The Inaugural Forum of the Association for the Advancement of North Caucasus Studies (AANCS) took place on June 25 at Princeton University, with campus and Zoom participation..

I’m honored to have been invited as Senior Advisor to the Association, and it was a great pleasure to participate in the event. For many years I have been engaged in research on the North Caucasus, particularly the Circassians. I will be happy to contribute to this initiative.

Many thanks to Zhygwin Lidia (Zhigunova), President and Co-Founder (Tulane University), and Diego Banning Wang, Vice-President and Co-Founder (Harvard University), for this important and timely initiative focused on the North Caucasus.