Research Program: Deportation, Ethnic Cleansing, Genocide: Tools of Russian and Soviet Ethnic Policies in the Northern Caucasus (19-20th Centuries)
The International School for Caucasus Studies (ISCS) at the Ilia State University is pleased to announce the creation of a new research program that assesses the deportations, ethnic cleansing, and state-sponsored genocide as tools of Tsarist Russian policy and state-sponsored Soviet ethnic policies conducted in the North Caucasus during the 19th and 20th century.
The issue of state-sponsored deportations, ethnic cleansing, and genocide in the North Caucasus has been frequently (and increasingly) become the subject of political controversy, but is insufficiently researched on a professional academic basis. Toward that goal Ilia State University has created a new research program aimed at filling this historical gap in global understanding. The Tbilisi state archives have important materials that could considerably increase our knowledge on these issues of great scholarly and public interest though many of these significant resources still await proper scholarly research and analysis by professional historians.
The time-frame of the research program being offered by Ilia State University includes both the Russian and Soviet periods of history of the North Caucasus. Both these periods introduced significant changes in the ethno-demographic landscape of the Caucasus, and many of these changes were a result of the deliberate state-sponsored policies of the Russian and Soviet leadership.
The new research program will include the creation of resident research fellowships, conferences and seminars, as well as the issuance of a new academic publication by the university summarizing the historical results of the research within the program.
Research Fellowship
As the first step in the creation of this program, ISCS announces the creation of three research fellowships within its Resident Scholars Program to host international scholars working on specific topics related to the program. The ISCS will provide fellows with office space, necessary equipment, and research allowance.
Applicants should send their CVs and research proposals to iscs@iliauni.edu.ge
http://iscs.iliauni.edu.ge/index.php?lang_id=ENG&sec_id=8&info_id=26
