Educational and Scientific-Research Institute of Oriental Studies
From the beginning, history of the School of Oriental Studies in Georgia developed in close connection with university traditions and, therefore, with educational process. History of the study of Oriental languages and research of Orient is as old as Tbilisi State University itself and the idea of University in Georgia.
Therefore, the concept and the strategy of teaching and researching Oriental studies are an integral part of the concept and the strategy of university education in this field.
Aim of the Educational and Scientific-Research Institute of Oriental Studies of the TSU Faculty of Humanities, is to preserve and strengthen traditions of the school of Georgian Oriental Studies and carry out research and teach in the fields of Orientalistics, as well as Kartvelology (Georgian studies); Oriental studies in Georgia was always characterized with this feature – topic of research being directly and firmly connected with the Kartvelology issues.
Aim of the Educational and Research-Scientific Institute of Oriental studies is to provide students with education of modern standards using educational programs of Oriental profile; prepare competitive and highly qualified specialists on all three levels of studies – bachelors, masters and doctoral; conduct research within collegiate academic environment and develop scientific-research projects with innovative approaches, involvement of international educational and research centers and sharing international experience.
Direction of scholarly research
Georgian school of Oriental studies was established as the means to strengthen scholarly foundation for Kartvelology research and it was always focused on bilateral historic relations (literature, language, history, culture) of the Middle East and Georgia which was a result of our country’s connection with this region throughout the centuries; however, it is natural that interests of Georgian Oriantalists is not limited to the research of bilateral relations.
Scope of educational and research interests of Educational and Scientific-Research Institute of Oriental Studies is quite vast and covers numerous aspects of research of Orient, including Far East region (philology, history, philosophy and history of religion, culture and regional studies). In particular, Linguistic (morphologic-syntactic) and Vocabulary (semantic-etymology), Dialectology and Dialects, Medieval and Modern Eastern Poetry and Prose, History of Literature and Theory, Poetic and Versification issues, Quran and Islamology, Diplomatics, Numismatics, Paleography-Epigraphy, as well as, questions of Textology and Source Studies.
These are traditional directions for the Georgian school of Oiental Studies, as well as quite significant for the world’s Orientalistic centers.
Special interest of Educational and Scientific-Research Institute of Oriental Studies lays in translation and academic translation activities (Institute publishes translations of oriental sources and historical documents with accompanied comments, high-level translations of medieval and modern literature masterpieces), issues related to translations are taught and examined.
Educational and Scientific-Research Institute of Oriental Studies of the TSU Faculty of Humanities also pays considerable attention to the educational-methodological publications connected with teaching – University teaching manuals, readers, dictionaries, teaching references, etc. that serves to and aims raising and preparing new generations of Orientalists.