Online event: Transdisciplinary approaches for university-community cooperation in the Caucasus

21. January 2021 Development ResearchPartnerships
A group of people walking down a street with mountains in the background
Presentation of and discussion on the APPEAR project CaucasusT on 27th of January 2021, 18:00-20:00 CET in the framework of the event series APPEAR in practice.

Date: Wednesday, 27th of January 2021, 18:00-20:00 CET
Online event, please registerhttps://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEkd-itqj8uEte2RIhGAufh17dGIPq5iXaQ

The project – aimed at supporting universities in Armenia and Georgia to work more closely with rural communities on sustainable tourism development. The project partners developed transdisciplinary case study courses, unique for the Caucasus countries, integrated them into curricula of Armenian and Georgian university partners, and recently published a Manual for Lecturers on Developing and Implementing a Transdisciplinary Case Study Course, in order to enable others to learn from this experience. The CaucaSusT partners also aimed at sharing their experience in the wider Caucasus region, through cooperation with the Scientific Network for the Caucasus Mountain Region.

Within the framework of APPEAR in practice_15 CaucasusT project partners from BOKU Vienna, Armenian State Pedagogical University (ASPU), Tbilisi State University (TSU), and IMC FH Krems will present their project, its results and outcomes and the network they established in the Caucasus region. Furthermore, recent PhD graduate and APPEAR alumni Lela Khartishvili from Georgia and current APPEAR scholarship holder Tigran Keryan from Armenia will introduce the recently published manual for university lecturers.

Welcome remarks: Matthias Themel, Austrian Development Agency

Presentations and panel discussion | Facilitator: Maiada Hadaia, OeAD

Speakers in alphabetical order:

Tigran Keryan is finalizing his PhD associated with the CaucaSusT project at the Doctoral School Transformation to Sustainability (T2S) at the BOKU University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna, Austria. His thesis is focused on integration of Transdisciplinary approaches in post-Soviet countries. Before beginning his PhD, he worked as a geography and environmental sciences school teacher in Armenia and was involved in different tourism and youth development projects.

Lela Khartishvili finished her PhD study associated with the CaucaSusT project as part of the Doctoral School Transformation to Sustainability (T2S) at the BOKU University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna, Austria. Her thesis was focused on community tourism development in the Caucasus region. She works as a national consultant on rural tourism in various international projects in Georgia, and is designing training modules for rural and creative tourism entrepreneurs with Georgian Art conservation Centre.

Marine Matosyan supported coordination of the project activities on behalf of the Armenian State Pedagogical University (ASPU). She has a PhD in Geographical Sciences, and is an Associate Professor of the Chair of Geography and its Teaching Methods at ASPU and the author of multiple scientific-methodological articles, with a thematic focus on territorial management, regional policy, tourism, and geographical culture.

Tamara Mitrofanenko managed the project on behalf of the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, BOKU, Institute of Landscape Development, Recreation and Conservation Planning (ILEN). She combines her work at BOKU with supporting activities of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Vienna Office, Secretariat of the Carpathian Convention, in the Caucasus and the Carpathian Mountain regions.

Prof. Joseph Salukvadze coordinated the CaucaSusT project on behalf of Tbilisi State University (TSU). He is the head of the department of human geography at the faculty of social and political sciences, and a supervisor of the doctoral program in 'Urbanism'. Prof. Salukvadze is a member of the steering committee of the Scientific Network of the Caucasus Mountain Region. His academic interest is focused on urban studies, land policy and land-use planning. He served as the vice rector of TSU from 2014 to 2017, and as the deputy president of the Georgian Geographical Society from 2008 to 2016.

-------------------

"APPEAR in practice" invites project partners to reflect on and discuss their experiences referring to a specific topic in the project implementation process of their partnerships. APPEAR is a programme of the Austrian Development Cooperation.

 

BOKU CaucasusT website