Research Projects

Russia and the Northwestern Caucasus – Hege Toje (Post Doctor)

Abstract: Entitled “Borders at work: A case study of an internal border between Adygea and Krasnodar Krai” this postdoctoral project running until 2015 focuses on the Adyghe people in the northwestern Caucasus and dynamics of a Russian internal border between the Republic of Adygea and the federal region Krasnodar krai in the northwestern Caucasus. The project will explore everyday lives in an Adyghe border region, with particular focus on the Muslim Adyghe, one of the largest subgroups of Circassians. In contrast to the north-eastern Caucasus, Adygea has remained a peaceful area after 1991. The project will probe how the changed status of Adygea from autonomous area to republic influences the Adyghe and their co-existence, exchange and cooperation with other groups.

“Stateless in the Borderlands of Kyrgyzstan” - Elina Troscenko (PhD)

Abstract: The project focuses on the effects of recent changes in border and citizenship regimes in post-Soviet Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan. The administrative borders of former Soviet Union have become international borders, with various degrees of militarization and border control. The recent hardening of the borders have affected the established cross-border flow of people, goods and services, influencing cross-border social, economic and political networks. In addition, the citizenship policies in the post-Soviet states resulted in leaving thousands of people without citizenship and turning them into stateless. The project aims to explore the upheavals, disruption and continuation in the lives of stateless people who are ‘non-existent’ in the bureaucratic system of the Kyrgyz state, while they live in an area where the officially acknowledged identity is crucial in maneuvering in the border landscape.

"Technologies of Creating “Dark Others” (Chakht) in Tajikistan: A study of Self-Other Relationships in the Pamir Mountain region" - Mehmonsho Sharifov (PhD)

Abstract: This extreme situation in the post-soviet society of Tajikistan, where political liberalization has not happened, where the economy is paralyzed and where cultural values, ideas and ideals are challenged, provide conditions for the appearance of technologies creating images of "Dark Others". In this context some groups will begin to seek ‘the enemies of nation’. Whole institutions and intellectuals seek to preserve power by weaving ‘grand narratives’ like “great nation”, “unity (vahdat) is in danger”, “the nation-state is in danger” and others, trying ‘culturally motivate their violence’. The situation constitutes new norms of behavior in which the fear is becoming a dominant feature in relations between subjects and their government, between government and its subjects as well as between local government and superpowers of region. The core discourse of this project is “Chakht Discourse” which talks about Self and Other relations in the history of the Isma’ili community of Tajikistan. The word “Chakht“(literary meaning ‘curve’, ‘bended’ - something which is not right or straight) was developed by the Isma’ili Tajiks of Badakhshan as a way of describing their experience of Otherness. The Isma’ili community has a special history: from the beginning of their history they lived in a hostile environment and tried not to be enslaved by others.

“Reshaping Links with the Former Regional Center: Place Memory and Cross-Border Movements in the Georgian-Turkish Borderland” - Giorgi Cheishvili (PhD)

Abstract: The PhD project focuses on effects of border regime changes in the Georgian-Turkish borderland; particularly, in the Artvin Province of Turkey and the Georgian city of Batumi. The present-day border between Georgia and Turkey was established in the 1920s. Prior to 1921, when the region was divided into two parts between the Soviet Union and the Republic of Turkey, present day Artvin and Batumi had been a single administrative entity with Batumi as its political and economic center. The Soviet-Turkish border, which was hermetically sealed, militarized and strictly controlled during the soviet period, sometimes referred to as the “iron curtain”, was opened in 1988. The geopolitical changes associated with the end of the cold war and reopening of the border with Georgia, stimulated cross-border mobility of the residents of Artvin. The reopened borders engaged people in the reestablishing cross-border social, cultural and economic relations. The project intends to study the ways in which the population of the Turkish province of Artvin reestablishes relations with its newly accessible, former regional center, the Georgian city of Batumi, and its residents through a variety of social, cultural and economic processes. The project aims to analyze the process of movement, i.e., the mobility of Artvin residents between two regions and two sovereign states and the accompanying social processes being produced by such movements. It aims to examine how border-crossing practices affect social and cultural boundaries that the physical state border has helped form.

 “Women’s challenges and coping strategies in families in Tajikistan” - Fatemeh Nejati (MPHIL)

Abstract: This research project investigates the effects of international labor migration on women and families in Tajikistan. Taking into account the collapse of USSR in 1991, entering to the liberal market, high population growth, devastating civil war and violence have weakened the economy. Migration remained as the only solution to deal with unemployment and low paid jobs for Tajiks. The Republic of Tajikistan is ranked as first in the world among sending countries having the huge migration and the share of remittances (35%) of Gross domestic product (GDP) in 2009. Accordingly, women’s life defiantly could not be resistant to these huge labor migrations, and had been affected. Family structure is very important and strong in Tajik society. Traditionally, women are supposed to live with their families-in-law after marriage. Most of migrants are married men and their wives who are left behind face various problems. They have to cope with difficulties of life in extended families in the absence of their husbands. They suffer from workload in the household and raising children alone. It happens occasionally that migrants (men) never come back, re-marry in destination country, divorce their wives or stop sending remittances. Consequently, women have to deal with cultural, social, religious and economic constrains. In this research project I investigate how male work migration has affected the women’s life, in terms of the challenges they face and their main coping strategies. Selected areas of fieldwork include the capital of Tajikiatan Dushanbe, Hisor, Fazobod and Shahrino and some villages around Fazobod.

“Dagestanians (Hunzib) living in Georgia” - Giorgi Meurmishvili (MPHIL)

Abstract: The Kvareli region is situated in the Georgian borderlands towards Dagestan in the Caucasus and Georgian-Dagestan relations have a long history. For more than one century there have been Dagestani settlements in the Kvareli region, but this is a little known fact, also among scholars. There is a lack of knowledge about the history of Dagestanis in Georgia and their cultural, religious and social practices as well as their relationship to the Georgian population. The aim of this research project is to investigate everyday life among the Dagestanis in the Georgian region Kvareli, with special attention to Dagestanis, who have recently returned to their historical settlements in Georgia.