Up to fifty Returning Fellows (RF), International Scholars (IS) and AFP staff members gathered at the OSI Higher Education Support Program, Academic Fellowship Program’s (AFP) cross-regional Discipline Meeting in Tbilisi to discuss issues related to teaching Law and Economics in higher education institutions. The Meeting was hosted by the AFP South Caucasus office on April 11-12, 2008.
The Meeting is an annual event held by the AFP regional offices. It brings together fellows and scholars working in the same discipline area from different regions covered by AFP. The event wraps up professional activities of the AFP fellows throughout the academic year; provides an opportunity to present their academic work, generate and share comments and receive advice for the improvement and development. It also provides opportunity to AFP staff, RFs and ISs from different regions to meet in person and network.
The Tbilisi Meeting hosted young scholars and experienced professors teaching Public and Human Rights Law and Economics in the US, Canada, Israel, Italy, Germany, Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Serbia and Ukraine. United in Discipline Groups, this year, Returning Fellows focused their work on Fellowship Projects. At the beginning of the academic year they posted their teaching and research materials on the AFP electronic resource, Webfolio, for the review and commentary. Later, the materials reviewed by peer Fellows and International Scholars were amended accordingly and presented at the Discipline Meeting in their intermediate stage of development for the further review and discussion.
According to the participants, the Meeting was an excellent opportunity to engage in academic exchange of views, familiarize with lessons learned and different experiences, receive useful feedback; get further motivation for improvement, and inspiration for new projects; The event assisted AFP fellows to see how academics in different countries solve similar problems, find solutions through discussion, make improvements and introduce significant changes to their Projects.
Khatuna Ioseliani
Academic Fellowship Program