Tamar Keburia

Academic Biography:

● BA Studies: Business administration, Ilia State University, 2007-2012
● MA Studies: Sociology, Ilia State University, 2014-2016
● Invited Lecturer, Introduction to Modern Though, Ilia State University, 03/2018-02/2019
● Internship, Institute for the Analysis of Change in Contemporary and Historical Societies, Catholic
University of Louvain, 02/2019-05/2019
● Internship, Institute of Eastern European History, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, 06/2019-11/2019
● Researcher, Humans Right Education and Monitoring Center (EMC), 2015-2019
● Research assistant for Project “Lab-in-the-field experiments on Inter-ethnic relations and intra-group
cooperation”, European University Institute, 05/2015-11/2015

Brief Description of the Doctoral Project:

One of the features of the Soviet system was massive industrialization coupled with the rise of factories – the form of
industry that requires labour force, raw materials and planned production cycle. The doctoral project aims to
reconstruct the history of workers and Soviet industrialization from the bottom-up perspective by studying Zestafoni’s
Ferroalloy plant and its constituencies – Georgian peasant-proletariat. The project will contribute to the larger Easter
European history field by exploring the everyday histories of industrial workers during the late socialism – a period
which was marked by three main drives: full employment, material abundance, and hyper modernization. Drawing
upon an archival and oral history approach, the project will study the process of industrial and economic
transformations of rural Georgia, and at the same time critically reflect on the commonly ambivalent trends such as
Sovietization and proletarianization of rural people. The project will open up the floor for wider interpretations of Late
Socialism by stressing the varieties of visions and memories about the Soviet past after World War II. Finally, the study
will produce a fertile ground for expanding the academic discussions about the totalitarian features of the late Soviet
system and its obscure mode of rule.

Conference Participations, Scientific Talks, Poster Presentations:

● Georgiens Geschichte und seine museale Gegenwart, 02/07/2019, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Panel
talk “Creation of Industrial Class in Rural Western Georgia”
● International forum: Social Justice in Times of Crisis, 01/05/2019, EMC & Institute for social and cultural
studies, Presentation title “The Political Economy of Occupational Health and Safety in Georgia”
● Open lecture at the Institute for the Analysis of Change in Contemporary and Historical Societies,
22/03/2019, Catholic University of Louvain, Lecture title “Soviet industry and Soviet labour politics”
● Public discussion “Social and ecological aspect of extractive natural resource politics”, 01/03/2019, Heinrich
Boll Stiftung South Caucasus, Contributing speech title “The history of Georgian Extractive industries under
Soviet rule”
● Round table discussion: Urban mobility futures: Neoliberalisation, digitalization, labour, 25/06/2018, Tbilisi
State University & Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography, Contributing speech title “Labour precarity in
post-Soviet context”
● Scientific conference: Capitalism, Culture and Agency, 22/05/2018, Ilia State University, panel contribution
“Changing forms of the labour relation under the global capitalism: From Proletariat to Precariat”

Books:

● Contentious Politics: Experience and Perspectives – Labour, Cultural and environmental protests, 11/2017 of
Heinrich Boll South Caucasus office, ISBN: 978-9941-27-589-0, link;
● Legal and Sociological Research of Labour Mediation Mechanism in Georgia: Experience, theory and practice,
01/2019 of Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC), ISBN: 978-9941-8-0866-1, Link

Chapters in Books:

● The Future of work and work of the future in post-Soviet Georgia, Studying the local context – The
challenges of social changes and emancipation, 2018 of Civil Activism Research Centre (CARC), ISBN:
9789941136917, 78-111
● “Whom to Give to (Knowing Not to Know)” by Jacques Derrida, The collection of translated texts “Bible
from a postmodern perspective”, 2012, ISBN 978-9941-18-151-1, Savle Tsereteli Institute of Philosophy, pg.
185-216
●

Grants (own Grants and Participation in Grants):
● MA research scholarship, Shota Rustaveli National Foundation, MA thesis “What it means to be an industrial
worker in the post-soviet Georgia? – Studying the historical and social environment of industrial cities”,
12/2015-08/2016, Research Grant
● Scholarship for internship and research, Erasmus + program, Ph.D. project “History of workers and Soviet
Industrialization in rural Western Georgia”, 02/2019-05/2019, Exchange program grant
● Rustaveli-DAAD Joint Fellowship Programme, Shota Rustaveli National Foundation & DAAD, D. project
“History of workers and Soviet Industrialization in rural Western Georgia”, 06/2019-11/2019, Internships in
German higher education institutes for Ph.D. students

Contact Information:
tamar.keburia.1@iliauni.edu.ge
tamari.qeburia@stud.uni-goettingen.de
(+995) 595002612; (+32) 741528109