Ketevan Gurchiani

Ketevan Gurchiani studied classics at Tbilisi State University in the Republic of Georgia and at the Albert-Ludwigs University in Germany. She defended her dissertation on ancient Greek religion and theatre. Her interests in religion have since taken her to contemporary societies and issues. Her shift to cultural anthropology has been sponsored by generous scholarships held at St. John’s College Oxford, UCLA, Columbia and New Your University (NYU). Ketevan Gurchiani is mostly interested in studying different aspects of religiosity with special focus on everyday religion. Currently she is working on religiosity among young Orthodox Georgians within Georgia and beyond. Since 2015 she is head of a three-year project researching everyday religion funded by Rustaveli National Science Foundation. Her interests broadly focus on everyday life and how it is informed by the post-Soviet and Soviet habitus. She also explores and teaches the culturally specific understanding of heroism and dignity.
K. Gurchiani is active in teaching and supervising masters and PhD students. She is also organizing a series of interdisciplinary research seminars in history, anthropology, sociology and cultural studies, giving young researchers the opportunity to present their research.
She has been recipient of numerous research grants and awards from Georgian, German, and US-based foundations. Currently Ketevan Gurchiani works as an Associate Professor of Cultural Studies at Ilia State University in Tbilisi and is visiting scholar at New York University (NYU).

Scientific interests / research interests

Caucasus, Georgia, religion, everyday life, rituals, mythology, contemporary religiosity, ancient Greek theater and ritual.