On Tue, 5 May, 17:00 PM, Dr. Nino Aivazishvili-Gehne will deliver an online lecture on “The Soviet concept of kulʼturnostʼ in the post-socialist and post-migratory context,” organized by the Anthropology Research Center and the Doctoral Program in Social and Cultural Anthropology at Ilia State University.
Abstract:
This study contributes to research that deals with detailed analyses of the formation of (post-) socialist subjectivity(ies) in the context of migration. The focus is on the question of whether and how certain fragments of socialist experiences, such as the handling of certain values, are transferred or transformed into a new context. This focus links the post-socialist and post- migratory transformation history of values.
My argument is that the values shaped by the socialist societal order remained of significant importance in the lives of immigrants even after they migrated to a non-socialist country (in this case, Germany). In order to adapt to their new environment, they did not fundamentally change the values they held before arriving. Rather, they changed their pragmatic strategies for dealing with their new environment (the majority society), which either did not recognize or misunderstood these values.
In my presentation I describe and analyze in more detail the strategies for preserving values among “Russian Germans” that were relevant for developing romantic relationships and starting a family after immigrating to Germany. My focus is on the concept of kulʼturnostʼ, which played a remarkable role in shaping the moral, ethical, and aesthetic value system throughout the Soviet Union. I will discuss the concept of kulʼturnostʼ and its historical and social contexts. Examples of this include socialist, post-socialist, and post-migratory meanings and applications.
Biography:
Nino Aivazishvili-Gehne holds a PhD in social anthropology and is a postdoctoral researcher at the Leibnitz Institute for East and Southeast European studies (IOS) in Regensburg. From March 2021 to March 2024, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the Research Center for the History of Transformations (RECET) in Vienna and a visiting scholar at the Institute for Social and Cultural Research at Ilia State University in Tbilisi. She has obtained her PhD degree from the University of the Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg. Simultaneously Aivazishvili- Gehne was an associate Member at the Max-Planck- Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle.
Ninos Research Interests are: Political anthropology; anthropology of borders; ethnicity; citizenship; Politics of nationalities in the Soviet Union, the post-Soviet space, the South Caucasus; Post-socialist transformations; migration studies in Germany; migrants from the former USSR
Her first book, Citizenship at the border. The Georgian-speaking Ingiloys in Azerbaijan, was published by Reichert Verlag in 2023 (in German).
Her second book, in search of the good life: Post-Soviet communities in Osnabrück, was published by transcript in 2024 (in German)
Format: Online
Working language: English
Date: May 5, 17:00
Attendance is free.
Those wishing to attend the lecture, please contact the organizer by email: mariam.darchiashvili@iliauni.edu.ge