I am very honored to have been nominated to serve as a board member of the Central Eurasian Studies Society, and I submit this letter with the full awareness that my experience with CESS is far less than that of many esteemed colleagues who have been involved in organizing activities over the years. Nevertheless, I hope that I can contribute to CESS creating new scientific contacts and collaborations between South Caucasian anthropologists and historians, especially between Georgian scholars and scholars from and about Central Asia.
My name is Ketevan Gurchiani. I am a professor of anthropology at Ilia State University in Tbilisi, Georgia. My research is mainly concerned with the built and natural environment of the city, religion, peace studies, and migration. My research so far has focused on Georgia or on migrant communities in Georgia or elsewhere. I study Soviet and post-Soviet developments from a decolonial perspective, focusing on locally shaped responses and practices. I have published in journals such as Material Religion, Europe-Asia Studies, Central Asian Survey, Nationalities Papers, European Journal of Religion, and others.
Since 2015, I have organized research seminars inviting scholars from around the world who are studying the South Caucasus or researching topics relevant to our region to present their research. With the PhD program in Anthropology established at Ilia State University some years ago, it had been more opportunities to invite scholars from and about Central Asia to present in our seminars. There is collaboration between individual scholars that can serve as a foundation
for further development. My involvement with CESS would also allow me to foster collaboration between universities, including joint supervision of PhD projects.
I have extensive leadership experience, including as Vice Chancellor of Ilia State University for Research (2009-2010), as head of Erasmus projects in collaboration with Ukraine, and more recently as Director of the newly established Research Center for Anthropology at Ilia State University.
I am a member of several networks and working groups. These include the Working Group on Lived Religion in Eastern Europe and Eurasia, the Network for the Study of Local Peace Orders IFSH- Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy, University of Hamburg, Germany, cooperating partner of Conflict and Cooperation in Eastern Europe: The Consequences of the Reconfiguration of Political, Economic, and Social Spaces Since the End of the Cold War (KonKoop), led by the Center for East European and International Studies (ZOiS) Berlin, Germany. I have experience serving on boards, was a board member of the Caucasus Institute for Peace and Security Studies and was recently elected a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Frobenius Institute in Frankfurt.