PRESS RELEASE
Armenian Studies Program
Ms. Gloria Caudill, Administrator
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Tel: (734) 763-0622
Email: gcaudill@umich.edu

University of Michigan holds Conference on Georgia

Ronald Grigor Suny

Caught between Russia and the Middle East, for
centuries the passage from East to West, the small republic of Georgia
has seldom in recent years had the spotlight of scholarship turned
full force on its fascinating history and current troubles. The
Armenian Studies Program of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor
sponsored the first international conference in mid-May to look at the
"making of a national culture" in that South Caucasian country. More
than thirty scholars from Europe, Asia, the United States, Canada, and
Georgia itself gathered to hear and discuss papers on such far-flung
topics as Iranian influences in medieval Georgia, the appeal of rap
music among Georgian young people today, Russian-Georgian conflicts,
and the precarious future of Armenians in Georgia. Discussions swung
from enthusiasm for the multicultural nature of Georgian society and
the complex harmony of life in old Tiflis (currently the capital of
Georgia, Tbilisi), to tales of
nationalist hostility and savage conflict.
Georgians pride themselves on tolerance of foreigners and visitors and
the hospitality of their famous supra, the lavish feast that travelers
to Georgia have praised for centuries. But Georgian culture has also
been defensive and insecure about its future when threatened by the
empires to the north and south. At the present time the republic has
good relations with all its neighbors, except for Russia, which is
supporting Abkhaz and South Ossetian separatists who want their
regions to be independent of Georgia. Armenians in Georgia experience
a sense of displacement and disillusionment in a city and country,
which many of them consider their real homeland. Yet Georgia has
managed, despite civil war and ethnic conflict, to emerge as the most
promising democracy in Caucasia and an ally of the United States.
There are plans to publish many of the papers in a
volume edited by the principal organizer of the conference, Ronald
Grigor Suny, and his friend and colleague, historian of Georgia Oliver
Reisner, currently working with the European Commission in Georgia.
Suny is the author of The Making of the Georgian Nation (Indiana
University Press, 1994), and Reisner’s major publication is Die Schule
der Georgischen Nation [The School of the Georgian Nation] (Wiesbaden,
2004). Among other presenters at the conference were: Stephen Rapp of
Georgia State University (Atlanta), Armen Kazaryan (State Institute
for Art Study, Moscow), Tamila Mgaloblishvili (Center for Exploration
of Georgian Antiquities, Tbilisi), and Dean Sakel (Bogazici
University, Istanbul), Hirotake Maeda (Hokaido Univeristy), Paul
Manning (Trent University), David Khoshtaria and Mzia Chikhrade (art
historians from Tbilisi), Medea Badashvili (Tbilisi), Paul Crego
(Library of Congress), Silvia Serrano (Paris), Kevin Tuite (Montreal),
Thornike Gordadze (Paris, Baku), Mariam Chkhartishvili and
Alexandre Kukianidze (Tbilisi State University), Tamara Vardanyan
(Erevan, Armenia), Harsha Ram (Berkeley), Clinton Buhler (Ohio State),
Jeremy Smith (Birmingham University, UK), Stephen Jones (Mount
Holyoke), Vicken Cheterian (Geneva), Jonathan Kulick (Tbilisi), David
Soumbadze (Washington, DC), and Sergei Markedonov (Moscow).
Georgian culture was vividly represented by Nino
Tsitsishvili (Monash University), Soso Jordania (University of
Melbourne), and Alan Gasser (Toronto), who sang traditional folk songs
at two of the dinners that tried valiantly to emulate a Georgian
supra.
The proceedings of the conference were webcast live on
the internet, making it possible for a large number of viewers around
the world to follow the presentations and lively discussions.
The conference was supported by the Manoogian Simone
Foundation gift to the Armenian Studies Program and by a number of
departments and regional studies centers at the University of
Michigan, Ann Arbor.