Education: Tbilisi State University, Faculty of Western European Languages: Italian language and literature (BA 2003-2007); Tbilisi State University, Centre for Social Sciences: Gender Studies ( MA 2010-2012).
Position: Former Director at Women’s Initiatives Supporting Group.
Research Interests: Gender, feminism, LGBT issues.
Languages: Georgian, Russian, English, Italian, Swedish, Spanish.
City: Tbilisi
Email: natiagvianishvili[at]gmail.com
Biography:
Natia Gvianishvili has studied Italian language and literature (BA, 2003-2007) and Gender Studies (MA,2010-2012) at the Tbilisi State University. Ms. Gvianishvili is fluent in Russian, English, Italian and Swedish and her experience includes teaching, translating and interpreting to and from all the above mentioned languages.
In 2009 she started to collaborate with Women’s Initiatives Supporting Group as a volunteer and became the member of the first Georgian LBT initiative group LBTika in 2010, which focused on publishing non-academic educational materials about gender and sexuality. In 2011, alongside with several other activists, she founded the Independent Group of Feminists.
Natia Gvianishvili is a former board member of Identoba (one of the Georgian LGBT organizations), for which she had also been volunteering in 2010-2011. Throughout 2011-2012 Ms. Gvianishvili was employed at Identoba first as Program Manager and later as Research Assistant.
Ms. Gvianishvili has been employed at Women’s Initiatives Supporting Group as a Program Director since summer 2013, in the beginning of 2015 she was appointed a director of the same organization.
She has recently completed a research on Internalized Homophobia in Georgia LGBQ community, with support from the South Caucasus Regional Office of the Heinrich Boell Foundation, which granted Ms. Gvianishvili a scholarship in 2012. In 2013 Ms. Gvianishvili became one of the first trainers in Integrated Security (supported by Kvinna till Kvinna). Ms. Gvianishvili often participates in lectures, discussions, trainings on LGBT and gender issues.
Publications:
2012 – Study of LGBT Discrimination in Georgia – Situation of Transgender Persons (WISG)
2012 – 2013 Study of Internalized Homophobia and Coping Mechanisms in Georgian (supported by HBF)
