Month: April 2024

Seminar May 14 – The Georgian-Byzantine literary interaction in the 11th century

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The Georgian-Byzantine literary interaction in the eleventh century

— Christian Høgel, Professor of Greek and Latin, Lund University

Welcome to this joint seminar with RUCARR and CEMES-network “Thinking the European Academy of Letters”!

When: May 14, 15.15-16.30 CET
Where: Zoom link https://mau-se.zoom.us/j/67115473647

After the Georgian nobleman Ioane Tornike supported the young Byzantine emperor Basil II against pretenders to the Byzantine throne, Georgians became much closer connected to Byzantine politics and to Byzantine text culture. The establishment of the Iviron monastery in mount Athos turned out a most productive translation center but also became an aristocratic setting of Georgians within the Byzantine world. Our extant text material witnesses both this Byzantine-Georgian literary exchanges and gives us valuable information on different text cultures along the Silk Road.

Bio

Christian Høgel is professor of Greek and Latin at Lund University since 2023. He has published widely on Byzantine hagiography and on translations – on the early Greek translation of the Qur’an and on translations from Georgian. He is co-director of the Retracing Connections research programme (Riksbankens Jubileumsfond).

RUCARR Seminar, April 23, 15:15-17:00: Civil society in the South Caucasus: Resource dependencies, organizational behaviors and shifting environments

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Civil society in the South Caucasus: Resource dependencies, organizational behaviors and shifting environments

When? April 23rd, 15:15-17:00

Where? On Zoom: https://mau-se.zoom.us/j/69994454484

Abstract

Civil society developments in the Eurasia region have been under scholarly scrutiny since the early 1990s, particularly due to their presumed actorness in political and societal transitions. In the meantime, a growing number of challenges, including limited trust and participation, lingering legitimacy, agency and accountability issues, external aid dependence, precarious professionalization, and governments’ increased regulative and political assaults, have faced civil society organizations (CSOs). This talk will draw on research into cases of the South Caucasus countries – Azerbaijan and Georgia – from neo-institutional and resource dependence perspectives. The Azerbaijani case will highlight the transformation of organizational behaviors of CSOs in the wake of government-imposed restrictions over the past decade, focusing on the trend of de-NGOization under entrenched authoritarianism. The Georgian case will discuss the effects of foreign funding on self-regulation in civil society, focusing on agency and accountability practices against the background of government allegations and legislative proposals deeming CSOs as “foreign agents.”

Bio

Najmin Kamilsoy is a doctoral candidate at Charles University Department of Public and Social Policy, where he received a master’s degree in 2019. His current research area is civil society development and organizational behaviors in non-democracies, with a regional and comparative focus on the South Caucasus. Kamilsoy is a co-founder and policy analyst of Agora Analytical Collective, a think tank that has been dealing with the analysis of social and economic policies in Azerbaijan since 2022. He held a visiting Ph.D. fellowship at the University of Zurich in 2021 and he is an upcoming research fellow at Friedrich Schiller University Jena.

 

RUCARR Roundtable April 29 – Armenia’s Human Rights agenda

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Armenia’s Human Rights agenda: efforts amidst social and security challenges

Welcome to join us for a RUCARR Roundtable on Monday April 29, 15.15-17.00; Seminar room 9th floor, Niagara Building.
Online option: Zoom https://mau-se.zoom.us/j/62708879156

Valentina Gevorgyan: Civil Society actors in Armenia as the main defenders of human rights

The talk will concentrate on Armenian civil society. First, the speaker will present the phases of civil society development in Armenia’s post-Soviet period of troubled transition, followed by current developments and challenges for the civil society. The talk will reflect on one recent study (and research in progress, RWI), highlighting the main areas and functions of civil society actors, as the main drivers of democratisation and defenders of human rights in the republic.

Anna Melikyan: Impact of fighting corruption on human rights in Armenia since 2018

The presentation will focus on the efforts in Armenia to fight corruption after the change of government in 2018 as a result of the peaceful protests with a focus on prosecution. It will encompass how this fight affects the human rights situation in the country given the pressure of public expectations and whether the government and the judiciary are able to ensure the rule of law and human rights principles in corruption-related trials, including recovery of illicit assets. 

