Academic Self-mutilation
Caucasus Studies at Jena University Faces the Axe
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
Due to budgetary constraints, officials at Jena’s Friedrich Schiller University are discussing the possibility of not appointing a new Chair of Caucasus Studies. This would be tanta-mount to abolishing the field of study. It would not only eliminate a unique selling point and thwart the university’s strategy of internationalisation. The abolition of Caucasus Studies would also stand in blatant opposition to recommendations from the German Council of Science and Humanities, the German Rectors’ Conference, and the state of Thuringia’s Ministry of Education, Science, and Culture, all of which called for the strengthening of small fields of study and the expansion of Caucasus Studies.
(Osteuropa 3/2015, pp. 197–203)