Maia Sigua

Associate Professor, V. Sarajishvili Tbilisi State Conservatoire

Nana Sharikadze

Associate Professor, V. Sarajishvili Tbilisi State Conservatoire

“Crossroads and Crisis in Georgian Culture: Decolonization and Resurgent Sovietism”

Prof. Sigua will discuss the formation (and deformation) of collective and cultural memory in the Soviet era, using the example of Georgian opera theatre, and how some aspects of such deformed or alternative memory are still at work in contemporary cultural life and practice. 

Prof. Sharikadze will speak about the intricate interplay of ideology and politics in the world of music, and on culture more broadly, in the Republic of Georgia both today and in the Soviet period, based in part on her experience as Director of the Tbilisi Conservatory. 

Hosted by the Department of Comparative Thought and Literature, co-sponsored by the Alexander Grass Humanities Institute, the Department of History, and the Department of Musicology at the Peabody Institute.