Srbuhi Michikyan: Examining Multidimensional Poverty in conflict affected regions. The case of Syunik region in Armenia: Methodological concerns.

In conflict-affected regions worldwide, poverty is intertwined with violence, displacement, instability,  and significantly affects the ability of individuals to lead dignified lives. Conventional poverty measures, focusing solely on income or consumption metrics, fail to capture the complexity of deprivation experienced in such contexts, however, multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) has revolutionized poverty analysis, offering a holistic framework that considers diverse dimensions impacting well-being. The talk explores the methodological considerations specific to conducting MPI research in conflict areas, using Syunik region in Armenia as a case study. It discusses the challenges and opportunities inherent in conducting MPI research in a conflict contexts to understand the limitations of used methodology.

Moderator is Dr Katrine Gotfredsen, Senior Lecturer in Cauasus Studies, Malmö University.

Bios

Valentina Gevorgyan – is a researcher of social and political developments in hybrid regimes with problematic post-Soviet legacy. Her academic interests centre on civil society, state-society relations, cultural policy and the EU accession and democratisation processes of the EU’s Eastern Partnership countries. She holds PhD in Political Science from University of Fribourg (Switzerland), and MA in Political Science from American University of Armenia.

Previously, she worked as a research specialist with Open Society Foundations (Armenia), Academic Swiss Caucasus Net and Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation in South Caucasus. Currently, she is Assistant Professor at Yerevan State University, Department of Political Science and a lecturer at University of Fribourg, Department of European and Slavic Studies. She reads courses on Civil Society and Political Culture, and is author of “Civil Society and Government Institutions in Armenia. Leaving Behind the ‘Post-Soviet’ Title” (Routledge, 2024). Currently she is a Research Fellow with RWI Armenia Programme.

Anna Melikyan – Since 2020, Anna Melikyan is a Legal Analyst with the Armenia-based human-rights NGO “Protection of Rights Without Borders”. She also manages projects in the field of justice sector and anti-corruption reform in Armenia. Prior to that, Ms. Melikyan worked in the field of human rights and conflict settlement for international organizations, including the OSCE Mission to Moldova, OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights and Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mission to Osh. In 2012-2017, Anna worked for the Armenian NGO “Civil Society Institute” as Director and Human Rights Officer.
Ms. Melikyan has long-years of experience in teaching courses related to human rights and international humanitarian at the Russian-Armenian (Slavonic) University.
Anna Melikyan holds Law Degree from the Russian-Armenian (Slavonic) University, and LL.M. from the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights. Currently, is a Research Fellow with RWI Armenia Programme.

Srbuhi Michikyan – is a Research Associate at Caucasus Research Resource Center (CRRC) – Armenia Foundation. She holds a Master’s degree in Research Methodology and a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology, both earned from Yerevan State University. She spent one semester of her Master’s degree studies at University of Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic. Now she is a Ph.D. student in sociology at the Yerevan State University. Since 2018, she has been actively engaged with academic institutions, research institutes, and civil society organizations in Armenia. Srbuhi’s research interests encompass a wide range of sociological themes, with a particular focus on Inequality, urban studies, and space and place transformation studies. She has contributed to the academic discourse through the publication of several scholarly articles and analytical reports on these subjects. In her research activities, she employs a mixed approach, conducting both qualitative and quantitative analyses. Also, she is an expert of accreditation of Higher Education and worked as a student-expert both in Armenia and abroad. She has experience of coordinating and organizing local and international workshops and trainings. Currently she is a Research Fellow with the RWI Armenia Programme visiting Lund, until June 2024.

