As a participating professor of the joint Carl Friedrich Lehmann-Haupt International Doctoral Program (LHIDP), Prof. Ghia Nodia visited Georg-August-University of Göttingen (UGOE) from May 7 to 10, 2019. Prof. Nodia and his German colleague Dr. Alexander Thiele (Institute of General Theory of the State and Political Sciences of UGOE) are partners in the supervision of Kristine Margvelashvili who is a doctoral student participating in the LHIDP. During their meetings Prof. Nodia and Dr. Thiele reviewed the current state of Kristine Margvelashvili’s work and research activities. The meetings involved the doctoral student too and focused in particular on such aspects as the development of the research project, the progress of the literature review and the preparation for the prospectus defense, that will take place this summer at ISU. Prof. Nodia’s visit furthermore provided an opportunity to make plans for the forthcoming visit of Dr. Thiele to ISU in the autumn semester 2019/20. On May 8 Prof. Nodia gave a public lecture to a large audience in the main lecture hall of UGOE on the topic “Georgia’s political system between formal and informal constitutions”. After his talk a vivid discussion commenced under involvement of the present audience.
During the same week, Prof. Nina Pataraia, speaker of International Doctoral School (IDS) at Ilia State University, was invited to UGOE for several meetings and discussions concerning future activities within the joint program and the further development of the IDS. The schedule of Nino Pataraia’s visit comprised as well meetings with the Vice President for International Affairs of UGOE, Prof. Hiltraud Casper-Hehne, and many other high-level representatives of the university. Since currently two doctoral students of the LHIDP, Ekaterine Nanitashvili and Kristine Margvelashvili, are spending their research periods at UGOE, a meeting with them took place too. Prof. Pataraia and the doctoral students discussed university life and ongoing matters of the LHIDP program. Eka and Kristine as well shared their experiences so far concerning administrative issues and the academic environment at UGOE.