A short history of the Societas Caucasologica Europaea
The history
SCE
officers since 1986 [1983]
Previous
meetings
[NB I: The board of the Societas Caucasologica Europaea is well aware of the fact that the use of the term 'Caucasian' as an attribute to a noun may cause semantic ambiguities or even problems (especially in the American tradition). The board stresses that 'Caucasian' denotes a geographical, linguistic, or cultural term in the given context. Any racial inferences are neither intended nor accepted.]
[NB II: The information given on this page is far from being complete. Any additional information about the history of the Societas Caucasologica Europaea as well as corrections of the given data are welcomed and should be mailed to: Wolfgang Schulze (W.Schulze@lrz.uni-muenchen.de)]
In 1982, some colleagues interested in the languages of Caucasia (among them Mike Job, George Hewitt and Rieks Smeets) proposed to organize an informal international meeting of Caucasian linguists. This idea was realized a year later, when people from different countries met in Hull, England. George Hewitt functioned as the host of this very successfull meeting (1983) which was attended (among others) by
Stephen Anderson
Winfried Boeder
Simon Crisp
George Hewitt
Dee Ann Holisiky
Sonja Fritz
Jost Gippert
Mike Job
Cathérine Paris
John Payne
Donald Rayfield
Wolfgang Schulze
Rieks Smeets
At that stage the participants decided to style
this group 'The Circle of Caucasian Linguistics' (in Georgian: k'avk'asiuri
enatmecnierebis c're) and to meet every other year. The reason that the
2nd meeting was scheduled for 1984 was to avoid a clash with the Chicago
meetings that were organized every two years (since 1979) by the Department
of Slavic Languages and Literatures of the University of Chicago (The
Non-Slavic Languages of the USSR (NSL)
[since 1999: The Biennial Chicago Conference
on Caucasia]. Hence, the 2nd meeting took
place in Vienna the following year (organised by Jost Gippert and Sonja
Fritz). The 3rd meeting in Oslo (1986, organized by Fridrik Thordarson)
represented a landmark in the history of the Societas Caucasologica
Europaea. The about 50 linguists present decided to formally found
a 'societas' that should ensure the communicative infrastructure among
European (and Non-European) linguists interested in the languages of Caucasia
(including both the autochthonous languages as well as those languages
that are related to languages outside this area). The reason why the society
was termed Societas Caucasologica Europaea
was
that at roughly the same time the
Association
for the Study of Caucasia (ASC) had been
founded in North America (first president: Robert Hewsen; the meetings
of the ASC are now part of the Chicago Conference on Caucasia).
The ASC (earlier Society for the Study of Caucasia (SSC)) was regarded
as a sister organization of the SCE active mainly in Northern America,
whereas the SCE was thought to serve as an organization for Caucasianists
of the Old World [today, both SCE and ASC are mixed with respect to the
origin of their members].
In Oslo, the members of
the SCE decided that the meetings of the SCE (called Caucasian
Colloquium) should take place every two
years. They elected a president, a vice-president, a secretary, a treasurer,
and two deputy officers as members of the SCE board who should serve for
a two years term. It was proposed that each president (together with his/her
secretary) should organize the next meeting to come. Furthermore, the members
agreed that a constitution should be drawn up and discussed during the
next meeting of the SCE. These meetings were thought to be (and in fact
are) open to everybody willing to contribute to the advancement of
the "Linguistics of Caucasia". Still, the members were open minded towards
the integration of Cultural Studies etc. in an interdisciplinary sense.
The exact objectives of the SCE should be documented in the constitution
which, however, for a variety of reasons, has not as yet finally been established.
Consequently, the SCE still does not have a proper constitution aproved
by the SCE members.
The venues 1988-1996 saw
a growing number of participants. In Paris (1988), the SCE board experimented
with the introduction of different (thematic) sections. This - however
- was partly abandoned in subsequent meetings (London 1990, Maykop 1992,
Marburg 1994, Leiden 1996) in order to ensure the interdisciplinary perspective
and objectives of the meetings.
Today, about 150 people
figure as members of the SCE. The current mailing list lists people from
the following countries:
Austria
Belgium
Canada
Denmark
France
Georgia
Germany
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Netherlands
Norway
Poland
Russia
Sweden
Switzerland
Syria
Turkey
United Kingdom
USA
Officers
of the Societas Caucasologica Europaea
1986[1983] - 2000
| Years | President | Vice-President | Secretary | Treasurer | Deputy officer | Deputy officer |
| 'The Circle of Caucasian Linguistics' | ||||||
| 1983-1984 | Organizer of First Caucasian Colloquium: George Hewitt | |||||
| 1984-1986 | Organizer of Second Caucasian Colloquium:
Jost Gippert |
|||||
| Foundation of the Societas Caucasologica Europaea | ||||||
| 1986-1988 | George Hewitt | Dee Ann Holisky | Wolfgang Schulze | Rieks Smeets | Fridrik Thordarson | Donald Rayfield |
| 1988-1990 | George Hewitt | Guram Topuria | Donald Rayfield | Winfried Boeder | Fridrik Thordarson. | Alice Harris |
| 1990-1992 | Donald Rayfield | Alice Harris | Karina Vamling | Winfried Boeder | Fridrik Thordarson | |
| 1992-1994 | Wolfgang Schulze | Guram Topuria | Mike Job | Winfried Boeder | Fridrik Thordarson | Alice Harris |
| 1994-1996 | Rieks Smeets | Guram Topuria | Helma van den Berg | Winfried Boeder | Fridrik Thordarson | Alice Harris |
| 1996-1998 | Gadzhi Hamzatov | Guram Topuria | Helma van den Berg | Winfried Boeder | Frikrik Thordarson | Alice Harris |
| 1998-2000 | Wolfgang Schulze | Guram Topuria | Helma van den Berg | Winfried Boeder | Fridrik Thordarson | Alice Harris |
Previous
venues of the SCE (and Circle of Caucasian Linguistics)
[to be completed]
| Year | Place | Organizer | Participants | Papers read | |
| 1983 | First Colloquium | Hull, England | G. Hewitt | 15 | 15 |
| 1984 | Second Colloquium | Vienna, Austria | J. Gippert | 30 | 11 |
| 1986 | SCE 3 ( = 1) | Oslo, Norway | F. Thordarson | 50 | 26 |
| 1988 | SCE 4 ( = 2) | Paris, France | C. Paris | 60 | 42 |
| 1990 | SCE 5 ( = 3) | London, England | D. Rayfield | 60 | 40 |
| 1992 | SCE 6 ( = 4) | Maykop, Russia | A. Gadagatl | ? | 41 |
| 1994 | SCE 7 ( = 5) | Marburg, Germany | M. Job | 60 | 40 |
| 1996 | SCE 8 ( = 6) | Leiden, Netherlands | R. Smeets | 65 | 40 |
| 1998 | SCE 9 ( = 7) | Makhatchkala, Russia | CANCELED |