Seminar May 7 “Empire of Refugees: North Caucasian Muslims and the Late Ottoman State” with Dr Hamed-Troyansky

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RUCARR seminar with Dr. Vladimir Hamed-Troyansky, Ass. Prof. of Global Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara:

Empire of Refugees: North Caucasian Muslims and the Late Ottoman State

 

When: May 7, 17.00-18.15 CET

Where: zoom https://mau-se.zoom.us/j/62352627321

Between the 1850s and World War I, about one million Muslims from the Russian Empire’s North Caucasus region sought refuge in the Ottoman Empire. In his new book, Empire of Refugees: North Caucasian Muslims and the Late Ottoman State, Dr. Vladimir Hamed-Troyansky examines how Circassian, Chechen, Dagestani, and other refugees transformed the late Ottoman Empire and how the Ottoman government managed Muslim refugee resettlement. Empire of Refugees argues that, in response to Muslim migrations from Russia, the Ottoman government created a refugee regime, which predated refugee systems set up by the League of Nations and the United Nations. The book also revises our understanding of how Russia used migration policies to govern the Caucasus and its Muslim populations.

Bio

Dr. Vladimir Hamed-Troyansky is a historian of global migration and forced displacement and Assistant Professor of Global Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His research examines Muslim refugee migration and its role in shaping the modern world. He is the author of Empire of Refugees: North Caucasian Muslims and the Late Ottoman State (Stanford University Press, 2024). His articles appeared in Past & Present, Comparative Studies in Society and History, International Journal of Middle East Studies, Slavic Review, and Kritika. He received a Ph.D. in History from Stanford University and served as a postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University.

Seminar with Prof Stefan Hedlund, May 28

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Ukraine, Russia and the West

When Value Promotion Met Hard Power

Professor Stefan Hedlund, Uppsala University, Institue for Russian and Eurasian Studies

When: May 28, 15.15-16.30
Where: K3 Studio, C Area, 5th floor, Niagara building, Nordenskiöldsgatan 1
Zoom: https://mau-se.zoom.us/s/65067842259

Why did Russia’s all-out war against Ukraine come as such a surprise to the West? This is the key question considered in this broad-ranging book. It argues that Russia and the West had been playing different games: while Russia under Putin had become obsessed with using hard power to restore the Cold War security architecture in Europe, the major Western powers had become equally obsessed with value promotion that allegedly would ensure a global triumph for the values of the West, touted as “universal values.” While the Russian play for a sphere of interest was clearly defined and demarcated, the Western play for values was by definition without limits. Hence there could be no common ground and no common understanding. When push came to shove, Russian hard power trumped Western value promotion – and Ukraine was left to pay the price.

RUCARR Seminar April 9th, 15:15-17:00: Armenia’s agency in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU)

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When: April 9th 2024, 15.15-16.30
Where: Niagara building, 9th floor, seminar room or  by Zoom: https://mau-se.zoom.us/j/69798529701

Erik Davtyan is Assistant Professor at Yerevan State University, Armenia.

Abstract

This talk will examine Armenia’s agency in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). It will demonstrate how Armenia, being the smallest member state and facing a huge power asymmetry, has been able to influence the decision-making in the EAEU. The presenter will talk about three different strategies Armenia used to protect its interests: a) instrumentalizing the opportunities emanating from the institutional settings of the organization, b) negotiating exemptions from the EAEU legislation and securing core interests in the external relations of the union, and c) promoting specific ideas with the purpose of tailoring EAEU’s policy in a particular field to its economic needs.

RUCARR and MIM seminar with Prof. Aadne Aasland, April 23

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The reception of Ukrainian refugees in Norway: Experiences of refugees and frontline workers

When: April 23, 11.00-12.50
Where: Niagara Building, room TBA

Prof. Aadne Aasland’s presentation will address the following:

1. How do Ukrainian refugees experience their settlement and integration in Norway? 

2. What are the frontline workers’ assessments of challenges and opportunities related to the settlement and integration of Ukrainian refugees? 

3. What similarities and disparities are there between the Ukrainian refugees and the frontline workers’ assessments and perspectives, and what are the main challenges and dilemmas? 

Bio

Aadne Aasland is a research professor at Oslo Metropolitan University, and conducts research on social welfare, migration and integration, ethnicity, and diversity, with a particular focus on Russia, Ukraine, and the Baltic countries. Currently, he is leading a project on Norwegian cooperation with Russia on health and welfare in the Barents region (RE:Barents) and participating in a project on how Russia promotes its interests in Norway and Western Europe (PRORUSS). Recently, Aadne completed a major project on addressing regional diversity in Ukraine (ARDU). Read more here: https://www.oslomet.no/en/about/employee/aadnea/