Tamuna 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).
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.
Meeting at Malmö University for Caucasus Studies students and exchange students from Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. Head of department Teresa Tomasevic opens the meeting,
Welcome 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
Senior 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).
In the first number of Nordisk Østforum (2014) Bjørn Harvig’s book “Kaukasus og Kildevand. Historier fr en rejse til fods” (The Caucasus and Spring water. Stories from a journey by foot) is reviewed by Karina Vamling (pp. 83-85).
Available online at the Journal’s website, link.
Published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013.
“For a variety of political, climatic, ecological, security-related and other reasons, the Russian summer resort of Sochi by the Black Sea would seem a most unlikely candidate for the Olympic Winter Games. Despite this, the Games will be held there in February 2014, and the Russian leaders regard the Games as a highly prestigious project underlining Russia’s return to a status of great power in the contemporary world. This book conducts a thorough inventory of the contexts, characteristics and challenges facing the Sochi Games. It deals with the problems from Russian, Georgian, Abkhazian and Circassian perspectives and makes in-depth analyses of profound challenges related to matters such as identity, security, and ethnic relations. The book brings together an international group of eminent scholars representing different disciplinary perspectives, including political science, sports science, ethics, ethnology, and Caucasian studies.”
Karina Vamling is the co-editor together with Bo Petersson. Lars Funch Hansen and Revaz Tchantouria, both lecturers at Caucasus Studies, are the authors of two of the chapters.
Introduction
The Sochi Winter Olympics: Walking Tightrope?
– Bo Petersson and Karina Vamling
Part I: Olympic Perspectives
1 Snow, Ice, and Vertical Drops: What is Different about the Sochi Olympics?
– Raymond Taras
2 The Sochi Winter Games: Marketing and Sustainable Development—Or Neither Nor?
– Karin Book
3 Environmental Ethics and the Olympics: On the Reconstruction of Nature for Sport
– Kutte Jönsson
Part II: Identity Matters
4 Olympism and Empire: The Olympic Myth in the Contestation of the Caucasus
– Emil Persson
5 Sochi as a Site of Circassian Long-Distance Memorialisation
– Lars Funch Hansen
6 The Sympols of Sochi 2014: Searching for the Visual Signs of New Russian Political Identity
– Sergei Akopov and Vitalii Volkov
Part III: Internal Order and Security
7 Russia’s Olympic Discourses: Effects of Unification and Diversification
– Andrei Makarychev
8 Securitization in the North Caucasus on the Eve of the Sochi Games
– Uliana Hellberg
9 The Terrorist Threat Against Sochi 2014
– Jakob Hedenskog
Part IV: Caucasian Knots
10 Security of the Winter Olympics in Sochi from a Georgian Perspective
– Alexandre Kukhianidze
11 Abkhazia and the Preparations for the Sochi Games
– Revaz Tchantouria
12 Disputed Frontiers: Abkhazia in Russia’s Sochi 2014 Project
– Helena Rytövuouri-Apunen
Caucasus Studies at Malmö University invites you to take part in two web seminars on May 30 and 31. You are welcome to participate in the seminar room on campus in Malmö or to sign up as an online participant and follow the seminar on live video and chat (details below).
1. What makes the Caucasus an area?
May 30, 13.30-15.30, room 107, Citadellsvägen 7, Malmö University
2. Why does the Caucasus host so many separatist conflicts?
May 31, 10.15-12.00, room 408, Citadellsvägen 7, Malmö University
In the first seminar we will discuss our understanding of the Caucasus as an area — as an object of area studies. The Caucasus has a long tradition of being described as a geographic region, but what other perspectives determine this area: culture? geopolitics? history?
Invited speakers in the panel — representing diverse disciplines such as Linguistics/Anthropology, Political Science and History – approach the question: Prof. Kevin Tuite (Friedrich-Schiller University, Jena/Montreal University), Frederik Coene (EEAS, Brussels) and Dr. Oliver Reisner (Delegation of the EU to Georgia). Introduction: Prof. Karina Vamling, Malmö University.
The second seminar focuses on the striking development in Post-Soviet Caucasus of the outbreak of a number of violent separatist conflicts.
The issue is discussed by Prof. Pål Kolstø, Institute of East European and Oriental Studies, University of Oslo, and Dr. Märta-Lisa Magnusson, Dept. of IMER, Malmö University. Introduction: Prof. Bo Petersson, Malmö University.
