The summer school of the Master's Program in History of Modern Georgia was held in Stepantsminda

On July 5-7, 2022, the Summer School of the Master’s Program in History of Modern Georgia was held at the Stepantsminda base of Ilia State University.

After two years of online learning caused by the Covid pandemic, students and professors have been given the opportunity to socialize face-to-face.

The summer school included both academic and leisure components – 4 hours of lectures per day, 4 hours of excursions.

With the generous support of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, the following speakers gave lectures at the summer school:

Jimsher Rekhviashvili from Radio Liberty spoke to the students about making popular historical texts and bringing them to a wider audience;

Giorgi Partskhaladze, the associate professor of ISU, spoke about the interaction of the map and the historiographical text – the map as an important tool for reading history;

Diana Lezhava, coordinator of the American Research Institute of the South Caucasus, conducted a training on how to write and obtain a grant for a student to continue studying abroad at the master’s and doctoral levels.

In addition to them, the co-chairs of the Master’s Program – Stephen Jones and Beka Kobakhidze – gave lectures.

Professor Jones spoke about Georgian social democracy and post-1991 Georgia; Beka Kobakhidze spoke on the topic “Ukrainian Donbas – War of Identities”.

Professor Adrian Brisku joined the summer school from Prague and he explained American nationalism to the students.

Excursions and hiking tours were held at the following locations: Juta, Gergeti Trinity Church, Dariali Gorge, Gveleti Waterfall.

The students had a social meeting with the friends of the Master’s Program – Head of Adenauer Foundation South Caucasus Stefan Malerius, coordinator Giorgi Butikashvili and former rector of Iliauni Giga Zedania.

On the initiative of the rector – Nino Doborjginidze – the summer school will become annual.