The annual Oxford-Georgia Forum serves as a dynamic platform for fostering dialogue and advancing partnership initiatives between Georgia and the United Kingdom. Bringing together scholars, practitioners, and policymakers, the forum draws on a broad range of academic disciplines, including political science, international relations, anthropology, sociology, history, literature, archaeology, cultural studies, economics, and business. This year’s forum centres on Georgia’s ongoing political turmoil, the recent wave of public protests, and the evolving geopolitical landscape of the South Caucasus.
Programme of event:
Welcome Coffee/Tea
09:30 – 10:00
Opening Remarks
10:00 – 10:15
Professor Paul Chaisty, Professor of Russian and East European Politics and Head of the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies (OSGA).
Professor Roy Allison, Director of the Russian and Eurasian Studies Centre.
Professor Michael Rochlitz, Associate Professor in the Economies of Russia, Eastern Europe and Eurasia at OSGA and Georgian Programme Coordinator.
Keynote Speech
10:15 – 11:45
Title: Political Protest and Impact on Higher Education and Research in Georgia.
Speaker: Professor Marine Chitashvili.
Professor of Psychology at Tbilisi State University.
Panel 1: Protests, Civil Society, and Media Resilience
11:45 – 12:45
This panel explores the current turbulent landscape of Georgian politics, marked by contested elections, mass protests, and growing authoritarian tendencies. It examines the pivotal role played by civil society actors and independent media in resisting democratic backsliding and defending Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations. The speakers, representing Georgian civil society, the protest movement, and independent media, will share insights from the ground, reflect on strategies of resistance, and discuss the challenges and opportunities facing Georgia’s pro-democracy and pro-European forces today.
Chair: Professor Roy Allison, Director of the Russian and Eurasian Studies Centre.
Mariam Nikuradze, Co-Founder of OC Media.
Dr Giorgi Cheishvili, Member of the Movement ‘Education is in Danger’, Visiting Fellow at the Oxford Nizami Ganjavi Centre.
Irine Kurtanidze, Political Campaign Advisor, Phd student at Queen Mary University.
Alexander Zibzibadze, Founder of the Future Academy of Georgia, Chevening Scholar at the University of Oxford.
Davit Jintcharadze, Founder of the Freedom Fund.
Lunch Break
12:45 – 14:00
Panel 2: Georgia’s Foreign Policy and the Role of International Actors
14:00 – 15:00
This panel examines the implications of Georgian Dream’s recent anti-Western pivot for the country’s EU and NATO aspirations, against the backdrop of Russia’s full-scale war in Ukraine. It will explore the mounting challenges to Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic integration and assess the roles of key international actors—including the US, EU, Russia, Turkey, and the increasingly influential China. The discussion will consider how the war in Ukraine, shifting global dynamics have reshaped regional alignments and intensified the strategic stakes for Georgia’s foreign policy orientation and its place in the evolving global order.
Chair: Professor Paul Chaisty, Professor of Russian and East European Politics and Head of OSGA .
Dr Natalie Sabanadze, Senior Research Fellow at Chatham House.
Dr Marnie Howlett, Departmental Lecturer in Russian and East European Politics, Univeristy of Oxford.
Dr Jody La Porte, Gonticas Fellow in Politics & International Relations at Lincoln College, University of Oxford.
Dr Michael Cecire, Policy Researcher at RAND, Adjunct Assistant Professor at Georgetown University.
Dr Samuel Ramani, Associate Fellow at RUSI.
Panel 3: Roundtable: The Future of Georgian Studies Abroad
15:00 – 16:00
This panel explores the evolving landscape of Georgian Studies programmes outside Georgia amid the country’s ongoing political turmoil. As democratic backsliding, civic resistance, and shifting foreign policy orientations capture international attention, academic engagement with Georgia is both more urgent and more complex than ever. The discussion will address institutional, intellectual, and funding challenges facing Georgian Studies abroad, while also considering new opportunities for critical scholarship and collaboration in response to the country’s dynamic political context.
Chair: Professor Maia Chanskeliani, Associate Professor of Comparative and International Education at the University of Oxford.
Professor Michael Rochlitz, Associate Professor in the Economies of Russia, Eastern Europe and Eurasia at OSGA and Georgian Programme Coordinator.
Dr Natia Chankvetadze, Director of the Programme on Georgian Studies at Davis Center, Harvard University.
Professor Stephen Jones, Founding Director (former) of the Programme on Georgian Studies at Davis Center, Harvard University.
Professor Marine Chitashvili, Professor of Psychology at Tbilisi State University.
Coffee Break
16:00 – 16:30
Panel 4: Studying Georgia
16:30 – 17:30
This panel brings together research students and scholars whose work focuses on Georgia from diverse disciplinary perspectives, including political science, history, anthropology, and cultural studies. Showcasing ongoing interdisciplinary research projects, the panel highlights the richness and complexity of Georgia as a site of academic inquiry. The discussion will explore how cross-disciplinary approaches can deepen our understanding of Georgia’s past, present, and future.
Chair: Professor Tamar Koplatadze, Associate Professor in Russian, University of Oxford.
Dr Giorgi Matcharavashvili, Georgian Studies Fellow, University of Oxford – ‘Photographic Plates of Georgian Manuscripts Held in the Bodleian Library’.
Dr Tea Kamushadze, Georgian Studies Fellow, University of Oxford – ‘Rethinking the Georgian Ethnological School in the Post-Soviet Context’.
Gregorio Paz Iriarte, PhD Student at École normale supérieure – PSL – ‘Hospitality and Private Property in Tusheti: Rethinking Kropotkin’s Principle of Mutual Aid through Fieldwork in the Caucasus’.
Molly Walker, PhD student at Harvard University – ‘There are Gods Here Too’: Malaria and Scientific Nationalism in Georgia and Abkhazia, 1860s-1960s’.
Levan Tevdoradze, Chevening Scholar at King’s College – ‘Gaps in Studying Georgia: Political Science and Political Economy Perspectives’
Mariam Vekua, Founder and President of the UCL Georgian Society – ‘Activities of the Georgian Society at UCL’.
The summary of the activities of the Georgian Society at the University of Oxford
17:30-17:45
Sophia Maisashvili, President of the Georgian Society at the University of Oxford.
A play by the Oxford Georgian Translation Project
17:45 – 18:45
The members of the Oxford Georgian Translation Project present the translation of Tamta Melashvili’s new play The Dress.
A Gulag survivor in her seventies, recently returned from exile, sets out to wear a newly sewn dress — an act of healing and defiance against the Stalinist regime.
Chair: Professor Michael Rochlitz, Associate Professor in the Economies of Russia, Eastern Europe and Eurasia at OSGA and Georgian Programme Coordinator.
Lia Chokoshvili, Georgian Language Instructor and Head of the Oxford Georgian Translation Project.
Tamta Melashvili, Georgian Writer.
Play Reading by Members of the OGTP:
Marcus Choo, Andrew McCann, Giles Humphreys-Evans, Deepthi Gopal.
