The state of academic research in Georgia

A message from FARIG's Founder and Honorary President, John Wilkinson

The present situation is confused, but hopeful. The administration of institutions concerned with Georgia's cultural heritage has been dormant for the past fourteen years, and a number of committees have now been discussing what new arrangements will be possible. However they are still at an early stage in their planning.

The University is trying to grow out of its old dependence on the Soviet system, and to move into a "more western"style. But most of the present professors have only a vague idea what this may involve. I have suggested that they should receive more visits from people who have lived in the western system, and who are aware of the changes that might be productive.

The Institutes pose a far bigger question. State-funded research institutes were an important feature of academic life in the Soviet Union. Quite a number of good scholars are involved with these Institutes, and naturally they should not be lost. The present idea is to do away with the Georgian Academy of Sciences, an administrative body which no longer performs a function, and to replace it with control from a Ministry. But the Institutes will continue to exist.

The urgent problem, as I now see it, is to provide training in such things as the restoration of buildings and the administration and the running of museums. I suppose that junior staff members can now be identified who would benefit by such training. But they are mostly inadequate in their knowledge of foreign languages.

Correcting this would need two stages of training. The first could be carried out in Georgia, with the existing foreign expertise in teaching languages. The second would be to send junior members of staff (and perhaps some senior ones as well), to take part in the activities of foreign institutions.

I would therefore suggest that any contact with foreign embassies should be a joint venture. The Ministry of Culture is largely responsible for these plans, and one of its concerns is to interest the embassies, and see if they could help. Instead of the Georgian Ministry going to each embassy in turn, it would, I believe, be far better for them to present their problems to a group of Cultural Attachés. Perhaps the British, French, German, Italian, and U.S. embassies might be involved.

To help in this preliminary way would not be terribly expensive. It would involve travel grants and accommodation for a number of key people. But it would have a great many consequences. Georgians would make friends abroad, and would rely on them for further advice and support. And the main thing is that they would see how things work in the west (and how they don't work), and would have a much better picture of what a "more western style" really means.