(GCLA)
The Georgian Comparative Literature Association (GCLA) was founded in 2008. Its founder and first president was Prof. Irma Ratiani, Director of the Shota Rustaveli Institute of Georgian Literature at Tbilisi State University (TSU). From 2012 to 2021 the association was led by Assoc. Prof. Gaga Lomidze, Head of the Department of Literary Theory at the Rustaveli Institute. In 2021 Prof. Ratiani returned to the presidency and continues to serve in this role. The Association’s board members are Assoc. Prof. Maka Elbakidze and Irine Modebadze, Senior Researcher at the Institute of Literature. The Executive Secretary is Dr. Tatia Oboladze, and the Coordinator is TSU doctoral student and early-career researcher Lily Metreveli.
Today, the GCLA brings together more than one hundred members, including both established and early-career scholars. The Association also maintains strong partnerships with numerous influential academic and research institutions worldwide, with which it actively collaborates (see https://gclaorg.ge/international-contacts/ ).
Since 2008, the GCLA has carried out national and international projects, among them three scholarly documentary films: Twentieth-Century Georgian Literature and the Idea of National Identity: The True Story; Georgian Literature in 90 Minutes: Global and Local; Georgian Children’s Literature; From the “Deda Ena” Primer to “Salamura”. In cooperation with the Shota Rustaveli Institute of Georgian Literature, the Association has also organized numerous local and international scientific forums, publishing their proceedings afterward. With the support of GCLA, the annual scholarly journal Sjani is also published; it is indexed in international databases (ERIH PLUS, EBSCO, Google Scholar).”
A landmark event in the Association’s history was hosting the 23rd World Congress of the International Comparative Literature Association (ICLA) in 2022 in Georgia – the first time the Congress was ever held in the post-Soviet region. The Congress, titled Re-Imagining Literatures of the World: Global and Local, Mainstreams and Margins, was jointly organized by the GCLA, the Shota Rustaveli Institute of Georgian Literature, and Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University.
Following the successful organization of the aforementioned event, at the session of the Tbilisi Congress, the Association’s President, Prof. Irma Ratiani, was elected to the Executive Council of the International Comparative Literature Association (ICLA). At the 24th ICLA Congress, held in Seoul in July 2025, Prof. Ratiani was also appointed Chair of the Grants Committee.