CRRC, ARISC and American Councils are pleased to announce the 1st session of the Spring 2026 Tbilisi Works-in-Progress series!
This week’s session will be held in hybrid in-person and virtual format.
Presentation of “The Land in Between” Podcast Project
Victor Swezey, Independent Journalist and Fulbright Research Fellow in Georgia 2024-25
Wednesday, January 28, 2026 at 18:30 Tbilisi time (10:30am EST)
Georgia’s 2024 parliamentary election and subsequent mass protests were a turning point in the country’s history, when its long-held aspiration to join the European Union sat on a knife’s edge. “The Land in Between” — a five-episode narrative podcast — returns to this moment from a journalist’s first-person perspective and explores its significance not only for contemporary Georgia but also the post-Cold War global order. Using a combination of on-the-ground reporting, expert interviews, archival audio, and an original score, the podcast takes listeners behind the scenes during these these pivotal events — from a supra with opposition leaders to a tour of Bidzina Ivanishvili’s home village to the frontlines of an uprising on Rustaveli. In a world where the liberal dream of global integration seems to be in its death throes, “The Land in Between” looks to Georgia for insight into what could come next. The podcast will be released in collaboration with the Global Reporting Centre in February, and multiple excerpts will air on U.S. public radio as part of PRX’s “The World”.
Victor Swezey is an independent journalist who spent a year in Tbilisi on a Fulbright Research Fellowship. He reported on Georgia’s 2024 parliamentary election and subsequent pro-European protests for outlets including The Telegraph, The New World, and Huck magazine. He will start a full-time position as a reporter at Bloomberg News in March.
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Works-in-Progress is an ongoing academic discussion series based in Tbilisi, Georgia, that takes place at the CRRC office at Chavchavadze Ave. 5 and online. It is co-organized by the Caucasus Research Resource Centers (CRRC) Georgia, the American Councils for International Education, and the American Research Institute of the South Caucasus (ARISC). All of the talks are free and open to the public.
In observation of the spirit of the Chatham House Rule, the talks will not be recorded, and we courteously request that the other participants refrain from recording and/or distributing recordings as well or citing anything expressed therein in the press without explicit permission. The opinions expressed in WiP talks are those of the speakers alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views of CRRC, ARISC or of American Councils.
