Dr Nino Tsitsishvili
BA Tbilisi State Conservatorium (Georgia), MA, PhD (Monash)
Adjunct Research Associate
Biography
Nino Tsitsishvili is an ethnomusicologist and a musician, originally from the republic of Georgia. Nino’s current research focuses on connections between gender, ethnicity and nationalism and their expressions in music. She studies traditional as well as popular music, including rock and rap in Georgia.
Publications
Edited Book
Forthcoming: Cultural Archetypes and Political Change in the Caucasus, ed. Nino Tsitsishvili and Sergey Arutiunov
Journal Articles and Book Chapters
Forthcoming: ‘Introduction: cultural archetypes and political change in the Caucasus’, in Cultural Archetypes and Political Change in the Caucasus, ed. Nino Tsitsishvili and Sergey Arutiunov (in progress)
Forthcoming: ‘The embryo of change: reproducing and transforming gender practices in Georgian women’s rock’, in Cultural Archetypes and Political Change in the Caucasus, ed. Nino Tsitsishvili and Sergey Arutiunov
2009 ‘National ideologies in the era of global fusions: Georgian polyphonic song as a UNESCO-sanctioned masterpiece of intangible heritage’, Music and Politics3/1 at: http://www.music.ucsb.edu/projects/musicandpolitics/archive/2009-1/tsitsishvili.pdf
2009 ‘From folk to hip hop: music of the city and rural émigrés in Tbilisi’, in Urban Cultures, Urban Futures: City Culture and City Planning in Georgia, ed. Kristof Van Assche, J. Salukvadze, and N. Shavishvili. Lewiston: Mellen Press. Georgian translation: Tbilisi: Tbilisi State University Press, 103-27.
2008 ‘Authenticity and hybridity in three soundscapes of Georgian musical culture in the context of political change’, in The Human World and Musical Diversity: Proceedings from the Fourth Meeting of the ICTM Study Group ‘Music and Minorities’ in Varna, Bulgaria 2006, Sofia: Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Art Studies, 103-8.
2008 ‘Gender and improvisation in Georgian vocal polyphony’, in The Third International Symposium on Traditional Polyphony, 25-29 September 2006, ed. Rusudan Tsurtsumia and Joseph Jordania,Tbilisi, Georgia.
2007 ‘Social and political constructions of nation-making in relation to the musical styles and discourses of Georgian duduki ensembles’, Journal of Musicological Research26/1-2, 241-80.
2006 ‘ “A man can sing and play better than a woman”: singing and patriarchy at the Georgian Supra feast’, Ethnomusicology 50/3, 452-93.
1991 ‘Yuzhnoslavyansko-Gruzinskye Muzykal’no-Etnograficheskye Paraleli’ [Musical-ethnographic parallels between the south Slavs and Georgians]. Sovetskaya Etnografia [Soviet Ethnography], (2), 114-23 (in Russian).
2005 ‘The embryo of change: heavy rock in the musical culture of Georgia’, in The Second International Symposium on Traditional Polyphony, 23-27 September 2004, Tbilisi, Georgia, Proceedings, ed. Rusudan Tsurtsumia and Joseph Jordania, 505-12.
2003 ‘The study of gender in Georgian ethnomusicology’, in The First International Symposium on Traditional Polyphony, 2-8 October 2002, Tbilisi, Georgia, Proceedings, ed. R. Tsurtsumia and Joseph Jordania, 488-92.
2000 ‘A systematic study of the relationships between polyphony and monophony in the Kartli-Kakhetian table and solo work songs’, in Problems of Folk Polyphony. Materials of the International Conference Dedicated to the 80th Anniversary of the V. Saradjishvili Tbilisi State Conservatoire, Tbilisi State Conservatory (in Georgian with English summary), 181-94.
1998, ‘The spirit of Georgia’, The Boîte (Melbourne), 8-9.
1990 ‘Folklorni Paraleli Mezhdu Gruzintsite i Yuzhnite Slavjani’ [Folklore parallels between Georgians and South Slavs] in Bulgarski Folklor [Bulgarian Folklore], 1990 14/4), 20-9. The Academy of Sciences of Bulgaria (in Bulgarian with English summary).
Conference Presentations
2008 ‘The poetics of social message and musical innovation as the two ways of ideology-formation in Georgian popular music (from folk to folk-jazz and rap). Georgia: The Making of a National Culture. An International Conference at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 15-18 May.
2008 ‘Musical experimentation and social communication in the popular music of Georgia, from folk to hip hop,’ a paper for a panel, Experiments in Political and Expressive Freedom: Case Studies from Eastern Europe, at the 53rd annual conference Ethnomusicology Beyond Disciplines of the Society for Ethnomusicology in Middleton, Connecticut, 25-28 October.
2007 ‘Georgian polyphony in the new millennium: the preservation of tradition and its impact on directions in ethnomusicology’, 39th World Conference of the International Council for Traditional Music, 4-11 July 2007, Vienna.
2007 ‘Music and ideologies: a themed group exploration’, with Kay Dreyfus, Joel Crotty and Julie Waters. Arts in Action: Monash Arts Festival, 9 June.
2006 ‘Reproducing and transforming gender practices in the post-Soviet Georgian rock’, Society for Ethnomusicology, Hawaii, 16-19 November.
2006 ‘Gender and improvisation in Georgian polyphonic singing’, Third International Symposium of Traditional Polyphony, Tbilisi, Georgia, 25-29 September.
2006 ‘Authenticity and hybridity in three soundscapes of Georgian musical culture: discourses and practices’, 4th meeting of the ICTM (International Council for Traditional Music) Study Group meeting on Music and Minorities in Varna, Bulgaria 25 August - 1 September.
2005 ‘National symbolism and cultural reality: denial of musical diversity in Georgia’, Society for Ethnomusicology, Atlanta, USA 16-20 November.
2004 ‘The embryo of change: heavy metal and the traditional music-culture in Georgia’, SIMS 2004 (Symposium of the International Musicological Society), Melbourne, Australia, 11-16 July.
2004 The Second International Symposium on Traditional Polyphony, Tbilisi, Georgia.
2002 The First International Symposium of Traditional Polyphony, Tbilisi, Georgia.
2000 The ICTM Music and Gender Study Group: Music, Gender and the Body Conference, Toronto, Canada.
1999 The 1st Biannual Conference on Caucasian Culture, Chicago, University of Chicago.
1997 The 7th International Conference on the Cultures of Caucasia, University of Chicago.
1989 The 6th International Congress of the Study of South-East Europe, Sofia, The Academy of Sciences of Bulgaria.