Context with Special Reference to Shengavit

Professor Mitchell Rothman, Widener University (USA)

July 6, 2010, 4:00pm
CRRC, 52 Abovyan, 3rd floor
Yerevan, Armenia

The Kura Araxes Culture is a unique culture of the 4th and early 3rd millennia BC in the Transcaucasian area. Originally thought to be a minor village culture, it is now clear that it was part of an ancient globalization stretching from the Persian Gulf to the plains of the North Caucasus opening into eastern Europe and western China. Peoples from the Transcaucasus migrated into the Taurus and Zagros Mountains all the way to the north Jordan valley of modern Israel in the early 3rd millennium creating a unique blending of cultures. This illustrated talk speaks of the nature of this culture and work of an Armenian-American team under the leadership of Hakop Simonyan at Shengavit.

Dr. Mitchell Rothman is a Professor of Anthropology and Archaeology at Widener University in Pennsylvania and a consulting scholar at the University of Pennsylvania Museum. Beginning in 1974 he has been doing archaeology in the greater Middle East, first in Iran then Turkey, and now Armenia and has analyzed material from Iraq. His interest is in the development of cultures in the 4th and 3rd millennia BC. His publications include books on the theory of cultural evolution, Tepe Gawra Iraq, Godin Tepe, Iran, and the Uruk Culture of Mesopotamia. His interest in the Kura Araks Culture began while surveying in Mus by Lake Van.

This talk is co-sponsored by the Caucasus Research Resource Center (CRRC) and the American Research Institute of the South Caucasus (ARISC)

Azerbaijan:

 

Street view in Baku.  Photo courtesy of Alice Harris

Xinaliq Documentation Project, in process

Tamrika Khvtisiashvili, PhD Candidate and ARISC Fellow
University of Utah, Linguistics

Rethinking the Origins of Civilization in Azerbaijan: 2010 Excavations at Oglanqala, Naxcivan

Dr. Lauren Ristvet, University of Pennsylvania
 
August 10, 2010
7:00pm
60, R. Behbudov Street, American Center
Azerbaijan University of Languages, 1st floor
Baku, Azerbaijan
 
From 2008-2010, a joint American-Azerbaijani team of archaeologists and scientists have been excavating an Iron Age site called Oglanqala in Naxcivan. The project focuses on the creation of a small state during the 9th century, one of the earliest in Azerbaijan , and the important roles resistance and cultural exchange played in the origins of politics here. The fortification walls of Oglanqala enclose an area of 12 hectares, but there are extensive architectural remains and pottery scatters across a 50 hectare area, making this one of the largest sites in the Caucasus from this period. Excavation has revealed four phases, from 1200-100 BC, during which this site was one of the principle centers of Azerbaijan .
 
Lauren Ristvet (BA, Yale 1999; MPhil, PhD, Cambridge 2005) specializes in Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern history and archaeology, with an emphasis on the formation and collapse of archaic states, landscape archaeology, human response to environmental disaster, and ancient imperialism. She is the associate director of excavations at Tell Leilan, Syria (ancient Shehna/Shubat-Enlil), where she has excavated since 1999. This was one of the largest ancient cities in Northern Mesopotamia, and the short-lived capital of the Kingdom of Upper Mesopotamia during the 18th century B.C. She is also co-director of the Naxcivan Archaeological Project in Naxcivan, Azerbaijan, a combined survey and excavation project.

This event is co-sponsored by the American Research Institute of the South Caucasus (ARISC) and the US Educated Azerbaijani Alumni Association (AAA).  For more information, please visit http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=102692836453766&ref=mf

Workshop: Research Grant Writing

This workshop, led by Anar Valiyev and Sabina Manafova, aims to help scholars and academicians in the humanities and social sciences learn how to write winning proposals for research related grants. A comprehensive, hands-on workshop that covers researching funding sources and writing real proposals, this program will teach participants how to use the proposal writing format, the most widely used in the world. Participants will leave this workshop with new skills and the ability to apply those skills to their own needs or to the needs of their institutions.

During the first session, participants will be given instruction and practical exercises going through all the stages of a grant proposal. In the second session participants will prepare their own complete proposals related to their research interests, which will be reviewed and evaluated.

