On 8 June, “Our Room” – Women’s Empowerment, Awareness-Raising, and Collective Care Days will begin at Ilia State University, organised by the Iliauni Women’s Empowerment Alumni Network. In an environment where discussions on women’s rights are often hindered by disinformation, stereotypes, and social stigma, “Our Room” aims to create a safe, knowledge-based, and supportive space […]

Ilia State University will host a public lecture by Nea Solander, Researcher and PhD Candidate at Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg, Germany. In her lecture, titled “The Efficacy of EU Democracy Promotion in the European Neighbourhood,” Nea Solander will present key findings from the Horizon Europe project EMBRACE, which examined the prospects and obstacles facing the European Union’s democracy […]

On 12-13 June, the Tbilisi Debate on Europe gathers writers, scholars and journalists to confront urgent questions of freedom, history and democracy. Looking from Georgia, what is at stake for Europe today? Today, there is hardly any other city in Europe where European values – including democracy, the rule of law and personal freedoms – are more […]

On 12 June, at 19:30, a panel discussion on free speech titled “Thinking, Speaking and Writing Under Pressure – Academic Freedom” will be held in Room B201 at Ilia State University. Across Europe fundamental democratic freedoms are being undermined. Academic freedom is no exception. Be it economic or political pressure, structural reforms or the primacy of "useable knowledge" […]

On 12 June, at 19:30, in Hall B201 at Ilia State University German historian and recent recipient of the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, Karl Schlögel will deliver a speech, on how the fall of the Soviet empire but also the Russian wars on Ukraine and Georgia call for a radical re-evaluation and re-conceptualization of […]

On 12 June, at 19:30, a panel discussion titled “De-Centering the Story, Re-Writing History” will be held in Room B201 at Ilia State University.  What does de-colonization and re-centering mean for Eastern Europe and the post-Soviet space? In recent years, there is increasing recognition that Russia’s colonial history and its continuing imperial practices must be addressed. A prominent international panel of […]

From a rostrum in the capital of Georgia, leading Slovak intellectual Michal Hvorecký addresses a Europe-wide audience. As a novelist and essayist, Hvorecký explores the fragility of democracy and the political fault lines of contemporary Central and Eastern Europe with irony, urgency and historical awareness. In his recent book Dissident, he turns to questions of […]