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

 

 

 

 

Participating in international seminar in Tbilisi

International Seminar on Russian and Caucasus Studies
Tbilisi State University, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, June 22, 2016
 
IMG_3216-211:00-11:10, Prof. Tamar Dolbaia, Dean of the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Georgia.
 
11:10-11:30, Prof. Bo Petersson (left). “Frail Grounds: Charismatic Legitimacy, Political Myth and the Specter of Regime Succession in Russia.” Malmo University, Sweden.
 
11:40-12:00, Prof. Alexandre Kukhianidze. “Russia after the USSR: From Professional to Political Organized Crime?” Tbilisi State University, Georgia.
 
12:10-12:30, Prof. Stephen Jones. Georgia, Russia, and the Limitations of Geography.” Mount Holyoke College, USA.13528712_10205052246580774_6605778065253521837_n

12:40-13:00, Prof. Korneli Kakachia. “South Caucasus: Between Russia and the West.” Tbilisi State University, Georgia.

13:10-13:30, Prof. Karina Vamling (right). “On RUCARR initiative.” Malmo University, Sweden.

 

Oslo’s Caucasological traditions

IMG_0591 - version 2Maka Tetradze, PhD Candidate at Chikobava Institute of Linguistics and visiting researcher at Malmö University,  and Prof. Karina Vamling (Malmö University) have visited archives in Oslo, an active center for research on the languages of the Caucasus in the mid 1920s up to the beginning of the 1980s. For several decades the Institute for Comparative Research in Human Culture in Oslo hosted a programme on Caucasology. The most prominent researchers were prof. Hans Vogt (1903-1986), Alf Sommerfelt (1892-1965) and later Fridrik Thordarson (1928-2005), who were also working at Oslo University. Prof. Hans Vogt is most known as the author of “Dictionnaire de la langue oubykh” (1963) and “Grammaire de la langue géorgienne” (1971), whereas Prof. Alf Sommerfelt focused on North-East Caucasian Languages and Fridrik Thordarson devoted most of his research to Ossetic.

Women’s position in the context of sociocultural changes in Western Georgia

IMG_0445Natallia Paulovich, PhD candidate at the Polish Academy of Sciences, presents her dissertation work:

Women’s position in the context of sociocultural changes in Western Georgia. Perspective of the anthropology of food.

Natallia is currently on a research visit to Caucasus Studies at Malmö University, funded by a scholarship from the Swedish Institute.

Special issue of “Sport in Society” on developments in Sochi and Russia after 2014

spinsoc (1)The journal Sport in Society. Cultures, Commerce, Media, Politics has recently published the special issue When the party is over: developments in Sochi and Russia after the Olympics 2014, edited by Bo Petersson (Malmö University), Karina Vamling (Malmö University) and Alexandra Yatsyk (Kazan Federal University).

Contributions include:

  • Andrey Makarychev and Alexandra Yatsyk: From Sochi – 2014 to FIFA – 2018: A Fading Sovereignty?
  • Bo Petersson and Karina Vamling: Fifteen Minutes of Fame Long Gone: Circassian Activism before and after the Sochi Olympics
  • Jonathan Grix and Nina Kramareva: The Sochi Winter Olympics and Russia’s Unique Soft Power Strategy
  • Johan Ekberg and Michael Strange: What Happened to the Protests? – The Surprising Lack of Visible Dissent During the Sochi Winter Olympics
  • Ray Taras: Putin’s Sochi Hubris: Righting the Ship of Sport, Wronging the Ship of State?

New publication on iCircassia

coverLars Funch Hansen, senior lecturer at Caucasus Studies, has recently published the article iCircassia digital capitalism and new transnational identities in the first volume of the new Journal of Caucasian Studies.

What is iCircassia? As Lars Funch Hansen sees it “The significantly increased production of Circassian content on the Internet could be labelled as a form of virtual re-territorialisation of Circassia – especially considering the strong focus on identity and history. I apply the label ‘iCircassia’ as an addition to the classical understanding of the Circassian World as consisting of Circassians of the homeland and the diaspora.”

More information at: http://www.jocas.net/index.php/jocasen/article/view/4

Third Caucasus-related PhD defense in Copenhagen in 3 years

Congratulations to Dr. Tamta Khalvashi, who has successfully defended her PhD dissertation at the Department of Anthropology, Copenhagen University (September 11, 2015). The title of the thesis is Peripheral Affects. Shame, Publics, and Performance on the Margins of the Republic of Georgia.

IMG_0204This was the third Caucasus-related doctoral dissertation in Copenhagen in three years, and we are very happy to note this growing competence and interest around the Caucasus in the Øresund region.

Dr. Katrine Gotfredsen (to the left) congratulates Tamta Khalvashi after the defense act.

 

Seminar on cultural vocabulary in Lezgian

A post-workshop seminar was held on May 12, where Maka Tetradze, IMG_0510Erasmus Mundus exchange PhD
Candidate, and Prof. Nadezda Alipulatova, Faculty of Foreign Languages Dagestan State Pedagogical University, Makhachkala, Russian Federation, discussed their findings and observations on cultural vocabulary in Lezgian. Prof. Alipulatova was invited as an expert on Lezgian and guest researcher by the Lundic project – Lund Atlas of Language and Culture.

Article on Georgia in “Ethnographie of Grey Zones in Eastern Europe”

PhD Katrine Gotfredsen, senior lecturer in Caucasus Studies (Malmö University) is one of the contributors in katrinethe new publication Ethnographie of Grey Zones in Eastern Europe. Relations, Borders and Invisibilities (Anthem Press 2015), edited by Ida Harboe Knudsen and Martin Demant Frederiksen. Her contrition is entitled: “Invisible Connections: On Uncertainty and the (Re)production of Opaque Politics in the Republic of Georgia”.

Read more about the publication: http://www.anthempress.com/ethnographies-of-grey-zones-in-eastern-europe-pb