Session I
Saturday, 12 June 2010
10:30am - 1:00pm
CRRC Baku
122, B.Safaroglu Street, Khazar University, 2nd floor
Baku AZ1009, Azerbaijan

Session II
Saturday, 19 June 2010
10:30am - 1:00pm
CRRC Baku
122, B.Safaroglu Street, Khazar University, 2nd floor
Baku AZ1009, Azerbaijan

To apply, please submit a cover letter, a page describing your interest in the workshop in English and your CV to ARISCEvents "at" yahoo. com no later than 2 June 2010. Space is limited and applicants will be contacted by 9 June 2010 with the results.


This workshop is sponsored by the American Research Institute of the South Caucasus (ARISC) and the Caucasus Research Resource Centers (CRRC).

Georgia:

Davit Gareja.  Photo courtesy of Pamela Cardwell

WiP - "The Diversification of Post-Soviet Cultural Spaces"

John Schoeberlein, Harvard University
Wednesday, February 1, 2012 - 6:15 PM
International School of Economics of Tbilisi (ISET)
CRRC Georgia
Zandukeli St. 16
Tbilisi, Georgia

W-i-P is an ongoing academic discussion series based in Tbilisi, Georgia, that takes place every Wednesday at the International School of Economics (ISET) building (16 Zandukeli Street). It is co-organized by CRRC and the American Councils for International Education: ACTR/ACCELS.
 
The purpose of the W-i-P series is to provide support and productive criticism to those researching and developing academic projects pertaining the Caucasus region.

For more information, please visit https://www.facebook.com/events/234901146591516/

This is the 1st talk of the Spring 2012 Works-in-Progress Series , co-sponsored by American Councils, the Caucasus Research Resource Centers (CRRC), and American Research Institute of the South Caucasus (ARISC).

WiP - "Creating Brand Identity for the Georgian National Museum and New Opportunities to Join the International Museum Network"

Natalia Shelegia
Wednesday, December 21, 2011 – 6:15 PM
International School of Economics of Tbilisi (ISET)
CRRC Georgia
Zandukeli St. 16
Tbilisi, Georgia

This presentation will examine American and European museum culture, explore the methodologies that are used to create the brand identities in museums, study Western communication paradigm transformation; discover new trends affecting museum activities, examine Georgian museums concept and what is most important, adopt the researched materials and knowledge to modern Georgian museum model.

The ultimate goal of the empirical study is to describe the brand identity building process and analyze the branding methodologies, in order to broaden the knowledge about museum branding and to deliberate a set of recommendations for the Georgian National Museum. The data obtained with the qualitative research could assist museum in creation of affective branding  tools for transforming Georgian museums into living and interesting, vital community resource and educational center, devoted to diffusion of knowledge and understanding in society.
 
Natalia Shelegia  is the Director of Communications Department at the Georgian National Museum and  is currently pursuing her PhD at Tbilisi State Academy of Arts.  She has extensive experience in PR, communications, and marketing as well as being an artist.  Her website is www.natalia.ge.

W-i-P is an ongoing academic discussion series based in Tbilisi, Georgia, that takes place every Wednesday at the International School of Economics (ISET) building (16 Zandukeli Street). It is co-organized by CRRC and the American Councils for International Education: ACTR/ACCELS.
 
The purpose of the W-i-P series is to provide support and productive criticism to those researching and developing academic projects pertaining the Caucasus region.

For more information, please visit https://www.facebook.com/events/134939156619255/

This is the 11th talk of the Fall 2011 Works-in-Progress Series, co-sponsored by American Councils, the Caucasus Research Resource Centers (CRRC), and American Research Institute of the South Caucasus (ARISC).

 

WiP - "Why Me?" - First Findings of the MYPLACE Project in Georgia

Tinatin Zurabishvili and Tamuna Khoshtaria, CRRC
Wednesday, December 14, 2011 – 6:15 PM
International School of Economics of Tbilisi (ISET)
CRRC Georgia
Zandukeli St. 16
Tbilisi, Georgia

This presentation will address the findings of the first phase of fieldwork in the MYPLACE (Memory, Youth, Political Legacy and Civic Engagement) Project.
 
