There are more research stories to tell that are important in different ways. Most obviously, perhaps, the defense of my thesis in 1989. The period when I was working on my dissertation and collecting data for my study involved spending most of the years 1987 and 1988 in Georgia at Tbilisi State University.

Fieldwork and visits to the region are an important basis for my research.  I have spent longer periods in different parts of the former Soviet Union, mostly in the Caucasus. This page reflects some of the trips – to Maykop in the Adyghe Autonomous Oblast (1988), to Tbilisi in 2002, Alvani and Pankisi in North Eastern Georgia in 2009, a dramatic visit to Georgia in 2008 that coincided with the Russo-Georgian war (video) and a visit to Baku and Azerbaijan in 2010.

A dear colleague and very special and long-time collaborator was Prof. Mukhadin A. Kumakhov, with whom I co-authored many articles and three monograaphs on Circassian grammar during the years 1992–2008.

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