Language, History and Cultural Identities in the Caucasus, Caucasus Studies 2, Vamling, Karina (ed.) is a new publication from Caucasus Studies at Malmö University.
Contents
Kevin Tuite: The Autocrat of the Banquet Table: the political and social significance of the
Georgian supra
Andrea Kuzmich: Continuity of a Tradition: A Survey of the Performance Practices of Traditional Polyphonic Songs in Tbilisi
Marine Beridze and Manana Kobaidze: An Attempt to Create an Ethnic Group: Identity Change Dynamics of Muslimized Meskhetians
Tinatin Bolkvadze: The Georgian Language and Cultural Identity in Old Georgia: An Examination of Some Conceptual Foundations
Manana Tabidze: The Modern Language Situation in Georgia: Issues Regarding the Linguistic Affiliation of the Population
Karina Vamling and Revaz Tchantouria: Language Use and Attitudes among Megrelians in Georgia
Rune Westerlund: The Present-day Situation of the Minority Ethno-Linguistic Peoples within the Avaric Region in the Republic of Dagestan
Ib Faurby: Human Rights, Terrorism, and the Destruction of Chechnya
Märta-Lisa Magnusson: Why No Settlement in the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict?
– Which are the obstacles to a negotiated solution?
Nino Amiridze: Discrepancies between Form and Meaning: Reanalyzing Wish Formulae
in Georgian
Kojima Yasuhiro: Two Types of Relative Clauses in Modern Georgian
Malmö University
3 december 2010 Workshop
A Sida-funded research workshop will be held at Caucasus Studies, Malmö University, on December 3, 13-17.30. The theme of the meeting is “What is role of Caucasian diasporas in the Caucasus region today?” The meeting will include three presentations on the Circassian (Lars Funch Hansen), Chechen (Helen Krag) and Georgian (Giorgi Mekhrishvili) diasporas.
7 May 2010 Caucasus Studies Seminar
The Georgian Dimension of the Eastern Partnership: A Deepening of the European Neighbourhood Policy or a Paradigm Shift?
Badri Kochoradze, Professor, Director of the Institute for European Studies,has extensive experience in international cooperation with a special focus onthe EU, project management and public administration. David Aptsiauri, professor, is a specialist in international economics and has a professional experience as former ambassador and deputy minister offoreign affairs of Georgia.
4 March 2010
“Caucasus Studies”established as a new field of study at the Department of International Migration and Ethnic Relations (IMER). Head of Department Jonas Alwall opens the seminar. The program at IMER on March 4 2010 includes a short presentation of Caucasus Studies and courses on offer, followed by a guest lecture by Ib Faurby (part 2), former chief advisor at the Royal Danish Defense College and a security policy expert with extensive experience of the Caucasus region
28-30 November 2008
The international conference Caucasus studies in the fields of Migration, Society, Language (conference page) is arranged at the Department of IMER, Malmö University
28 May, 2008
Preparatory workshop at IMER in for the November conference Caucasus Studies: Migration – Society – Language
14 mars 2008
Nani Chanishvili, Prof (Tbilisi State University) – Russian – Georgian relations. Current issues.
28 november, 2007
Kakhaber Loria, Ass. Prof (Tbilisi State University) – Den georgiska litteraturens historia och dess roll i skapandet av den georgiska nationella kulturella identiteten
22 november 2007
Kakhaber Loria, Ass. Prof (Tbilisi State University) – Den politiska situationen i postsovjetiska Kaukasus med särskild tonvikt på Georgien
At Other Institutions
20-21 October 2009
Participation in the International Conference on the Georgian language and modern technologies. Chikobava Institute of Linguistics, Tbilisi. Program, Abstracts.
May 27 2009
Presentation of the course Georgian online at Diaspora day, Tbilisi.
9-11 oktober 2008
– Participation in the II International Symposium in Iberian-Caucasian Linguistics: Legacy and Perspectives (dedicated to the 110th anniversary of Arnold Chikobava)
– Chairman of Relations with Compatriots Residing Abroad Committee and Group of MPs Meet the Multinational Delegation of Arnold Chikobava Jubilee Symposium
8-12 augusti 2008
Research visit to Georgia (Sida project)
Oktober 2007
Karina Vamling: Planeringsbesök på utvecklande av samarbete med Tbilisiuniversitetet inom ramen för Linneaus-Palme programmet
April 13-14 2007
Märta-Lisa Magnusson & Karina Vamling: Problems of The Georgian Literary Language, conference held at
The State Language Division of The Ministry of Education and Sciences
