Profil
Oliver Reisner is professor in European and Caucasian Studies, Jean Monnet Chair (09/2016 – 08/ 2019) at Ilia State University Tbilisi (Georgia). He received his Dr. phil. degree in East European History for a thesis on the formation of the Georgian national movement at Georg-August-University Gottingen in 2000. Then he coordinated the first post-graduate MA programme “Central Asia / Caucasus” at Humboldt University Berlin (2000-2003), managed an EU-funded civic integration project “Intercommunal Centre for Youth” (EIDHR) with World Vision International (2003-2005) and worked as operations manager at the Delegation of the European Union to Georgia (2005-2015) being in charge of culture, education, youth, minorities and of monitoring and evaluation of the EU-Georgia cooperation. Recently he published articles on Europeanisation, religion, the specifics of civil society in Georgia. He authored the Georgia country reports for the Bertelsmann Transformation Index 2016, 2018 and 2020. He is a board member of the “Association of European Studies for the Caucasus” (AESC) and member of the advisory council of the “European Journal of Minority Issues” (EJM). He published a monograph and more than 20 papers in German, Georgian and English journals as well as in several volumes so far. Currently he is leading a research project “In Search of Social Cohesion in Minor Urban Settings of Georgia” (Rustaveli National Science Foundation), which has a strong focus in youth and intergenerational dialogue. Finally, he is co-editor of the series “Caucasian Studies” at Reichert Verlag Wiesbaden.
Publications (selected)
Monographs
Die Schule der georgischen Nation. Eine sozialhistorische Untersuchung der nationalen Bewegung in Georgien am Beispiel der „Gesellschaft zur Verbreitung der Lese- und Schreibkunde unter den Georgiern“ (1850-1917) [The school of the Georgian nation. A socio-historical study of the national movement in Georgia by the example of the "Society for the Spread of Literacy among the Georgians", 1850-1917]. Wiesbaden: Reichert, 2004 (Caucasian Studies. Vol. 6)
Articles
Die Europäisierung Georgiens (Georgia’s Europeanisation), in: Olaf Leisse (Hrsg.): Politik und Gesellschaft im Kaukasus. Eine unruhige Region zwischen Tradition und Transformation (Politics and Society in the Caucasus. A Troublesome Region Between Tradition and Transformation). Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 2019, pp.
On the Specifics of the Development of Civil Society in Georgia, in: Modernization in Georgia. Theories, Discourses and Realities. Editor Giga Zedania. Bern, Berlin etc.: Peter Lang, 2018, S.229-270
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