CRRC, ARISC and American Councils are pleased to announce the 7th session of the Spring 2025 Tbilisi Works-in-Progress series!
This week’s session will be in hybrid format in-person at the CRRC Georgia office (Chavchavadze Ave. 5, Tbilisi, Georgia, 0179) and online via Zoom.
“English and Russian Language Proficiencies in Georgia and Armenia”
Timothy Blauvelt, American Councils and Ilia State University
Wednesday, March 26, 2025 at 18:30 Tbilisi time (10:30 am EST)
Despite a shared historical background as subjects of the Tsarist and later Soviet empires, after 1991 Georgia and Armenia have experienced very different historical trajectories. Their populations have had differing attitudes towards the former imperial center and towards Russian, the imperial tongue. Over the three decades of independence their governments have pursued diverging policies and aspirations towards language education in the regionally dominant Russian and in the global language of English. Using data primarily from the CRRC Caucasus Barometer, this talk will assess and compare the attitudes towards and competencies in Russian and English among different layers of the populations of Georgia and Armenia and what changes seem to have taken place in recent years.
Timothy Blauvelt is Professor of Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies at Ilia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia and also Regional Director for the South Caucasus for American Councils for International Education. He has published numerous peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, His co-edited volumes Georgia afterStalin: Nationalism and Soviet Power (with Jeremy Smith) was published by Routledge in 2016 and The Transcaucasian Republic of 1918 (with Adrian Brisku) by Routledge in 2021, and his monograph Clientelism and Nationality in an Early Soviet Fiefdom: The Trials of Nestor Lakoba was published by Routledge in 2021 and in Georgian translation by Ziari Press in 2023.
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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.
