Month: September 2014

Alphabet Shift in the Caucasus: Motivations and Implications

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Prof. Zaal Kikvidze, Chikobava Institute, Tbilisi State University (Georgia): Alphabet Shift in the Caucasus: Motivations and Implications. Visiting lecturer Aytan f7Sadigova, Azerbaijan Technical University, Baku (Azerbaijan), discusses Alphabet shifts in Azerbaijan.

When? October 1, 16.00–ca 17.30.
Where? Kranen studio

Participation online
You will be able to follow the seminar on video at the course site. Join us on skype caucasusstudies, where you will be able to pose questions to the lecturers.

Participation on campusazeri
Students and staff in Malmö/Lund are welcome to attend the web seminar at Malmö University campus. We will meet at the entrance to “Kranen” at 15.45 and go to the studio together.

How to get there: Walk from the Central station or take bus no 5 (stop Ubåtshallen, 5 stops from the railway station).

 

 

 

 

Map: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Östra+Varvsgatan,+Malmö,+Sweden/@55.615436,12.9843924,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x4653a405f533c13b:0x6854890c07ff54c6

 

Caucasus academics gather in Malmö

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News article at Malmö University Web

EDUCATION. The field of Caucasus studies is growing stronger at Malmö University. A new course with case and field studies is introduced, and the university has been playing host to three visiting experts specialising in Caucasus.

The trio are made up of Georgian professors Alexandre Kukhianidze and Zaal Kikvidze who have been joined by Aytan Sadigova, a lecturer from Azerbaijan. Getting the three together is quite a feat as the courses themselves are taught completely online.

“As our courses are multi-disciplinary covering politics, culture and history it is very important for us to have strong contacts with scholars from the region. For area studies and to establish connections for field work then it is vital,” says Karina Vamling, Professor of Caucasus Studies, at the Faculty of Culture and Society at Malmö University.

Read the whole story:

http://www.mah.se/english/News/News-2014/Meeting-of-minds-as-Caucasus-academics-gather-in-Malmo/

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Visiting professor Alexandre Kukhianidze

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Websem11

Alexandre Kukhianidze is professor in political science of Tbilisi State University, Georgia. His visit to Malmö University and Caucasus Studies at the Faculty of Culture and Society is funded by a Linneaus-Palme grant.

Professor Kukhianidze has been a frequest visitor to Caucasus Studies in Malmö and this time he stays for three weeks (September 1–23).

During his visit he has given the web/campus seminar: Georgia after the Soviet collapse. What is Georgia today?

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Void Pasts and Marginal Presents

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New publication in Slavic Review. Interdisciplinary Quarterly of Russian, Eurasian, and East European Studies. (73, 2)

Katrine Bendtsen Gotfredsen: Void Pasts and Marginal Presents: On Nostalgia and Obsolete Futures in the Republic of Georgia

Abstract

In contemporary Georgia and beyond, nostalgia for the Soviet past is often ridiculed and dismissed as a reactionary wish to turn back time. In this article, however, I explore generational nostalgia as temporal displacement of present political struggles. Drawing on life story interviews with middle-aged and elderly people in the provincial town of Gori, I argue that nostalgic longings may be understood as active attempts to presence personal pasts and futures that have publicly been rendered absent by an official rhetoric and practice that explicitly rejects the Soviet past. From this perspective, post-Soviet generational nostalgia temporally connects several dimensions of absence: the experience of one’s personal past being publicly cast as void; a perceived lack of social security, influence, and significance in the present; and a dynamic whereby these two dimensions render former dreams and visions for the future obsolete.

http://www.slavicreview.illinois.edu/current/abstracts732/index.html#gotfredsen

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Exchange PhD candidate Tamuna Lomadze

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TamunaTamuna Lomadze is exchange PhD candidate within the Erasmus Mundus Eminence program. Her area of studies is sociolinguistics and the topic of her thesis is “Cognitive Aspects of Communicative Influence on Public Opinion”.

Tamuna is visiting Malmö University for 18 months during the academic years 2014/2015 and 2015/2016. Her home institution is the Department of Kartvelology and Sociolinguistics, School of Humanities of Saint Andrews Georgian University, Tbilisi, Georgia (link).

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Exchange PhD candidate Maka Tetradze

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Maka Tetradze is exchange PhD candidate within the Erasmus Mundus program. She is visiting Malmö University and Caucasus Studies for the two academic years 2013/2014 and 2014/2015. She is working on a dissertation on the Lezgian language (Dagestan, Northest Caucasian languages).

Her home institution is Tbilisi State University and the Chikobava Institute of Linguistics.

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Georgia after the Soviet collapse

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Websem11Welcome to a web and campus seminar with Visiting professor Alexandre Kukhianidze, Professor of Political Science at Tbilisi State University, followed by discussion on Skype and in the studio:
Georgia after the Soviet collapse. What is Georgia today?

Participation: Online or campus.
When? September 10, 16.30–ca 18.00.
Where? Online (www.mah.se/imer/caucasusstudies) or Malmö University campus studio​ at Kranen
Open to staff and students

More information: 

 

 

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De-facto Entities In the Post-Soviet Space: Dynamics and Prospects

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defactoSenior lecturer Märta-Lisa Magnusson participates in the conference “De-facto Entities in the Post-Soviet Space: Dynamics and Prospects” (September 4-5, 2014) as an invited speaker. The title of her paper is De-facto States in the Context of the Current International Law and International Politics.

The conference is organized by Academic Swiss Caucasus Net, University of Fribourg, Switzerland) and Caucasus Institute, Yerevan, Armenia).

  • Conference program: link
  • Summaries and comments (in Russian): link
  • More information: link