MYPLACE is a four-year international project employing a combination of survey, interview and ethnographic research to provide new, pan-European data that not only will measure levels of civil participation of the young people (aged 16 to 25), but also capture the meanings young people attach to it.
 
Dr. Tinatin Zurabishvili has been coordinating the CRRC Caucasus Barometer survey since 2007 and the MYPLACE project since 2011. Since 1999 she has taught BA and MA courses in sociology, focusing on research methods, at Telavi State University and at the Center for Social Sciences of Tbilisi State University, where she was a Civic Education Project (CEP) Local Faculty Fellow (2001-2003) and Academic Fellowship Program Returning Scholar (2005-2006). Since 2010, she has been teaching at the Georgian Institute of Public Affairs (GIPA). Prior to teaching in Georgia, between1999 and 2001 Dr. Zurabishvili served as a junior researcher for Yale University's Poverty, Ethnicity and Gender in Eastern Europe during Market Transition project. Dr. Zurabishvili also worked for five years as a sociologist at the Russian Center for Public Opinion and Market Research (now the Levada Center), where she worked on the Russian Public Opinion Monitor.
 
Tamuna Khoshtaria is a research associate at CRRC. She holds a BA and MA in Social Sciences from Tbilisi State University. During her MA study she was awarded a scholarship to study at Humboldt University in Berlin, where she spent a year conducting qualitative research in family sociology.

W-i-P is an ongoing academic discussion series based in Tbilisi, Georgia, that takes place every Wednesday at the International School of Economics (ISET) building (16 Zandukeli Street). It is co-organized by CRRC and the American Councils for International Education: ACTR/ACCELS.
 
The purpose of the W-i-P series is to provide support and productive criticism to those researching and developing academic projects pertaining the Caucasus region.

For more information, please visit https://www.facebook.com/events/306278279394172/?notif_t=event_invite
 
This is the 10th talk of the Fall 2011 Works-in-Progress Series, co-sponsored by American Councils, the Caucasus Research Resource Centers (CRRC), and American Research Institute of the South Caucasus (ARISC).
 

WiP - "Results of a Language Status Experiment in Georgia"

Timothy Blauvelt
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
International School of Economics of Tbilisi (ISET)
CRRC Georgia
Zandukeli St. 16
Tbilisi, Georgia

This presentation will highlight the results of a “matched-guise” experiment in language status conducted on a large sample of young people in Tbilisi, Samtskhe-Javakheti and Kvemo Kartli in 2010. This experimental design isolates the cognitive mechanism of language status in the minds of the respondents, which makes it an ideal technology for studying the status of various languages in contemporary Georgia as well as the incentives and costs for assimilation of minorities into the Georgian majority. This project was partially funded by CRRC.

Timothy Blauvelt has a PhD in Political Science from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and has been working in the region for more than a decade. He has been Country Director in Georgia for American Councils since 2003, and is Associate Professor of Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies at Ilia State University. He was a Visiting Fulbright Professor in Georgia in 2002-3, and in 2006-2011 he lectured on Soviet political history at Tbilisi State University. He has published numerous articles on Soviet politics, clientalism, nationality policy, and ethnic mobilization in Europe-Asia Studies, Communist and Post-Communist Studies, Kritika, War & Society, and Nationalities Papers.

W-i-P is an ongoing academic discussion series based in Tbilisi, Georgia, that takes place every Wednesday at the International School of Economics (ISET) building (16 Zandukeli Street). It is co-organized by CRRC, the American Councils for International Education: ACTR/ACCELS and the American Research Institute of the South Caucasus (ARISC).

The purpose of the W-i-P series is to provide support and productive criticism to those researching and developing academic projects pertaining the Caucasus region.

For more information, please see https://www.facebook.com/events/156665297767326/

This is the 9th talk of the Fall 2011 Works-in-Progress Series, co-sponsored by American Councils, the Caucasus Research Resource Centers (CRRC), and American Research Institute of the South Caucasus (ARISC).

