23 February 2026
To: Whom it May Concern
President
Dr. Hayal Akarsu
Assistant Professor
Department of Cultural Anthropology
Utrecht University
president@easaonline.org
https://www.easaonline.org
The Executive Committee of the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA) expresses its
profound alarm at recent government actions targeting higher education in Georgia. We have learned
that under the guise of an “education reform,” the Georgian government has moved to abolish the
anthropology programme at Ilia State University — along with numerous other programmes and
departments — through a process that bypassed meaningful consultation with the academic
community.
The anthropology programme at Ilia State University stands as the foremost site for anthropological
research and teaching in the country. It has cultivated vital international scholarly collaborations and
trained a generation of researchers who are active and valued members of the global scientific
community. Its dissolution was imposed unilaterally, in the face of formal objections from university
leadership and widespread protest from academics across Georgia. This intervention constitutes a
direct assault on institutional autonomy — a right enshrined in Georgia’s own Constitution and a
foundational principle of the European Higher Education Area, of which Georgia is a signatory.
EASA regards this development as deeply troubling in its own right and as symptomatic of a broader
pattern of political encroachment on scientific inquiry. Anthropology’s distinctive contribution to
democratic life lies precisely in its commitment to the critical examination of social structures, power,
and change. To dissolve a programme of this calibre is not merely an administrative decision; it is an
act that diminishes the intellectual and civic commons.
We stand in full solidarity with our Georgian colleagues, with the students whose academic futures have
been disrupted, and with all those resisting the erosion of academic freedom in Georgia. We call on the
Georgian government to immediately reverse this decision, reinstate the anthropology programme at
Ilia State University, and honour its obligations under the Magna Charta Universitatum by upholding the
independence of academic institutions from political interference. We further call on the international
academic community to amplify this demand and to support Georgian scholars and students in this
critical moment.
Sincerely,
Dr. Hayal Akarsu
President, EASA
On behalf of the Executive Committee of EASA
