Asiac yearly conference 2019 – Rome, 5-6 December 2019

Asiac yearly conference 2019

5 December – 6 December 2019

Interdepartmental Research Centre on Central-Eastern Europe, Russia, and Eurasia

Università degli Studi – Roma Tre

via Gabriello Chiabrera 199, Rome

https://goo.gl/maps/DpWNFC6FBGg7d97t6

This conference is organised by professor Simona Merlo of Università degli Studi – Roma Tre and Asiac’s board of directors: Vittorio Springfield Tomelleri, Giorgio Comai, Carlo Frappi, Fabio Indeo, Francesco Mazzucotelli, and Paolo Ognibene


Download the programme in pdf


Thursday 5 December

9.00 Registration

9.30 Opening greetings and introduction

Francesco Guida (Università degli Studi – Roma Tre), president of the Interdepartmental Research Centre on Central-Eastern Europe, Russia, and Eurasia

Vittorio Tomelleri (Università di Macerata), president of ASIAC

9.45 Understanding contemporary Chechnya

Chair: Giorgio Comai (OBCT/CCI)

Image as a tool of power legitimization: the case of Ramzan Kadyrov / Marat Iliyasov (University of St. Andrews)

The Islamisation of the Chechen society under Kadyrov leadership: implication for the national and regional dynamics / Giuliano Bifolchi (University of Rome Tor Vergata)

Chechnya’s current status in the Russian Federation and its geopolitical futures / Giorgio Cella (Catholic University of Milan)

11.15 Coffee break

11.30 Language and education in Georgia and the South Caucasus / Session A

Chair: Vittorio Tomelleri (Università di Macerata)

The young and the Russian Language in the contemporary Southern Caucasus / Daniele Artoni (University of Verona)

The Language of Academic Journals in Georgia: Georgian vs Other languages / Gogolashvili Giorgi (Tbilisi State University) / Tamari Lomtadze (Akaki Tsereteli State University)

Svan-speaking communities and emergent literacy / Alessio Giordano (IUSS Pavia)

Issues of Language Policy in First Democratic Republic of Georgia / Mariam Manjgaladze (Tbilisi State University)

The origins of Caucasus studies in Georgia / Maka Tetradze (Tbilisi State University)

11.30 International relations in Central Asia / Session B

Chair: TBD

Central Asia: new trends of connectivity and regional integration / Fabio Indeo

Tamerlane’s trip to Shanghai: analysis of Sino-Uzbek relations from 1991 to 2016 / Frank Maracchione (University of Sheffield)

Understanding the Role of Turkey in the Geo-Politics of the Central Asian States (With Special Reference to Afghanistan)/ Angana Kotokey (Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India)

Perspectives on Central Asian Security involving Afghanistan / Anchita Borthakur (Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India)

13.00 Lunch

14.30 Cultural encounters

Chair: Simona Merlo (Università Roma Tre)

Central Asia in Contemporary Russian Literature: Among Nostalgia, Stereotypes, History and Myth / Dmitry Novokhatskiy (Università di Padova)

Georgian-Dagestan ethno cultural relations X-XIV centuries / Maia Tsitsvidze (Tbilisi State University)

In search of unknown languages, flowers and butterflies. The other side of the Russian military expeditions in Central Asia and the Caucasus / Paolo Ognibene (University of Bologna)

Country at Crossroads: Oriental-Occidental Encounters in Georgian Literary Modernism / Irakli Tskhvediani (Akaki Tsereteli State University)

16.00 Coffee break

16.15 Architecture in the Caucasus between urban form and identity

Chair: Marco Falsetti (Università degli Studi di Roma “Sapienza”)

Caucasian architecture between vernacular and modernism / Giusi Ciotoli (Università degli Studi di Roma “Sapienza”)

The myth of Soviet Tashkent from Revolution to Reconstruction / Marco Falsetti (Università degli Studi di Roma “Sapienza”)

The geographic architectures of the Caucasian landscape / Antonella Pettorruso (Politecnico di Torino)

17.30 Book presentations

Book presentation: Daniel Pommier, “Storia internazionale dell’Azerbaigian“, Carocci Editore, 2019

Book presentation: Aldo Ferrari, “L’Armenia perduta“, Salerno Editrice, 2019

17.50 End of session

18.00 Asiac association meeting (in Italian)

Friday 6 December

9.30 In the Caucasus, from the Caucasus

Chair: Carlo Frappi (Università Ca’ Foscari, Venezia)

Mещанство and Intelligentsia between Azerbaijan Democratic Republic and Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic / Cristina Boboc (University of Ghent)

Tek Millet, İki Devlet: Turkey and Azerbaijan between operational environment and psychological environment / Federico Lanza (Università di Pavia)

The quest for visibility and self-assessment of the caucasians in Turkey / Fabio L. Grassi (Sapienza University – Rome)

Armenian Clergy and Conflict Management between Etchmiadzin and Beirut, 1943–1994 / Francesco Mazzucotelli (Università di Pavia)

Urban Transformations in Post-Soviet Tbilisi / Vincenzo Zenobi

11.00 Coffee break

11.30 Domestic politics in contemporary Central Asia

Chair: Amb. Stefano Ravagnan

Protest under Patronal Presidentialism: Kyrgyzstan, 1991-2010 / Katherine Crofts-Gibbons (King’s College London)

The role of Kazakh society in the state development: an overview of the current situation, between governmental fickleness and nation branding initiatives / Lucia Bortolotti

Media Education in Kyrgyzstan: Challenges and New Opportunities / Elira Turdubaeva (American University of Central Asia)

Globalization of Kazakhstan Economy: Success or Failure? / Garima Tomar (Visiting scholar, Università Ca’ Foscari, Venezia)

The Uzbekistan turn: true changes or just geopolitical calculations? / Igor Jelen (Università di Trieste), Alessandro Carile

13.00 Lunch

14.30 Contemporary South Caucasus

Chair: Gabriele Natalizia (Università degli Studi di Roma “Sapienza”)

The EU’s human rights promotion in the South Caucasus: constructing ‘civil’ society, depoliticizing human rights? / Laura Luciani (Ghent University)

The role of bargaining power in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution process / Eske van Gils (University of Kent)

Establishing sustainable peace, the linkage between financially beneficial energy projects and conflict resolution: the case of trans-Caspian energy pipelines and Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno Karabakh conflict / Gunel Madadli (University of Bergamo)

Why joining the “international donors club”? Portraying Azerbaijan’s Humanitarian Diplomacy/ Carlo Frappi (Università Ca’ Foscari, Venezia)

Russia hacked: problematic sources for insights on conflicts in Ukraine and the South Caucasus / Giorgio Comai (OBCT/CCI)

16.00 Coffee break

16.15 – South Caucasus linguistics

Chair: Vittorio Tomelleri (Università di Macerata)

Correlation of Adverbs and Semantics of Present Perfect in Georgian / Giuli Shabashvili (Tbilisi State University)

The Spatial Categories of the Kartvelian Languages As the Cultural and Linguistic Representants of the Kartvelian Mentality / Rusudan Gersamia (Ilia State University), Ketevan Lortkiphanidze (Tbilisi State University), Nino Tsulaia (Ilia State University)

On Some Phonetic Processes at the Edge of Morphemes in Megrelian / Tsita Janjgava

17.30 – End of conference