Category: Seminar

Roundtable discussion on Belarus

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RUCARR is organising a roundtable discussion on the current development in Belarus. What are the likely scenarios for further development, how are external actors likely to react, and what are the general implications for politics in Europe and more globally?

Roundtable participants are Dr. Sofie Bedford (Institute for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Uppsala University); Prof. Aleh Cherp (Central European University & Lund University); PhD Natallia Paulovich (independent researcher, Warsaw); Martin Uggla (Östgruppen).

Moderator: Prof. Bo Petersson (RUCARR, Malmö University)

When : September 15, 15.15–17.00
Where: Zoom – Registration with name and affiliation: rucarr@mau.se

Bios:

Dr. Sofie Bedford is an affiliated researcher at IRES Institute for Russian and Eurasian Studies. She is living in Vienna where she has been teaching East European Studies at the Department of Political Science, University of Vienna. For the past 5 years she has been working on a research project problematizing the concept of Opposition in post-Soviet authoritarian states with Azerbaijan and Belarus as the case studies. She has published articles from this project in various academic journals and also recently written a number of commentaries about the situation in Belarus related to the Covid-19 crises, the Presidential Election, and its aftermath.

Aleh Cherp is a professor of Central European University (CEU) in Vienna and Lund University. Prof. Cherp served as the Academic Secretary and as the Research Director of CEU. For over 15 years he has coordinates a multi-university Erasmus Mundus Masters program in Environmental Sciences, Policy and Management. His research focuses on global climate and energy. He has served in several leading roles in European science, including most recently as a Panel Chair in the European Research Council. Prof Cherp has also undertaken professional work for the European Environment Agency (EEA), UNDP, UNICEF, WHO, the World Bank, and USAID among others. He is originally from Belarus and has participated several academic and professional projects in the field of energy and environment there. Prior to joining CEU in 2000, he earned his Masters and PhD at Manchester University and worked with NGOs and the United Nations in Central Asia, Russia and Belarus. He also founded an Environmental NGO in Moscow during the political change in the Former Soviet Union. His first degree was in Physics. Member of the Extended Coordination Council for Overcoming the Political Crisis in Belarus.

Natallia Paulovich, Ph.D., is an independent researcher from Belarus located in Warsaw, Poland. In 2018 she received a doctoral degree in sociology with a focus on Georgian women at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Moreover, the experience she gained studying Belarusian history at Belarusian State University in Minsk, and the subsequent studies at the Centre of East European Studies, University of Warsaw, provided Natallia with a broad analytical perspective about various social, national, religious, and political issues in Eastern Europe, Russia, Central Asia and the Caucasus. Her current research interest is concentrated on gender, post-industrialization and workers’ mobilization in Belarus.

Martin Uggla, human rights defender, chairman of Östgruppen – Swedish Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights. Has 25 years of experience from working with civil society development in Eastern Europe. Special focus on Belarus, has followed the human rights situation in the country closely  during the last 20 years. Author of several articles on Belarus and the book “Bruksanvisning för diktatorer – en berättelse om Belarus och Europas första moderna diktator” (2014)

RUCARR seminar with Dr My Lilja

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Drug discourses in Russia

My Lilja, PhD, University Lecturer in Criminology, Malmö University

Abstract

Since the beginning of the 21st century, there has been an intensified debate about drugs in Russia, for example in the parliament and in the press, and the drug problem is now regarded as one of the country’s most serious problems and an issue of top priority for the Russian government. This presentation will focus on ongoing and previous research about drug discourses in Russia. Some issues of particular interest were the identification of dominant discourses on drugs, the determination of which understandings of the drug problem were taken for granted and which were not recognised, whether there were any discussion of the consequences of the problem and an analysis of which actors that were represented in the debate.

When: May 19, 15.00–16.30
Where: Zoom, for sign-up, contact rucarr@mau.se

Seminar with Dr. Dato Gogishvili

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Lofty Ideals in Aerial Connectivity: Ideology in the Urban Cable Car Network of Tbilisi, Georgia

Seminar with Dr. Dato Gogishvili (Postdoc at Dept. of Urban Studies, Malmö University)
When: May 4, 13.30-15.00
Where: Zoom online platform (link in Zoom: https://mau-se.zoom.us/j/65183900856)

Abstract
This article (in collaboration with Suzanne Harris-Brandts, Department of Urban Studies + Planning, MIT) examines the ten-line cable car network of Tbilisi, Georgia,constructed between 1953 and 1988, then decommissioned in the 1990s and partially reactivated since 2012. During the Soviet era, Tbilisi’s cable cars played an important role in the city’s mass mobility, particularly in areas of steep geography. They also functioned ideologically, supporting Soviet ambitions toward the collective provision of public transportation and accessto recreational spacefor the working proletariat. This article unpacks such ideology, chartingits evolution over the network’s sixty-year timeline. It describes the ideological shifts that took place following the collapse of the Soviet Union and Georgia’s transition to a capitalist economy. Specifically, it explores how Tbilisi’s cable car network is linked to changes in government urban development priorities and desires to create tourism attractions, while also reinforcing select framings of the surrounding landscape. The newly introduced cable car lines of the 21st centurynow reflect contemporary ideological goals that see cable cars as assets for luring global capital and facilitating the commodification of Tbilisi’s historic cityscape. The article thus argues that the city’s cable car network can be understood as embodying changes in government stances toward labor, leisure, and the direction of future development, while further reflecting the mobility politics of the city. The findings are based on personal interviews and historic document analysis, as well as transit ridership and City Hall data that collectively provide an evaluation of Tbilisi’s cable car network as it has transformed since the 1950s.

