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