With the support of National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the Social Justice Center is commencing a new project - “Dissenting Voices: Combining Academia, Art and Activism.”

The project aims at mobilizing civic activists, researchers and artists in order to study the oppression of marginalized groups and the underlying reasons of oppression. Within the scope of this project, the researchers, activists and artists will be supported by intellectual, as well as financial and technical-material resources in order to enable the project participants to prepare research studies and social art projects on the issues of social inequality and economically, politically, or culturally marginalized groups, including ethnic, religious, or sexual minorities, and to undertake advocacy for social changes.

During the first stage of the project, Social Justice Center will announce an open grant competition, though which 5 researchers will be selected. Using relevant methodology, the researchers will analyze hegemonic policies and social reality and will investigate the practices of oppressing vulnerable and marginalized groups for 4 months.

The second stage of the project envisages support for practical implementation of research findings and recommendations. To this end, Social Justice Center will select 5 ideas for social art products (multimedia, street art, etc.) through an open grant competition. The art products will demonstrate and actualize the concepts and findings prepared throughout the research. The project envisages theoretical work with selected activists and strengthening of their knowledge, which implies active participation of the researchers in the working process. The art products created during the second stage of the project will target wider segments of the population and will try to encourage social changes.

By the end of the project, summarizing discussion forums will be organized in 4 cities of Georgia, namely, in Tbilisi, Batumi, Kutaisi and Telavi. The forums will involve presentations of research and art projects and public discussions.

Within the research scope, Social Justice Center will continue to publish blog posts attempting at alternative understanding of current social and political processes. In addition, Social Justice Center will continue to organize the cycle of public discussions and translate important texts in the fields of contemporary social and political sciences into Georgian. Furthermore, the library created within the scope of the first project financed by NED will be further enriched.

Duration of the Project: Novemeber 2015 – July 2016; 

Project Budget: 31,850 USD.

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