BIO
David received his doctoral degree in Urban Studies and Regional Science at Gran Sasso Science Institute in 2017 where he studied the state use of mega-events as a tool for urban development and the imposition of legal exceptions onto host cities. Subsequently, he joined the University of Lausanne as a postdoctoral researcher where he studied the impact of megaprojects in the urban development of Kazakhstan. Currently, he is a postdoc at the Department of Urban Studies at Malmö University where he is carrying out a research project scrutinizing the role of legal exceptions in urban planning for the realization of the real estate megaprojects in Georgia and its surrounding governmental discourses. David’s research interests include interrelation of mega-events and legal exceptions, mega-events and urban image construction, mega-event related urban policy mobilities and the use of mega-events as a tool of urban development in Central Asia and the South Caucasus. David is also a principal researcher in the Shota Rustaveli Georgian National Science Foundation-funded project “Examining the Social Impacts of Large, Private Sector Urban Development in Batumi and Tbilisi”.

Seminar with Dr. Stepan Grigoryan on the Velvet Revolution

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On January 28, Dr. Stepan Grigoryan – Chairman of the Board of the Yerevan-based Analytical Centre on Globalization and Regional Cooperation (ACGRC) NGO – gave the seminar entitled Velvet Revolution and Political Developments in Armenia.


Dr. Grigoryan holds diplomatic rank of Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Armenia. In the years 1998-2000, he was Advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia, and in 1995-1998 as a diplomat, he held different positions at the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 1990-1995 Stepan Grigoryan was a member of the Armenian Parliament.

The Armenian Velvet Revolution by Stepan Grigoryan. Yerevan: Edit Print, 2018.

When: 3.15-5 pm, January 28
Where: Niagara Building (Nordenskiöldsgatan 1), Seminar room 9th floor (external participants, please, come to the reception in the Niagara lobby at 3 pm)..

RUCARR seminar with Prof. Robert A. Saunders

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On December 10, Professor Robert A. Saunders will give the seminar Getting over Borat: Exploring the (After-)Effects of Parody in the Post-Soviet Realm.

Dr. Robert A. Saunders is Professor of History, Politics and Geography Farmingdale State College (SUNY), Dept. of History, Politics, and Geography, NY.

Read more:
Staff page: Farmingdale State College (SUNY)
Personal website: www.boratologist.com

When: December 10, 3.15-4.45 pm
Where: Niagara Building, Block C, Seminar room, 9th floor
(External participants, please wait at the Reception by the C elevators at 3 pm)

RUCARR seminar with Prof. Oliver Reisner

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RUCARR seminar on October 10

Prof. Oliver Reisner, Ilia State University, Tbilisi, gave a seminar to staff and students during his visit to RUCARR, Malmö University on October 9-10. The topic of his presentation was Social Cohesion and Political Developments in Contemporary Georgia, which was followed by a lively discussion. Thank you so much for sharing your ideas and research on this timely topic!

GPS seminar with Michel Anderlini – Case study: Georgia

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On October 9 Michel Anderlini, PhD Student in Global Politics, presented his thesis work in the first 20% seminar in new the Global Politics PhD programme. The title of the presentation: “Who do I call if I want to speak to Europe?”: Role contestation of the EU Special Representative and Selective Compliance in Georgia. Discussant: Prof. Patrik Hall.

September 10 – RUCARR seminar

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Dr. Kamal Makili-Aliyev, Researcher at Faculty of Law, Lund University and the Dept. of Global Political Studies, Malmö University: The evolution of the principle of self-determination: from Åland Islands to Nagorno-Karabakh and Catalonia.

When: September 10, 15.15-17.00.
Where: NIC0826, Niagara building (Nordenskiöldsgatan 1).

The seminar will introduce part of the research efforts of Kamal Makili-Aliyev in comparative international law and conflict resolution. The right of peoples to self-determination and its evolution from the international legal point of view is one of the key topics of his research. The full results of his research will feature in the upcoming monograph titled “Contested Territories and International Law” that is scheduled for the release in late October 2019 by Routledge and will introduce a comprehensive international legal analysis of the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict and the Åland Islands precedent.

The Case of the Georgian History Textbooks

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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.

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.

RUCARR seminar March 26

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The RUCARR seminar on March 26 will welcome three presenters from the Department of History, Lund University:

  • Klas-Göran Karlsson: “The Armenian genocide: An interpretive framework”;
  • Maria Småberg: “Giving voice to Armenian and Yazidi women – the transnational life stories of Alma Johansson and Maria Anholm”
  • Maria Karlsson: “Genocide denial: the Armenian example”

 Klas-Göran Karlsson is Professor of History, working with genocide studies and several other areas within international contemporary history. Maria Småberg, PhD in History and Assistant Director of Studies at the National Graduate School of History, works with a project on the Swedish missionary and genocide eyewitness Alma Johansson. Maria Karlsson has written a PhD thesis on genocide denial, “Cultures of Denial: Comparing Holocaust and Armenian Genocide Denial”, and works within the research project “The Lessons of Communist and Nazi History”, conducted by Klas-Göran Karlsson. They all represent the Department of History, Lund University.

When: March 26, 15-17 (for external participants, please come to the reception at 14.45)
Where: Room C0929, Niagara building, Nordenskiöldsgatan 1, Malmö

 

Armenian Genocide Memorial complex of Tsitsernakaberd, Yerevan, Armenia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo: Flickr David Stanley