Tamar Lomadze defended PhD thesis

IMG_3287-2Congratulations to Tamar Lomadze on the successful defense of her PhD thesis. Tamar spent the period  August 2014 – February 2016 as an exchange PhD candidate  (Erasmus Mundus) at the Section for Caucasus Studies in Malmö.

podiumThe title of Tamar Lomadze’s thesis is: “Cognitive Aspects of Communicative Influence on Public Opinion.”

The dissertation was defended at the Department of Kartvelology and Sociolinguistics, School of Humanities of Saint Andrews Georgian University (Tbilisi, Georgia) on June 27.

TemurOpponent was Prof. Teimuraz Gvantseladze (photo to the right) and supervisor Prof. Manana Tabidze. Second supervisor was Prof. Karina Vamling (Malmö University).

The thesis was defended and passed with distinction by the decision of the dissertation committee.

 
PART TWO
tamadaOf course, this gave good reason and time to celebrate with Tamar and her colleagues, friends and family…

Prof. Tariel Putkaradze (standing, photo  to the left), was chairing the dissertation procedure and continued now in the capacity of tamada or toastmaster.

The new PhD. Tamar Lomadze (to the right) with her two proud supervisors Manana Tabidze (center) and Karina Vamling at the dissertation supra: allatre

At the end of the event, Tamar’s friend, Georgian-Swedish singer-song-writer Sabina Chantouria performed some of her songs.

Sabina

 

 

 

 

Research portrait of Märta-Lisa Magnusson

mlmThe Swedish newspaper Arvika Nyheter (2016-07-04) has published a portrait of  Märta-Lisa Magnusson, senior lecturer of Caucasus Studies at Malmö University, describing how her interest in Russia started and evolved, and how it later gradually shifted to also include the Caucasus. bocker

Currently she is one of the lecturers of the online courses in Caucasus Studies, offered at the Section for Caucasus Studies in Malmö. Photo: A selection of Märta-Lisa Magnusson’s many publications on Russia and the Caucasus (https://mah.academia.edu/MartaLisaMagnusson)

During the collapse of the Soviet Union she took an interest in the country’s minority groups.

– The Soviet Union was a multinational state. Russians were the largest group, of course, but 20 percent were not Russians. How did these peoples think and react to the ongoing processes at that time?

In that way Märta-Lisa found herself engaged in the Caucasus and became interested in Chechya, among other things. In the end of the 80s and beginning of the 90s together she undertook  fieldwork and organized study visits for researchers and journalists to the regions that were dominated by non-Russian population.

Read the whole article (in Swedish): http://nwt.se/arvika/2016/07/04/med-fokus-pa-ryssland?refresh=true

Photo by Anton Eriksson

 

Summer time and exchange PhD candidates

IMG_0771-2Summer has begun and this means saying goodbye to our exchange PhD candidates: Maka Tetradze (from Tbilisi State University; Erasmus Mundus program) and Natallia Paulovich (from Polish Academy of Sciences; Swedish Institute scholarship program).

Here we are gathered  on the rooftop garden of the faculty building Niagara. It has been great having you at the Section for Caucasus Studies!