Lecture: Uncovering the 1956 Georgian Protests and Their Memory

Melissa F. Gayan
Ph.D. Candidate in History, Emory University
ARISC Fellow

Wednesday, August 3, 2011 at 5:00pm

Ilia University
Austrian Library
3/5 Cholokashvili Str. room H105
Tbilisi, Georgia

This presentation introduces Ms. Gayan's dissertation project which examines Georgian reaction to Khrushchev's February 1956 "Secret Speech."  The project focuses on the multi-leveled contested cultural nature of national identity in the Soviet Union.  She will place this event in the current historiography, speak about methodology and source problems, and explain why this topic is still relevant to scholarship.  Finally she will share how her project has turned to questions of how these events have been remembered or forgotten.

Melissa Gayan is a history Ph.D. candidate at Emory University specializing in Russia and the former Soviet Union with a focus on the Caucasus.  Ms. Gayan's dissertation topic is on the 1956 Georgian pro-Stalinist, anti-Soviet protests which took place after Nikita Khrushchev's February 1956 "Secret Speech."  She also holds a Master's Degree in History from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte where her thesis examined Russian influence in Georgia during the first ten years after the collapse of the Soviet Union.  Ms. Gayan has been a teacher for many years in both public schools, institutes, and universities.  She lives outside of Atlanta, Georgia with her husband, cat, and two dogs.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=180015715399090
www.arisc.org

This talk is co-sponsored by the American Research Institute of the South Caucasus, Ilia University, and also made possible by a Russian and East European Studies Graduate Travel Grant from Emory University.
 

Cohesion and Coercion in the Ruling Parties of Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan

Eli Feiman, PhD candidate at Brown University
ARISC Fellow



Thursday, 30 June, 2011 at 18.00

Ilia University

Austrian Library
3/4 Cholokashvili str.
Auditorium H105
Tbilisi, Georgia

This talk will address the formation, growth, and in some cases collapse of the ruling political parties of Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. By examining cohesion among party elites and by examining the various other tools which parties use, he will present the different trajectories of the parties over the past 20 years. His dissertation addresses the issues of democratization and the consolidation of political institutions, and examines these topics in the South Caucasus where these processes are still underway. This talk draws from interviews with political actors, election returns, internal party documents, and archival research.

Eli Feiman is a Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Political Science at Brown University. He is currently an ARISC Graduate Fellow in Georgia and is conducting field research for a dissertation on political party development in the South Caucasus. He received an MA in Political Science from Brown University (2008) and holds a BA in Slavic Languages and Literature from Yale University (2002). He research interests include the formation and consolidation of political institutions, patronage and clientelism, informal politics, and durable authoritarianism.

This talk is co-sponsored by the American Research Institute of the South Caucasus (ARISC) and Ilia University.

For more information or to RSVP, please visit https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=225526637472503
 

Bridging Two Continents: Archaeology at Samtavro in the Central Caucasus

Antonio (Tony) Sagona
University of Melbourne

21 June 2011 at 19:00

Ilia University
32, Chavchavadze Ave.
101 Auditorium
Tbilisi, Georgia

The talk will provide an overview of three years of renewed excavations(2008-2010) at the important cemetery site of Samtavro in central Georgia.  A collaborative Project between the Georgian National Museum and the University of Melbourne, the excavations have provided new and intriguing information for the period between 100 BC and AD 500.  The talk will present a range of evidence from a diversity of mortuary practices through social customs to tantalizing hints of possible connections with Europe at the end of the Roman Empire.

Antonio Sagona is a professor of Archaeology at the University of Melbourne.  His research interests have centered on ancient Turkey and the Caucasus.  He is an elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities and an elected Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, London.  His latest book, co-authored with Paul Zimansky, is Ancient Turkey, A Survey from the Earliest Settlements to the End of the Iron Age.

This talk is co-sponsored by the American Research Institute of the South Caucasus (ARISC), Ilia University, the Georgian National Museum, the University of Melbourne and the Australian Research Council.

