On 16-17 October 2026, the First International Symposium of Kartvelian Studies, entitled “Georgia and the World Across the Centuries,” was held in Athens. The symposium was organised by the Georgian Institute in Athens, Caucasus Centre for Education and Culture, the National Library of Georgia, the Giorgi Machabeli Foundation, and the Grigol Lortkipanidze Society, in partnership with Webster University Athens.
The symposium programme featured more than 50 presentations delivered in on-site and online sessions. Participants included researchers from Georgia, Greece, Cyprus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Japan, and the United States. The presentations explored Georgia’s relations with the outside world from antiquity to the present day, addressing its connections with the Greek-Byzantine and Roman worlds, Georgian cultural centres abroad, Georgian emigration and diaspora, historical Georgian-Greek relations, as well as issues of national identity, collective memory, and European integration.
The School of Humanities and Social Sciences of Caucasus University was represented by Tatia Mtvarelidze, an affiliated Assistant Professor and Hellenist, and Guranda Tchelidze, an affiliated Professor and Jean Monnet Professor. Both participated in the symposium and chaired academic discussions.
Tatia Mtvarelidze presented a paper entitled “An Unknown Greek Translation of the Treaty of Georgievsk (GSA, MS, Χφ36) and Its Significance for Georgian Historiography.” The study examines, for the first time, manuscript Χφ36, discovered in the Greek General State Archives in 2025 and dated to 1783. The manuscript contains a Greek translation of the Treaty of Georgievsk and related historical documents.
Guranda Tchelidze’s paper, “Higher Education and the Europeanisation of Georgia: European Values and National Identity in Modern Georgia,” explored the role of higher education in Georgia’s Europeanisation process, with particular attention to the promotion of European values and the relationship between European integration and national identity in contemporary Georgia.
The symposium provided participants with an opportunity to exchange perspectives, highlight the diversity of Georgian scholarly thought on history, literature, culture, national identity, and Georgia’s European future, and reaffirm the unity of the Georgian scholarly community.
