The Department of Comparative Thought and Literature is very pleased to welcome Professor Nana Sharikadze from Tbilisi, Georgia, as a visiting Fulbright Scholar this Fall. Professor Sharikadze is an Associate Professor at both the Caucasus University (Affiliated) and the V. Sarajishvili Tbilisi State Conservatoire and has conducted extensive research in various musical domains, including twentieth-century musical theatre, experimental music, twentieth-century opera, politics and music, Georgian music, and Soviet music. In 2023, she published the monograph An Introduction to Georgian Art Music: Sense-Making through Music (Cambridge Scholar Publishing). Currently, her focus is on Soviet music, exploring unique perspectives related to colonization and decolonization. From 2019 to 2023, Professor Sharikadze served as Rector of the Tbilisi State Conservatoire and in 2022, she was honored with the prestigious silver medal “Zasłużony Kulturze Gloria Artis” by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of Poland, making her the first Georgian citizen to receive this recognition for her noteworthy contributions to culture. With Peter Schmelz, professor in the Department of Comparative Thought and Literature, she co-wrote (with her colleague Maia Sigua, as well) an article that was just published by the Journal of the American Musicological Society called: “Throwing off the Russian Lenses from Soviet Music: The Colonization and Decolonization of Georgian and Ukrainian Music.” We are delighted to have Professor Sharikadze in the Department of Comparative Thought and Literature.