In 1989, December 9, I defended my PhD thesis: Complementation in Georgian at the Department of Linguistics, Lund University. My opponent was Prof. Winfried Boeder from Oldenburg University, my supervisor Prof. Bengt Sigurd (Lund University) and my Georgian co-supervisor was Prof. Nani Chanishvili (Tbilisi State University).
Read the dissertation here.

Following the defense of the thesis, a more informal part concluded the event. According to the tradition, the Department’s own band Stämbandet [The Vocal Cords] with Prof. Bengt Sigurd playing the violin together with other members of staff on other instruments performed a specially selected song for the event. In my case the song was “Georgia on my Mind“, but in a special arrangement and, most importantly,  with new lyrics – “Georgian on our Minds”:

As this was long before smart phone days, no video recording remains. Some photos were made during the performance of the band Stämbandet, of Irakli K. playing the guitar and from the dissertation supra with guruli katami, ghomi, badridzhani nigvzit (thanks to Nani), churchkhela… The tables were decorated with flags of independent Georgia (made by my mother for the occasion), something that was quite  unusual in 1989, as this was still during Soviet times.

The dissertation – both its academic and the cultural side – was also noticed in the Georgian press – below an article in the newspaper Saxalxo ganatleba: