Central Asia and Caucasus Research and Training Initiative
The Central Asia and Caucasus Research and Training Initiative (CARTI) provides support and training for original research by young university-based academics in their home academic environment. The program targets the scholars in the early stages of their postgraduate training and recent graduates of doctoral programs in the post-Soviet countries of South Caucasus and Central Asia, Afghanistan, and Mongolia.
CARTI seeks to assist the motivated young academics who are in crucial early stages of their careers to gain critical competence with the foundational and current scholarship and active involvement in international intellectual exchange and debate in their subject areas. With the support of CARTI, the Fellows engage state-of-the-art resources, theories, methodologies and approaches to their research and teaching in the subjects and areas of importance to the academic and social development in the region.
CARTI is committed to enrichment and innovation in higher education in the humanities and social sciences and emphasizes the significance of original and critical scholarly work in the development of university teaching and curricula.
CARTI is implemented through Junior and Senior Fellowships.
Junior Fellowships
Junior Fellowships support individuals in early stages of their formal doctoral studies (such as aspirantura) and focus on developing ideas and skills for original academic research. Junior Fellowships provide a medium for testing and challenging the theories, methods, and assumptions in the core of individual research agendas, while at the same time guiding and assisting the fellows in their first independent research efforts.
Senior Fellowships
Senior Fellowships are available to young scholars who have recently received their doctoral (e.g., candidate of science) degrees. The fellowships support innovative and critical research agendas and development of international research and teaching partnerships with special emphasis on presentation of scholarly work and integrating the new scholarly thinking and outcomes and experience of research into university teaching.
The program provides fellows with opportunities for:
- enhancing familiarity with the state-of-the-art in their disciplines and association with the current thinking in their fields, by improving access to seminal scholarship, relevant international expertise and contemporary debates within the international scholarly community;
- conducting individual and collaborative original, innovative and high quality research with critical discussion and peer feedback on the research process and outcomes, enhanced by advanced training in and practice of research design and contemporary methodologies and tools of academic research;
- applying research experience and outcomes to development of teaching and curriculum at the region’s universities and promoting research work as integral part of students’ learning;
- peer collaboration and mobility on regional and international level;
- development of skills and venues for publicizing scholarly work.
Through its mentoring scheme, CARTI helps to establish and supports active direct collaboration of the Fellows with advanced International Scholars engaged in the studies and teaching in the similar subjects.
International Scholars
All CARTI junior and senior fellows work in collaborative partnerships with individually appointed CARTI international scholars. The international scholars can be proposed by the fellows or selected by CARTI and are advanced academics, prominent in the fields of scholarship relevant to the fellows’ projects, who represent universities outside the program’s target region. The international scholars advise and collaborate with the fellows in enhancing their research projects at the planning stages and in the course of their implementation by offering feedback and critique, and through joint research activities, discussion of sources, methods, progress and findings of the research.
CARTI supports the program of exchange visits between fellows and international scholars. The international scholars assist the fellows in accessing the relevant resources and facilities at their home institutions and facilitate their contacts with international academic networks.
Academic Subjects and Working Language
CARTI is open to support academic research in a wide range of subjects and topics in the humanities and social sciences. The proposed projects will typically be concerned with the study, revision and application of the foundational scholarly thinking to analysis and explanation of specific issues and research questions, rather than aim at policy development or implementation. The program strongly encourages and helps develop original and innovative research agendas that have the bearing on the important issues within the communities and societies of the scholar’s country and wider region and research of comparative nature. The supported projects can also pursue critical exploration and original interpretations of the foundational scholarship in the academic subjects, as well as the study of other regions and countries of the world, that have pronounced relevance for developing the scholarly explanations of region-specific issues and phenomena. CARTI makes a special effort to create spaces for and support for interdisciplinary discussion and research.
While CARTI supports research and teaching in the local languages, operational knowledge of English and ability to work with academic resources and participate in training activities in the English language is highly desirable and considered an advantage in the selection process.
http://www.soros.org/initiatives/hesp/focus/carti