Lectures

“The Typology of the Gutturals,” opening address, Back(ing), Sorbonne – Nouvelle, 2 – 4 May, 2012. 

“A Proto-Myth, the Storm God,” International Association for Comparative Mythology, 10 – 12 October 2011, Strasbourg, France. 

“Some Historical Links between South and Northwest Caucasian,” Central Eurasian Studies Society XII, 16 – 18 September 2011, Columbus, Ohio 

“Sochi and the Circassians, the Olympics of 2014,” Political Science Association, 19 – 21 April 2011, London, UK 

“A very Peculiar War,” invited talk for the workshop, “Revolutions, Elections, and Politics in Post-Soviet Georgia, at the Centre for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies, Munk School of Global Affairs, Centre for University of Toronto, 24 September 2010. 

“Ancient Ethnonyms in the Caucasus,” invited talk, International Conference on the Caucasus, hosted by the Centre for Russian, Soviet and Central and Eastern European Studies, St. Andrew University, Fife, Scotland, 16 – 17 April 2010. 

“Nart Sagas from the Caucasus,” invited talk, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, conference entitled “Sound Scapes of the Spirit, Cosmology and Sound Art from the Black to Aral Seas,” sponsored by the Russian, East European and Eurasian Center and the Department of Music, 8-9 April, 2010. 

“What the Comparative Method has to Tell Us,” invited talk, Department of Anthropology, McMaster University, 2 March 2010. 

“What’s in a Name? Pedigree, Prestige, and Power in the Folklore of the Caucasus,” invited talk at the Program in Russian and Eurasian Studies, series, The Caucasus: Zones of Contestation., 27 October, 2009. 

Discussant, sections on Ethnicity and Language, (Friday 9 October), and Georgian Anthropology and Literature (10 October), Central Eurasian Studies Society, X, 9 – 11 October. Munk Centre, University of Toronto, 2009. 

“Regional Realities in the South Caucsus,” invited talk, at the conference Independence of Abkhazia and Prospects for the Caucasus, held at Bilgi University and friends of Abkhazia, Istanbul, 30 – 31 May, 2009.

“Dark Conspiracies, Evil Intentions, and Wickedness, or How the World Works.”  Invited talk to the Science Students for Peace/Pugwash, 10 March 2009. 

“The Troubled Feast,” talk presented at the conference, Myths, Tales, and Legends, held at the University of Edinburgh, 20 – 22 February. 

“Who are the Circassians,” invited lecture at a conference, The Past, Present, and Future of the Circassians, a conference sponsored by the European Union.  6 October 2008. 

“The Wonders and Importance of the Circassian Language,” invited lecture at a conference, The Past, Present, and Future of the Circassians, a conference sponsored by the European Union.  6 October 2008. 

Address to the young adults at the Circassian Educational Foundation, invited lecture, 31 May, 2008. 

“The Wonders of Circassian,” talk delivered at and televised locally from William Paterson University (Nart TV), Paterson, New Jersey, 1 June 2008.

__________ with Walter Comins –Richmond, The Deportation of the Circassians from the Caucasus to the Ottoman Empire, “Russia and the Circassians: an Internal Problem or an International Matter?”  The Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, The John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, in cooperation with The Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, the Jamestown Foundation, and the Circassian Cultural Institute.  Morning session, 8 April 2008.

and

Moderator, afternoon session, held at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University. 

“Try to Take Over the World.” A talk on political and strategic concepts given to the Science Students for Peace/Pugwash, McMaster University, 23 January 2008. 

“The Hunters, (Indo-European proto-myths: the Storm God, the Good King, the Mighty Hunter),” at The Deep History of Stories, University of Edinburgh, 28-30 August 2007 

“The Narts of the Caucasus. a Reconstruction of the Indo-European Storm God,” at “The Caucasus: Directions and Disciplines, University of Chicago, 17 – 19 May 2007.

“Central Asia,”  invited lecture in the series, Great Decisions, at the International Institute of Buffalo, Buffalo, New York, 29 January 2007.  Sponsored by The Canadian Consulate General, Buffalo, New York.  

