Visit to Yerevan State University

In the framework of the SI project “New Horizons of Internationalization” a group from Malmö University visited Yerevan State University, together with partners from the universities from Batumi, Odessa and Balti – summing up the year’s work on how to strengthen and find new approaches to internationalization in education and research. Project leader Dr. Tom Nilsson, Dept. of GPS.

Seminar on May 7 with Guranda Bursulaia

Silence as a Narrator: The Case of the Georgian History Textbooks

Guranda Bursulaia, PhD Candidate at Free University in Tbilisi (Georgia) and Swedish Institute visiting researcher at Caucasus Studies, Malmö University, will give the presentation: “Silence as a Narrator: The Case of the Georgian History Textbooks” at the Caucasus Studies web & campus seminar on May 7.

Welcome!

Where: Glocal Classroom C0502 (http://bit.ly/2UKX1fg), 5th floor, Niagara Building. Please, write to caucasus.studies@mau.se in case you are interested in following the seminar online.
When: 15.15–17.00, May 7.

The seminar is about the construction of collective memory about the 1992-1993 war in Abkhazia in the Georgian school history textbooks. Guranda will discuss the transformation of the textbooks throughout the last 25 years marked with major political and social changes in the country. Besides, silencing, as an instrument of major narrative formation, and masterminds behind it will be analyzed using the example of the Georgian textbooks.

 

 

International Dialogue and Protecting Cultural Heritage in the Caucasus

Thank you to all participants at the conference ‘Promoting International Dialogue and Protecting Cultural Heritage in the Caucasus’ December 5-6 at the research platform Russia and the Caucasus Regional Research (RUCARR), Malmö University. It has been two days of most interesting presentations and engaging discussions and comments with participants from all parts of the Caucasus! And many thanks to the Swedish Institute for making this event possible.

Programme

Video clip

Conference in Nalchik for Prof. Mukhadin A. Kumakhov

The memorial conference “Caucasian Philology – Perspectives and History” was organised in Nalchik on October 19 on the occasion of Prof. M.A. Kumakhov’s 90th birthday. So many former colleagues and friends gathered at the meeting organized by the Institute of Studies in the Humanities at the Research Center of Kabardino-Balkaria, Russian Academy of Sciences. Prof. Kumakhov was originally from Nalchik but worked most of his professional career at the Institute of Linguistics at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow and was an associate of the Institute in Nalchik and supervisor of many members of its staff.

The conference was attended by many presenters from Kabardino-Balkaria but also Adygeya, Karachaevo-Cherkessia, Abkhazia and others. The conference was opened by Director Kasbolat Dzamikhov and Prof Boris Bizhoev. Prof. Karina Vamling, Malmö University, who had a close and fruitful collaboration with Prof. Kumakhov during many years, gave the prenary presentation О зарубежной научной деятельности профессора Мухадина А. Кумахова (Professor M.A. Kumakhov’s academic visits and work abroad).

 

Visit to the University of Kabardino-Balkaria

University of Kabardino-Balkaria (KBSU) is one of the major universities in Russian North Caucasus and the State University of the Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria.

Prof. Karina Vamling, Malmö University, had meetings with Rector of KBSU, Professor Yuri K. Altudov and colleagues at the Department of Kabardian language and literature. She visited the sections for language and culture of the three main ethnic groups of the Republic – the Kabardians, Balkars and Russians. At the Kabardian section Prof. Madina Ezaova showed a Kabardian ethnographic exhibition prepared by the students. The final meeting during the visit to KBSU was with students of Kabardian Philology, including a musical performance of Kabardian songs and a declamation in Kabardian.

Take a virtual tour of the https://eng.kbsu.ru/3d-tour-virtual-tour/

Caucasus Studies at Frankfurt Book Fair

New publication – Basque–Georgian-Russian Dictionary

Congratulations to Dr. Revaz Tchantouria, Caucasus Studies at Malmö University, who has published a Basque–Georgian-Russian Dictionary. The book was on display at the Frankfurt Book Fair October 11-14, 2018, in a series of dictionaries published by Saba Publishers, Tbilisi. The Basque-Georgian-Russian Dictionary is edited by Prof. Merab Chukhua and has been published with kind support from Prof Marina Beridze. At the 2018 Frankfurt Book Fair, Georgia was the “Guest of Honour”, and  books from Georgia were widely exhibited at the Fair.

Apart from the trilingual dictionary, the Basque–Georgian-Russian Dictionary includes a grammar sketch of Basque and a Georgian index.

 

Natallia Paulovich defended her PhD thesis

Warm congratulations to Natallia Paulovich, former visiting PhD candidate at Caucasus Studies, who successfully defended her doctoral dissertation Women’s Position in the Context of Socio-Cultural Changes in Western Georgia from the Perspective of the Anthropology of Food today, June 20 2018.

Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences.

Photo: Natallia is presenting her research at a Caucasus Studies seminar, Malmö University, during her research visit in 2016.

 

Ongoing work on “Audio/Video Archive of the Budukh Language”

Today’s Caucasus seminar was special. PhD Candidate Elnur Aliyev gave a presention to colleagues of Caucasus Studies, Malmö University, and Linguistics at Lund University about ongoing work on his project “Audio/Video Archive of the Budukh Language.

Elnur is soon returning to Tbilisi State University after two years at Malmö University (thanks to funding from Erasmus Mundus and the Swedish Institute).

We look forward contunued cooperation and wish Elnur good luck in his thesis work and other ongoing projects on endangered Dagestani languages.

Visit to TSU Department of Caucasology

During Tbilisi University’s Anniversary conference, Prof. Karina Vamling and Dr. Revaz Tchantouria, Malmö University, were invited to meet Head of Department, Prof. Tsira Baramidze, and other colleagues at the Department of Caucasology.

Congratulations to Tbilisi State University – 100 years

Tbilisi State University, named after Ivane Javakhishvili, one of its founders, recently celebrated its 100th anniversary. The establishment of a Georgian national university in 1918 during the short period of independence after the Russian revolution and before the Bolshevik takeover was of huge importance for the development of science and culture in Georgia.