For more information and to RSVP, please visit https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=208766215826668

Pencils and Erasers: Harmonizing Georgian Chant in the Early 20th Century

John A. Graham (Princeton University Graduate School)
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
6:00pm - 7:30pm

ISET Lecture Hall
Zandukeli St. 16
Tbilisi, Georgia

Faced with the task of organizing thousands of rough-draft chant transcriptions, three monks labored diligently during the period 1912-1915 to harmonize unfinished chants. It is well known that Ekvtime Kereselidze commissioned master-chanter Razhden Khundadze to harmonize more than one thousand chant melodies, but recent research on three manuscripts (National Centre of Manuscripts Q687, Q688, Q689) reveals that his harmonizations were later erased and rewritten. Stylistic differences point to a mysterious third chanter who contributed significantly to the way chant is harmonized and performed today.


For more information, and to RSVP, please visit https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=141915102540904&index=1

********

WiP is an ongoing academic discussion series based in Tbilisi, Georgia, that takes place every Wednesday at the International School of Economics (ISET) building (16 Zandukeli Street).

The purpose of the Works-in-Progress series is to provide support and productive criticism to those researching and developing academic projects pertaining to Georgia and the Caucasus region.

The talk is being co-sponsored by the Caucasus Research Resource Centers (CRRC), American Councils for International Education, and the American Research Institute of the South Caucasus (ARISC).
 

Nineteenth-Century City of Colonial Convergence: The Role of Tiflis in the Development of an Azerbaijani Intelligentsia

Aimee Dobbs, PhD (Indiana University, ARISC Fellow)
 
Thursday, July 29, 2010
17:30 – 18:30 
ISET building (CRRC)
Zandukeli 16
Tbilisi, Georgia

This presentation focuses on the role of Tbilisi and its surrounds in fostering the development of an Azerbaijani intelligentsia in the mid-late nineteenth century. Of particular focus are the institutions of cultural production; the colonial-administrative apparatus, Imperial schools (specifically Gori Teachers’ Seminary), printing presses, and philanthropic societies that generated spaces for cultural and intellectual development among immigrant Azerbaijanis. Whether by direct participation in or observation of these institutions, through their experiences these men cultivated state-dependent social and cultural capital that came to challenge traditional Azerbaijani circles of power. This newly-emerging Azerbaijani elite eventually endeavored to use its new position as a liaison between the state and the local Muslim population as a method by which to claim the right to lead the modernization campaign, thereby redefining local educational, social, and cultural values. Thus an understanding of Tbilisi ’s influence upon the Azerbaijani intelligentsia aids my overall dissertation research by providing a point of genesis from which they came to understand themselves as the heart of the modernization campaign and the Russian Imperial state as a lever of transformation.
 
Aimee Dobbs is a PhD Candidate from Indiana University Department of History and an ARISC Fellow. Her research is on nineteenth-century Russian Imperial educational efforts and local Azerbaijani responses from 1862 to 1890. This summer she has been researching in Tbilisi, Georgia on a grant from the American Research Institute of the South Caucasus . Last year she spent her time researching in Baku , Azerbaijan on a Fulbright-Hays grant. Ms. Dobbs’s primary research interests include education policies and the establishment of non-Russian schools in late imperial Russia , colonial relationships, and the formation of nationalism among the Russian empire's Muslim groups.
 

Terroir  -izing Land: Property, Value, and Wine in Georgia

Adam Walker, PhD (City University of New York)
 
Thursday, July 1, 2010
17:30 – 18:30
ISET building (CRRC)
Zandukeli 16
Tbilisi, Georgia
 
Adam Walker will be presenting his PhD research: The question of the eventual success of the Georgian wine industry on the international wine market is the subject of intense scrutiny among a variety of state, private, and development interests within Georgia, a focus which has, since privatization, considerably narrowed the scope of rural interventions.  This focus on wine is understandable since, aside from its status as a privileged export commodity, wine is a beverage that has wide-ranging symbolic and political importance in Georgia.  As an essential requirement in toasting during the supra, wine operates as a complex symbol that mediates conflicting ideologies of consumption, idealized forms of sociality, and claims to nation and “tradition.”