“The Narts of the Caucasus,” invited lecture, Harvard University, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, 4 December 2006

 “Islam in the Caucasus,” invited talk for Princeton University,  Middle East Program, Outreach series, 12 April 2006. 

“Caucasian Nart Heroes and their Links beyond the Caucasus,”  invited open address to The Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, conference on Ethnic and Religious Communities in the Caucasus,  27 - 28 March 2006. 

An Isogloss Model for the Spread of Conflict: the Caucasus as a Case Study,  Association for the Study of Nationalities – 11^th annual meeting,  The Harriman Institute, Columbia University, 23 – 25 March 2006. 

“The Caucasus,” invited talk for Princeton University,  Middle East Program, Outreach series, 5 February 2006. 

 “Proto-Myth: Reconstructing Gods and Heroes,” invited paper, Conference in Celtic and Scottish Studies, University of Edinburgh, 22 – 23 October 2005. 

“Symmetry Breaking in Circassian,” Central Eurasian Studies Society – VI, Boston University, 30 September 2 October 2005. 

“How Big is Language, or Mind over Matter,” invited lecture, Department of Anthropology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, 22 April 2005.

“Historical Mythology, or How to retrieve the Beliefs of  Our Ancestors,” invited lecture, Department of Anthropology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, 21 April 2005. 

“Nart Sagas from the Caucasus, Some Links across Eurasia,” Silk Road Foundation Lecture Series, Stanford University, Stanford, California, 9 December 2004. 

“Creeping Chaos across the North Caucasus,” Central Asia and Caucasus Center, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, Washington, D.C., 1 December 2004. 

“Pontic, a phylum containing Indo-European and Northwest Caucasian, difficulties in distant comparison,” Cornell Linguistics Colloquium, 11 November 2004.

“Ergativity in the Caucasus,” Cornell Linguistics Colloquium, 7 October 2004. 

“The Caucasus: a God and Three Heroes,” invited talk at VI-th Harvard Roundtable on the Ethnogenesis of South and Central Asia,” Harvard University, 7- 10 May 2004. 

“Counter Examples in Linguistics,” Seventh Bilingual Workshop on Theoretical Linguistics, McMaster University, 12 December 2003.

“The Size of Language,” public talk sponsored by the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics, and by the Communication Studies Programme, McMaster University, 27 November 2003. 

“Altaic in the Context of Pontic, or Post-Nostratic,” Third Annual Conference of the Central Eurasian Studies Society, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 19 October 2002. 

“The American Response to September 11th, Its Imperatives and Its Implications,” inaugural address to the first Colonel Brian S. MacDonald Round Table, Atlantic Council of Canada, 28 September 2002. 

“Some Ethnonyms from the Caucasus,” second annual meeting of the Central Eurasian Studies Society, 11-14 October 2001. “The Caucasus in Mid-2001,” lecture and seminar given at United States Department of State, 1 August 2001.

“Russia and the Near Abroad: Fault Lines for Conflict,” lecture delivered at the conference, NATO and the ‘New’ Russia, The Atlantic Council of Canada, Spring Conference 2001,28 April, Trinity College, University of Toronto. 

“Circassian Culture and History,” lecture delivered (with consecutive translation into Arabic) before the Circassian Benevolent Association, Wayne, New Jersey, 23 February 2001. 

“The Nart Sagas of the Caucasus, an Ancient Eurasian Epic Tradition,” inaugural lecture delivered at the First Annual Conference of the central Eurasian Studies Society, University of Wisconsin, Madison, September 28 – October 1, 2000. 

Obstacles to State Formation in the Northwest Caucasus, talk given at the session, State Formation in the North Caucasus: History, Prospects and Problems, 5th Annual World Convention, Association for the Study of Nationalities, held at Columbia University, 14 April, 2000. 

Putin and the Chechen War, at the public seminar on "The Russian Presidential Election: Significance and Prospects," at The Atlantic Council of the United States, 27 March 2000.  I organized this seminar at the request of ACUS. 

