In May-November 2021 the Caucasus Institute implemented a project for young scholars, policy columnists and researchers from think tanks, NGOs, media, universities and research centers in Armenia, which was focused on three weekend writing and public speaking retreats outside Yerevan. The course concentrated on conveying U.S. academic practices and skills in writing and speaking through experience sharing and practical tasks, which was supposed to boost participants’ capacities in conceptual approaches to policy analysis, research design and logic, and working with sources and data verification, public presentation etc. The project was realized with support from the US Embassy in Yerevan.
The project experts included:
- Georgi Derluguian, New York University Abu Dhabi, PONARS Eurasia
- Guest US scholar, PONARS Eurasia
- Alexander Iskandaryan, Caucasus Institute, PONARS Eurasia
- Gor Petrosyan, Caucasus Institute
- Hrant Mikaelyan, Caucasus Institute
- Nina Iskandaryan, Caucasus Institute
The 1st retreat took place on June 4-6. The Education Specialist from the US Embassy Public Affairs Section Hasmik Mikayelyan, and Cultural Affairs Officer Amirah Ismail helped to start the event.
During the first retreat course expert Georgi Derluguian gave a lecture on the key principles of academic writing and the main approaches to research in the US.
Mr Derluguian’s lecture was followed by a practical assignment. The participants were invited to write a research proposal for their future research papers and present them to Mr. Derluguian. He helped the participants improve their research questions, narrow down their topics, rethink the target audience and the topics, and also recommended specific sources to include in their bibliography. At the very end of the retreat, the participants were given an assignment to finalize and submit their research proposal for the CI experts’ review till the second retreat.
The informal part of the event also included an excursion to Ishkhanavanq, the 13th-century holy site.
The participants of the retreats gathered again on July 2-4 to continue learning the U.S. best practices in policy analysis. The CI Director Alexander Iskandaryan gave lectures on think-tanking in the U.S., and on what science is and what it is not. The second course expert Gor Petrosyan gave lectures on writing the abstract for a research paper and a research paper itself.
After the first lecture, the participants had a session with Alexander Iskandaryan and Gor Petrosyan during which they discussed their research proposals that they had submitted prior to the retreat. Then, the participants wrote abstracts for their research papers. Afterwards, they presented and discussed their abstracts with the course experts. The next writing assignment was to develop an introduction to their research papers.
Throughout the project, the participants worked on different parts of their research papers. By the end of the project, they produced policy memos that were revised and edited by the project experts. In addition, the participants had an opportunity to get online consultations and individual guidance on improving their writing and to help them devise personal strategies for continued English learning.
Three of the policy memos were published on the CI website and shared with the CI community on social media and via email.
Other papers are expected to be sent to academic journals and to serve as a cornerstone for the participants’ future research projects.