Yet the particularities of decollectivization and privatization of land and wineries have produced a disjuncture between the interests of large-scale producers and re-traditionalized, land-holding farmers.  This paper is an attempt to articulate how the increasing economic and social inequality that is part and parcel of the neoliberalizing postsocialist Georgian landscape can be analyzed by foregrounding the contestation over the meaning and value of wine and its intersection with claims over property and terroir.  In particular, the push to integrate Georgian wine production into an international marketplace by a matrix of state, private, and international-development interests is accompanied by a range of techniques which, in the name of the “protection of Georgian wine appellations,” may increasingly reconfigure the bases on which the construction and consolidation of value can take place, and claims by rural populations for state-intervention can be legitimized.
 
This presentation is sponsored by the American Research Institute of the South Caucasus (ARISC) and the Caucasus Research Resource Centers (CRRC).
 

“Gender, Family and Migration in Georgia: Exploring household dynamics and migration decisions”

Erin Hofmann, Ph.D. candidate (University of Texas - Austin)

Wednesday, June 16, 2010
5:30 - 6:30pm
ISET building (CRRC)
Zandukeli 16
Tbilisi, Georgia

In this WiP, Erin Hofmann will present her Ph.D. project, which focuses on gender differences in the motivations for labor migration from Georgia. In this mixed methods project, she will use a combination of statistical analysis and in-depth interviews to explain the socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of male and female migrants from Georgia, and explore the role of gender norms and family structures in explaining differences between male and female migration. Georgia is unusual among migrant-sending countries due to its high levels of both male and female migration, and the extreme diversity of destination countries where Georgian migrants can be found. The issue of migration from Georgia has received little attention outside the country, despite its potential to enrich our theories of gender and migration.

The presentation will focus on the theoretical background of the research, the challenges of conducting migration research in Georgia, the potential benefits of combining survey data and interviews, and methods for exploring migration as a household decision.

This series is being co-sponsored by the Caucasus Research Resource Centers (CRRC), American Councils for International Education, and the American Research Institute of the South Caucasus (ARISC). For more information, please see http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/event.php?eid=114857051891681&index=1

“On the Question How to do Study Dynamics of Violence in the South Ossetian Conflict: Patterns, Practices, Mechanisms”

Lara Sigwart, Ph.D researcher

Wednesday, June 9, 2010
5:30 - 6:30pm
ISET building (CRRC)
Zandukeli 16
Tbilisi, Georgia

In this WiP, Lara Sigwart will be presenting her PhD project, which studies dynamics of violence in the South Ossetian conflict from 1989 to 2008. In her project, she hypothesizes that practices of state actors in the context of the conflict relate to their power-consolidating ambitions and, in this way, will help to explain how violence came to escalate at certain points in time, and not at others. Considering this, structures such as Russian and Western policies, internal power shifts, economic incentives and political talks factor into the transitions between the respective phases of violence.

The presentation will focus on the turning points in the process of violence after 1989, shedding light on the working hypotheses the project deals with. The presentation will then turn to the methodical problems the project faces at its current state, such as how to gather the data, how to use the data, and answers to be obtained from the data.

This series is being co-sponsored by the Caucasus Research Resource Centers (CRRC), American Councils for International Education, and the American Research Institute of the South Caucasus (ARISC). For more information, please see http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=121904041179636

"Youth Culture in Modern Georgia - A Case of Westernization or Invention of a New Tradition?"

Dr. Lika Tsuladze

Wednesday, June 2, 2010
5:30 - 6:30pm
ISET building (CRRC)
Zandukeli 16
Tbilisi, Georgia

In this WiP, Lika Tsuladze will be presenting her current research, which seeks to find out how youth identities are constructed through bricolage in modern Georgia. The main method of her research is discourse analysis. In a unique way, Tsuladze has invloved her students as co-researchers in her research in order to analyze the youth culture seen from the perspective of youth themselves.

This series is being co-sponsored by the Caucasus Research Resource Centers (CRRC), American Councils for International Education, and the American Research Institute of the South Caucasus (ARISC). For more information, please see http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=121108607925798

"Small Scale Monitoring of IDPs: the Art of the Possible"

Mr. David Jijelava

Wednesday, May 19, 2010
5:30 - 6:30pm
ISET building (CRRC)
Zandukeli 16
Tbilisi, Georgia

In this WiP, David Jijelava will discuss a project he just finished which involved a brief analysis of donor development projects going on in new settlements. He is currently trying to design another project to continue this analysis. He is hoping to discuss this research and gain insights from attendees about what one can realistically achieve in small scale monitoring of this kind.