The Myths of Russian Identity, at the public seminar on "Russian Identity and Russian Politics: the Russian National Psyche on the Eve of Duma Elections," at The Atlantic Council of the United States, 16 December 1999.  I organized this seminar at the request of ACUS. 

The Regional Impact of the Current Chechen Crisis, at the closed seminar Crisis in Chechnia, United States Department of State, Division of Intelligence and Research, and The National Intelligence Council, 3 November 1999.

Dumézil and the Details, talk on comparative mythology delivered at the American Anthropological Association annual convention, Philadelphia, 2 December 1998. 

Oil Politics and War in the North Caucasus.  Oil in the Caucasus, Near East Department, Princeton University, 8-10 May 1998.

The Geography of Stability in the North Caucasus.  U.S. State Department Seminar, 7 April 1998. 

The Origins of Language.  Symposum "Origins", McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, 7 March 1998. 

Vedic Tvastr in the Nart Sagas.  VIII Conference on the Cultures of Caucasia, The University of Chicago, 10 May 1997. 

More Pontic.  Non-Slavic Languages - 10, The University of Chicago, 10 May 1997. 

Prospects for Stability in the Caucasus.  Center for Russia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 9 May 1997. 

The Nart Sagas of the Caucasus.  Department of Slavic Studies and Folklore Program, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 8 May 1997. 

Prediction and Policy: Culture and Nationalist Conflicts,  Centre for Peace Studies, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, 7 November 1996.

The Chechen War and the Death of Dudaev. First Annual Convention of the Association for the Study of Nationalities, Remaking National Identities, at the Harriman Institute, Columbia University, 26-28 April 1996. 

Languages of the Dead.  Bronze and Iron Age Mummies of Eastern Central Asia, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 19-21 April 1996. 

The Ancient Caucasus Region.  International Conference on the Archaeology of the Black Sea.  McGill University, 26 January 1996.

The War in Chechnia.  Department de Antropologie, Université de Montréal, 25 January 1996. 

Two lectures: (1) Between Seas and Continents, (2) Many Languages, Many Nations.  The Smithsonian Institution and the Middle East Institute, Georgia and the North Caucasus: a Profile of Complexity, two lectures   21 October 1995. 

Cultural Factors in the North Caucasus Political Scene. Caucasus Conference, U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Intelligence and Research, Aspen Institute, University of Maryland, 8 - 9th June 1995. 

Subjects in Circassian. Ninth International Non-Slavic Languages Conference, University of Chicago, 5 May 1995. 

Ubykh Lives!  Seventh International Conference on the Cultures of Caucasia, University of Chicago, 6 May 1995. 

“The Dynamics of the Caucasus,” for The Harriman Institute, Columbia University, April 20, 1995, New York. 

The North Caucasus and Its Prospects for War. The Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies and the Russian Area Studies Program of Georgetown University, The Crisis in Chechnia and the Russian Federation,  Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., 17 March 1995. 

Dynamics of the North Caucasus. The National Intelligence Council and the Bureau of Intelligence and Research, U.S. Department of State, Regional Implications of the Chechen Conflict, Meridian International Center, Washington, D.C., 24 February 1995.                      

The Logic of Long Distance Comparison.  American Anthropological Association, 93rd Annual Meeting: invited session, Language, Culture and Biology in Prehistoric Central Eurasia: re-establishing the links, Atlanta, Georgia, 30 November - 4 December 1994. 

The Afterlife of Ubykh: Linguistics Nationalism and Language Maintenance. North West Caucasian Linguistics Conference in memory of Tevfik Esenç and Georges Dumézil, The Language Center, Bogaziçi University, Istanbul, Turkey, 10-12 October 1994.                                                                                                                      

Tropes and Truth in the Caucasus.  Delivered at the Southern Anthropological Society, Symposium on Anthropological Contributions to Conflict Resolution, April 27-30, 1994. 

The War in Abkhazia.  The Washington Seminar on the Collapse of Communism, The Johns Hopkins University, The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, The Foreign Policy Institute, September 20, 1993. 

