Positions
Since 2021
Editing and hosting of the podcast "Across the Caucasus"External link
Since 2019
Teaching and research fellow (Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin)
2017–2019
Research assistant in the project LexCauc – A lexical database for the languages of the Caucasus
Since 2014
PhD student in the Caucasian Studies Program, FSU Jena
2014–2017
Research assistant in the project CASCADE - Exploring the Security-Democracy Nexus in the Caucasus
2014–2015
One year of fieldwork in the Armenian border village Pshatavan
2011–2013
M.A. in Cultural and Social Anthropology at Tbilisi State University, Georgia
Topic of the MA thesis: Transformation of Urban Space, as exemplified by contemporary Tbilisi
2006–2010
BA in Arabic studies at Tbilisi State University, Georgia
Topic of the dissertation: Land use strategies in an Armenian border village Pshatavan
This research seeks to study the strategies of villagers for using and keeping agricultural land plots after the privatization of the lands formerly owned by Sovkhoz and Kolkhoz. The research asks how the land is used and explores the coping strategies adopted by households for converting land plots into valuable, status giving assets. Discussion around strategies are led by the concepts of informality and forms of capital. In the light of Economic Anthropology, the research explores household strategies as the reflection of top-down and bottom-up changes. The village of Pshatavan borders Turkey. This means that half of the arable land plots are located on no man’s land. Therefore, the effect of the border on shaping a villager’s identity and influencing land use practices is also a major part of the research.