This series is being co-sponsored by the Caucasus Research Resource Centers (CRRC), American Councils for International Education, and the American Research Institute of the South Caucasus (ARISC). For more information, please see http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/event.php?eid=124649877561998&index=1

"'Party' or 'Tusovka': A Questionnaire on the Changing Roles of English and Russian in Georgia"

John King

Wednesday, May 12, 2010
5:30 - 6:30pm
ISET building (CRRC)
Zandukeli 16
Tbilisi, Georgia

This series is being co-sponsored by the Caucasus Research Resource Centers (CRRC), American Councils for International Education, and the American Research Institute of the South Caucasus (ARISC). For more information, please see http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=124011424277647

"On Nationalism and Abkhazia: Theoretically speaking, of course"

William Sadd

Wednesday, May 5, 2010
5:30 - 6:30pm
ISET building (CRRC)
Zandukeli 16
Tbilisi, Georgia

In this WiP, William Sadd will outline the different theoretical approaches to studying nationalism more generally, and will explore what use, if any, the 'historical ethno-symbolist' approach can serve in understanding nationalism in Abkhazia at the end of the Soviet Era. This is a proposal, and is still in early stages of development.

This series is being co-sponsored by the Caucasus Research Resource Centers (CRRC), American Councils for International Education, and the American Research Institute of the South Caucasus (ARISC). For more information, please see http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=107234725986149

"Studying Community Safety in a Post-Conflict Scenario"

Dr. Hans Gutbrod, Mr. David Wood, and Mr. Giorgi Babunashvili

Wednesday, April 28, 2010
6:00 - 7:00pm
ISET building (CRRC)
Zandukeli 16
Tbilisi, Georgia

This talk is part of the Works-in-Progress (WiP) series.  How do we get at community safety in a post-conflict scenario? How do we use focus groups to plan for a survey? This workshop will introduce a draft questionnaire that is being designed for a survey in May 2010.

Registered participants will receive access to the questionnaire, which we will be discussing in detail. The workshop will be introduced by Hans Gutbrod, and co-moderated by David Wood from Saferworld (who has done similar work in Moldova, Macedonia and other locations) and Giorgi Babunashvili from CRRC.

This will be a great session for learning about the nuances of questionnaire development.

This series is being co-sponsored by the Caucasus Research Resource Centers (CRRC), American Councils for International Education, and the American Research Institute of the South Caucasus (ARISC). For more information, please see http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=113255745376026#!/event.php?eid=113255745376026

"Difference in Attitudes towards Political Participation of Azeris in Azerbaijan and Georgia"

Joshua Noonan (Fulbright fellow, Azerbaijan and Georgia)

Wednesday, April 21, 2010
5:30 - 6:30pm
ISET building (CRRC)
Zandukeli 16
Tbilisi, Georgia

This talk is part of the Works-in-Progress (WiP) series.  Mr. Noonan’s topic concerns the comparison of the attitudes towards political participation for Azerbaijani minorities in Georgia and those attitudes of Azerbaijanis in Azerbaijan in order to find if and why these attitudes are divergent.

This series is being co-sponsored by the Caucasus Research Resource Centers (CRRC), American Councils for International Education, and the American Research Institute of the South Caucasus (ARISC). For more information, please see http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=119623688047744

"Complexity of the Caucasus"

Sarah Slye

Wednesday, April 14, 2010
5:30pm
ISET building (CRRC)
Zandukeli 16
Tbilisi, Georgia

Undertaking academic research on the Caucasus in the Caucasus can be quite a challenge. It is a region usually overlooked not only because of its status as a borderland but also due to its complexity. Simply put most people can't handle it and don't get it. That's why, back in the USA, there are so few mentors for students interested in the region. I will discuss several strategies for overcoming this handicap and emerging victorious.

This talk is part of the Works-in-Progress (WiP) series.  The purpose of this series is twofold:• To provide support and productive criticism to those researching and developing academic projects pertaining to Georgia and the Caucasus region, and• To engage the vibrant academic community living in Tbilisi, and local residents, with a more consistent level of discourse, discussion, and debate in consideration of the most curious matters concerning Georgia and its neighbors.