Parallels between the Nart sagas and the Old Norse Volsunga saga: Pataraz and Sigurd.  Sixth International Conference on the Cultures of Caucasia, University of Chicago, 16 May 1993. 

Reflexives and Reciprocals in Circassian.  Eighth International Non-Slavic Languages Conference University of Chicago, 13-15 May 1993. 

Abkhazia.  School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (The British Council, Society for Central Asian Studies), 23 April 1993.

The Nart Hero as Victim and Avenger.  Societas Caucasologica Europæa, VIth Colloquium, Maikop, Republic of Adygheya, Russian Federation, 23 June 1992.

Circassian Nart 'Wa(r)daana' and Germanic 'Wodan' (Odin). Fifth International Conference on the Cultures of the Caucasus, University of Chicago, 25 May 1991. 

Microcosmos: the Circassian Verb, Seventh International Conference on the Non-Slavic Languages of the USSR, University of Chicago, 24 May 1991. 

The Circassians, Canadian Anthropology Society, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, 10 May 1991. 

Linguistics and Cryptozoology, Fabulous Beasts, Fact and Folklore, The Folklore Society (U.K.), and The International Society of Cryptozoology, University of Surrey, Surrey, Guilford, U. K., 21 July, 1990.       

How Many Consonants does Ubykh Have? Societas Caucasiologica Europæa, V-th Caucasian Colloquium, University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies, 27 June 1990.

 The Women of the Nart Sagas: the Satanaya Cycle, Fourth International Conference on the Cultures of the Caucasus, University of Chicago, 13 May 1989. 

Some Possible Cognates between Proto-Indo-European and Proto-Northwest Caucasian, Sixth International Conference on the Non-Slavic Languages of the USSR, University of Chicago, 12 May 1989. 

Language and Infinity, The Learneds, Canadian Linguistic Association, McMaster University, 31 May 1987. 

Some Interesting Women of the Circassian Nart Sagas: Lady Tree and Amazon, the Forest Mother, Third International Conference on the Cultures of Caucasia, University of Chicago, 16 May 1987.               

Proto-Northwest Caucasian (or how to crack a very hard nut), Fifth International Congress on the Non-Slavic Languages of the USSR, University of Chicago, 15 May 1987.       

Affinities of the Northwest Caucasian Nart Sagas, Second International Conference on the Cultures of Caucasia, University of Chicago University of Chicago, 18 May 1985.

 How to Describe the Sounds of the Northwest Caucasian Languages, Fourth International Congress on the Non-Slavic Languages of the USSR, University of Chicago, 17 May 1985. 

Vowel Disharmony: Linguistic Contacts between the Northeastern Altaic, Paleosiberian and North American Indian Peoples.  31st International Congress of Human Sciences in Asia and North Africa, Tokyo, 1 September 1983. 

Parallels between the Circassian Nart Sagas, the Rg Veda, and Germanic Mythology. Canadian Association for Asian Studies, The Learneds, Vancouver, 4 June 1983. 

Circassian /-qa-/ Meets Semantic Algebra and Ergativity.  Third International Congress on the Non-Slavic Languages of the USSR, University of Chicago, 23 March 1983. 

Ethnographic Information on a Wild Man of the Caucasus.  Anthropology of the Unknown: Humanoid Monsters, Sasquatch and Similar Phenomena, University of British Columbia, 10-13 May 1978.       

Typology Pharyngeals and Pharyngealization: Caucasian Examples.  North American Conference on Afro-Asiatic Linguistics, VI, University of Toronto, 9-10 April 1978. 

Rightward wh-Movement in Circassian and the Nature of Transformations.  Niagara Linguistics Circle, Niagara University, Niagara Falls, New York, 7-8 April 1978. 

Languages of the North-West Caucasus.  The Languages and Literatures of the Non-Russian Peoples of the Soviet Union.  McMaster University, 22-23 October 1976. 

On Two-Vowel Systems, Linguistics Society of America, New York, 27-30 December 1974. 

Consonants with Advanced Tongue Root in the Northwest Caucasian Languages.  North East Linguistic Society,  V-th Annual Meeting, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 9-10 November 1974.