In the Caucasus We Count
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Advisory Committee


The International Academic Advisory Board ( IAAB) for CRRC consists of international academic, community experts and thought leaders with noted reputation and practical knowledge of the status and developments concerning social science in the countries of the South Caucasus. The members of the IAAB also share significant experience in promoting the advancement of social science and share the CRRCs’ mission and values. 

Members:

Timothy Blauvelt 

Dr. Timothy Blauvelt has served as Country Director in Georgia for American Councils for International Education: ACTR/ACCELS since 2003, and has also worked and studied extensively in Russia and Ukraine. He has a PhD in Political Science from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and has been working in the region for more than a decade. He has been Country Director in Georgia for American Councils since 2003, and is Associate Professor of Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies at Ilia State University. He was a Visiting Fulbright Professor in Georgia in 2002-3, and in 2006-2011 he lectured on Soviet political history at Tbilisi State University. He has published numerous articles on Soviet politics, clientalism, nationality policy, and ethnic mobilization in Europe-Asia Studies, Communist and Post-Communist Studies, Kritika, War & Society, and Nationalities Papers.


Alexi Gugushvili


Alexi Gugushvili, MSc in Policy Studies 2006-07, now studying for a PhD at the Department of Political and Social Sciences, European University Institute, Florence, Italy. Before applying to the programme, he received a degree in Economics from the Tbilisi State University [Georgia] and then worked as a chief specialist at the Economic Policy Agency of Tbilisi City Hall. Then, he worked at the Department for Work and Pensions in London, at the Adam Smith International in Tbilisi, and at the Task Force for Regional Development in Georgia. Basically, he was involved in the design of socioeconomic development programmes and in the Project of localising the Millennium Development Goals in Tbilisi.


Hans Gutbrod


Hans Gutbrod holds a Ph.D. and a B.Sc. in International Relations from the London School of Economics. Originally from Germany, he is the author of a Handbook for Professional Communication, which has been published in a number of countries. His primary research interests are public responses to political reform, as well as social capital and social cohesion. Prior to joining CRRC in 2006, Hans worked in the Caucasus region for several years. He has taught at Tbilisi State University and trained lecturers and higher education staff on methods. He was actively involved in regional Master program in Social Sciences Transformation in the South Caucasus delivering number of lecture courses and seminars in 2004-2007. His experience includes working for OSCE, helping to set up a Liberal Arts college in Berlin, working as a Long Term Election observer for OSCE, as well as teaching and training in various other institutions and organizations.

Hans Gutbrod cooperated with Center for Social Sciences in 2004-2007. He currently specializes in Higher Education issues and in teaching Advanced Methodology, both in an academic and a professional setting. 


Anar Ahmadov


Anar Ahmadov is an Oxford-Princeton Global Leaders Fellow, currently based at the Department of Politics and International Relations, Oxford University. His research interests range across the subfields of comparative politics and political economy, with a particular interest in political regimes, energy resources, foreign aid, and fiscal policy, and the geographic focus on Central Asia, the Caucasus, and other non-Baltic former Soviet republics. His current projects investigate the role of international institutions in fostering the solution to the ‘resource curse’ in resource-rich developing countries and examine political determinants of economic diversification in these countries.

Previously, Anar worked as the Country Director of the Caucasus Research Resource Centre in Azerbaijan, and headed the Institute of Politics and the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Khazar University in Baku, Azerbaijan. He has taught courses on public policy analysis, international relations, and research methods for students of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), Khazar University, Baku State University, and Leiden University. Anar has also organized and conducted numerous executive education workshops, trainings, and seminars on public policy analysis, political economy of oil, and conflict management for government, civil society, business, and academic audiences from former Soviet Union and several European countries.

Anar Ahmadov completed his doctorate in the Department of Government at the LSE. The thesis subject is “A Conditional Theory of the Political "Resource Curse": Oil, Autocrats, and Initial Conditions in Central Eurasia and beyond”.
 

Shushanik Hakobyan


Shushanik Hakobyan joined the economics department as a visiting assistant professor in the fall of 2011, shortly after finishing her Ph.D. at the University of Virginia. Her dissertation examined the efficacy of the US Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), a trade preference program that provides tariff exemptions to developing countries on their exports to the US. In addition to trade preference programs, she is also interested in the impact of trade liberalization on labor market outcomes.

Prior to joining Middlebury College, Shushanik taught at the University of Virginia, earning a teaching award for excellence in undergraduate instruction. She also served as a teaching assistant at both University of Virginia and Johns Hopkins University. Her teaching interests include international economics, public economics, development and trade policy.

Originally from Yerevan, Armenia, Shushanik earned her B.A. in Economics at the Yerevan State University of Economics and an M.A. in Russian and Eurasian Studies at Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies.

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