This series is being co-sponsored by the Caucasus Research Resource Centers (CRRC), American Councils for International Education, and the American Research Institute of the South Caucasus (ARISC). For more information, please see http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=115967025081892

"Neither Empire Nor Nation: Networks of Trade in the Caucasus, 1750-1925"

Megan Dean, Ph.D. candidate (Stanford University)

Wednesday, March 31, 2010
5:30pm
ISET building (CRRC)
Zandukeli 16
Tbilisi, Georgia

Megan Dean will be presenting her ongoing research, "Neither Empire Nor Nation: Networks of Trade in the Caucasus, 1750-1925" at Tbilisi's Caucasus Research Resources Center (CRRC) on March 31st at 5:30 pm. Her work probes the limits of identity politics, state control and violence and explores how basic economic exchanges and cultural interactions unfolded in daily life in the Caucasus, a frontier zone of multiple empires.  A 2010 recipient of the American Research Institute of the South Caucasus (ARISC) Graduate Fellowship for her research at the National Archives of Georgia, she is also a Ph.D. Candidate in history at Stanford University in California.

"Georgian Dialectology and Language Contact in the Caucasus: Two Case Studies"

Thomas Wier, Ph.D candidate (University of Chicago)

Wednesday, March 24, 2010
5:30 - 6:30pm
ISET building (CRRC)
Zandukeli 16
Tbilisi, Georgia

This talk is part of the Works-in-Progress (WiP) series.  The purpose of this series is twofold:• To provide support and productive criticism to those researching and developing academic projects pertaining to Georgia and the Caucasus region, and• To engage the vibrant academic community living in Tbilisi, and local residents, with a more consistent level of discourse, discussion, and debate in consideration of the most curious matters concerning Georgia and its neighbors.

This series is being co-sponsored by the Caucasus Research Resource Centers (CRRC), American Councils for International Education, and the American Research Institute of the South Caucasus (ARISC). For more information, please see http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=372225542025&index=1

"How do Foreigners Learn Georgian? Results from a Small Expatriate Census"

Dr. Hans Gutbrod and Mr. Malte Viefhues

Wednesday, March 17, 2010
5:30pm - 6:30pm
ISET building (CRRC)
Zandukeli 16
Tbilisi, Georgia

This talk is part of the Works-in-Progress (WiP) series.  The purpose of this series is twofold:• To provide support and productive criticism to those researching and developing academic projects pertaining to Georgia and the Caucasus region, and• To engage the vibrant academic community living in Tbilisi, and local residents, with a more consistent level of discourse, discussion, and debate in consideration of the most curious matters concerning Georgia and its neighbors.

This series is being co-sponsored by the Caucasus Research Resource Centers (CRRC), American Councils for International Education, and the American Research Institute of the South Caucasus (ARISC). For more information, see http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=361900478567&index=1

“An Experiment in Language Status in Georgia”

Dr. Timothy Blauvelt (American Councils)

Wednesday, March 10, 2010
5:30pm - 6:30pm
ISET building (CRRC)
Zandukeli 16
Tbilisi, Georgia

This talk is part of the Works-in-Progress (WiP) series.  The purpose of this series is twofold:• To provide support and productive criticism to those researching and developing academic projects pertaining to Georgia and the Caucasus region, and• To engage the vibrant academic community living in Tbilisi, and local residents, with a more consistent level of discourse, discussion, and debate in consideration of the most curious matters concerning Georgia and its neighbors.

This series is being co-sponsored by the Caucasus Research Resource Centers (CRRC), American Councils for International Education, and the American Research Institute of the South Caucasus (ARISC). For more information, see http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=384087365080&ref=mf

USA:

Workshop: "Anthropologies of the South Caucasus"

Friday, April 9, 2010, 10am - 6pm
Room 1512, International Affairs Building
420 West 118th Street, New York, NY

A workshop sponsored by the Harriman Institute, Columbia University, and the American Research Institute of the South Caucasus.  Full program.  Workshop flyer.

For recent events, please see ARISC's Recent Programs page.