School of Humanities

Abstract
The term ‘roots’ (‘riza’) is widely used in the Pontic-Greek language. It alludes to the relation between grandparents and grandchildren, suggestive of bonding and continuity through space and time. However, for the people originally from the Black Sea Coast of Turkey, known as Pontic-Greeks/Pontians (‘Pontioi’), who found themselves in Georgia after the upheavals of the early twentieth century (World War I, 1914-18, the Russian Revolution, 1917, the Greek-Turkish War 1922-23), roots were always only one part of the story. Routes in various forms, such as migration, deportation and refugee-ness, seem always to have nourished their history, or at least its representation, with stories of fragmentation, violence and survival. Dislocation, relocation and evocation are central practices in the constitution of the ‘Greek Diaspora’ in Georgia today. My work draws upon this triangle of routes-roots-representation. I contextualise them within the interplay of national and international discourses revolving around the Cold War and its aftermath both in Georgia and Greece.

Which moments of dispersion and community building are embedded in the memories of these people? How do they intertwine with notions of modernity expressed in Soviet nationality policy and nation-state building in Greece? What is their role within the identity politics that has emerged following the fall of the Soviet Union, in Georgia and in Greece? How does the notion of ‘diaspora’ fit into these varied contexts and discourses? My examination of personal narratives and secondary sources leads me to argue that the notion of ‘diaspora’ is formed within debates concerning membership and belonging that have culminated during the last decades. Yet ‘diaspora’ is not pre-conditioned by these debates. The memories and practices of diaspora discussed here are entangled with past and present dilemmas, and can help us achieve a more subtle understanding of both.

Abstract:
The Caucasus was a zone of encounters for centuries, generating images of regional cosmopolitanism in the past. This vision creates expectations for the present, when it is included in the wider discussion about the meanings of cosmopolitanism today, its relation to modern geopolitics, and issues of social and political co-existence and recognition. This essay focuses on two different photographs that belong to different Greek families in Georgia. These photographs represent two different historical experiences of migration and pinpoint different understandings of cosmopolitanism. However, they both seem to stem from specific discourses about diasporas and their cosmopolitan character. The role of language in the construction of these discourses is fundamental. The essay compares photographic representations of the 'Greek Diaspora' in order to trace the perceptions of cosmopolitanism they generate, the cultural capital they carry, and its outcome in relation to Greek diaspora politics.

The use of blogs as a teaching method is something new for the Greek education. The financial and structural problems of the latter however, have not yet permitted the application of new technologies to be fully explored despite the intentions of different parties, like the political authorities or the academics. This paper will argue that blogs could enhance class interaction without replacing face to face communication. Their use could play a positive role in an education system burdened by the gradual increase of its student population, restricted funding and infrastructural problems. In this framework, blogs could act as an arena that encourages critical dialogue and assessment regarding courses, educators and students. The author’s personal engagement in blogging as part of her teaching methods coincided with a major social and political unrest in Greece, conditions that affected the ways students related to their blogs as a form of communication. This paper will examine how blogs could play a role in the democratization of the assessment methods by enhancing classroom’s dynamics and the interaction between educators and students. It will also consider how blogs would contribute to the engagement of both students and educators with social and political critical thinking. Finally, this chapter will discuss how blogging could result in the formation of more active citizens.

Abstract: The fall of the Soviet Union and the political and economic problems that followed the emergence of the post-Soviet republics forced many women to migration in a period of feminisation of migration due to global economic and social shifts. Following the biography of two ethnic Greek women from Georgia and Russia, the paper traces the transformations of their social and cultural capital based on ethnicity, gender and education into transnational social capital. The paper uses the idea of transnational social capital in order to examine the ways past networks and memberships or skills were reassessed and transformed or even expanded as part of the post-socialist family planning.