Author: imkava

Project group meeting on Caucasian languages in DiACL

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14856014_1241615895895572_2524080238378967046_o-1Members of the team working on Caucasian languages in the database project  Diachronic Atlas of Comparative Linguistics (earlier called Lundic) had a working session at the Circassian Cultural Center in Tbilisi (not all members were present). The project is based at Linguistics, Lund University (Sweden). Project leader: Gerd Carling. More information about the project.
On the photo below: (from the left) Teimuraz Gvantseladze, Revaz Tchantouria, Karina Vamling, Merab Chukhua, Maka Tetradze. Tamuna Lomadze.

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Meeting with Rector of Tbilisi State University

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img_4206Rector of Tbilisi State University, Dr. Giorgi Sharvashidze (second from the right) met today with Prof. Karina Vamling (Caucasus Studies, Malmö University), Prof. Stephen Jones (to the left), Mount Holyoke College, and Prof. Alexandre Kukhianidze (to the right), Tbilisi State University. Topics during the meeting were research cooperation and staff & student exchange.

Informing about calls for MA and PhD scholarships

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14856028_1237731806283981_1315001442145557684_o-kopia-1At an information meeting about funding for study and research visits to Sweden for Georgian PhD Candidates and MA students – with prof Karina Vamling, Revaz Tchantouria (Malmö University) and prof Merab Chukhua (Circassian Cultural Centre, Tbilisi)

Programmes – Erasmus Mundus Ember, last additional call (https://emecw.gis.lu.se/info.aspx?oid=371042) and the Swedish Institute Visby Programme (https://eng.si.se/…/scholarships-and-grants/visby-programme/)

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Seminar: State and Society Building in Georgia

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img_3976Senior lecturer Märta-Lisa Magnusson, Caucasus Studies (Malmö University) delivered key points and concluding remarks by  at the Seminar on State and Society Building in Georgia: Context and Challenges in Copenhagen September 28.

The event was organized by: Europe Foundation (Georgia), link and The Danish Foreign Policy Society, Copenhagen, link

See the full Program.

Among the presenters were Dr. Anna Dolidze, Parliamentary Secretary of the President of Georgia, Prof. Daniel Tarschys, University of Stockholm and member of the Europe Foundation board, Erik Høeg (below to the left on the photo), Deputy Head of European Monitoring Mission (EUMM), David Lee, (to the right, below) President of Magticom and chairman of the board.collage_fotor

Several of the lecturers and exchange PhD Candidates from Caucasus Studies, Malmö University, attended the seminar (from the left on the photo below): Giorgi Omsarashvili, Elnur Aliyev, Katrine Gotfredsen, Märta-Lisa Magnusson, Karina Vamling, Tinatin Gvenetadze.

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Visit from the Swedish Institute

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img_1038-1Markus Boman and Madeleine Mattsson from the Swedish Institute visited the Section for Caucasus Studies (Malmö University) on September 20. Programme manager Markus Boman (to the right on the photo) gave a presentation about the Visby programme and interesting new developments in the coming year.

The programme includes a number of different types of scholarships (both to and from Sweden) for students, researchers and experts and targets the following countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Russia, and Ukraine.

New exchange PhD candidates

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Version 2We are happy to have three new exchange PhD candidates visiting the Section for Caucasus Studies, Malmö University, during the academic year 2016/2017. Elnur Aliyev‘s field of research is Dagestani linguistics and Giorgi Omsarashvili is working on modern Islam in the Caucasus (photo: Giorgi Omsarashvili to the left and Elnur Aliyev to the right). Version 2Agil Valiyev‘s area of interest is cultural diplomacy (photo to the right).

PhD candidate Tina Tskhovrebadze, Tbilisi State University, will spend her third semester in Malmö this fall. img_1964-version-2

Wishing all a fruitful research period in Sweden. The exchange visits are funded by the Erasmus Mundus programme.

New publication on mega events

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IMG_0861Professors Bo Petersson and Karina Vamling (Malmö University) are the authors of the chapter “Vanished in the Haze: White Elephants, Environmental Degradation and Circassian Marginalization in Post-Olympics Sochi” that recently appeared in a topical volume on mega-events in the series Mega Event Planning.

As the text on the cover states: “The edited volume explains why sport mega events can be discusssed from the viewpoint of politics and power, and what this discussion can add to the existing scholarship on political regimes, international norms, national identities, and cultural narratives.”IMG_0860

Editors of the book Megaevents in Post-Soviet Eurasia. Shifting Borderlines of Inclusion and Exclusion (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016) are Andrey Makarychev (Tartu University, Estonia) and Alexandra Yatsyk (Kazan University, Russia). More info about the book.

Tamar Lomadze defended PhD thesis

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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

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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