CRRC, American Councils and ARISC are proud to present the 2nd talk of the Works-in-Progress Series for the Spring 2013 Season!
Timothy Blauvelt
“Endurance of the Soviet Imperial Tongue: The Russian Language in Contemporary Georgia”
Wednesday, February 6, 2013 at 6:15pm
ISET/CRRC Georgia, Zandukeli St. 16, Tbilisi, GEORGIA
A summary of the author’s forthcoming article in Central Asian Survey, this project examines the role of the Russian language on the periphery of the post-Soviet space using multiple sources of data, including original matched-guise experiments, to examine the language situation in contemporary Georgia. Among the former Soviet republics, Georgia is one in which the use of the titular language was most intensively institutionalized and that most ardently resisted Russification, and one that today for various reasons has been most eager to escape the legacy of its Soviet past and to embed itself in the global community. In Georgia the cultural and political influence of the former imperial center has been greatly reduced, and Russian has been challenged in functional roles by the new international lingua franca of English. The direction that the Russian language takes in a place like Georgia may be a useful bellwether for such transformations elsewhere in the post-Soviet periphery. Timothy Blauvelt is Country Director in Georgia for American Councils for International Education: ACTR/ACCELS and is also Associate Professor of Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies at Ilia State University.
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W-i-P is an ongoing academic discussion series based in Tbilisi, Georgia, that takes place at the International School of Economics (ISET) building (16 Zandukeli Street). It is co-organized by the Caucasus Research Resource Centers (CRRC), the American Councils for International Education: ACTR/ACCELS, and the American Research Institute of the South Caucasus (ARISC). All of the talks are free and open to the public.The purpose of the W-i-P series is to provide support and productive criticism to those researching and developing academic projects pertaining the Caucasus region.Would you like to present at one of the W-i-P sessions? Send an e-mail to natia@crrccenters.org.
