Preserving the past, shaping the future: a case study of research and didactics in Georgian and Italian academic collaboration within ERASMUS+ Programs

Ilia State University of Tbilisi and Tbilisi State Academy of Art are the two Georgian universities with which Politecnico di Milano has leveraged the opportunities offered by the European programs Erasmus+ KA107-2019 and Erasmus+ KA171-HED-2023. The three universities' collaboration started in 2014 and consolidated during the two European mobility programs. The aim was to systematize knowledge and skills in restoration and conservation, territorial regeneration, history and art theory, and enhancing cultural heritage, particularly in fragile territories. This paper aims to present the results of the work carried out, both in terms of didactic and research, and outlines the possible lines of development, both in continuity with the mobility experiences and in the direction of forming more complex projects. Regarding the didactic approach, we contributed to constructing the academic curricula of Master's students from Georgian universities and PhD students from the Politecnico di Milano. During the fifth year of collaboration, we aim to understand the impact on curricula in the medium term, particularly in relation to students' experience of mobility. Interviews with the students involved in the various academic years and overall evaluations of their educational and professional experiences were organized according to shared indicators between the three universities. The findings confirm or introduce corrective in the second year of the second Erasmus+ KA171 program. During the research, teachers involved in the mobility have committed to sharing, among themselves and with students, Master graduates, and PhD students, even those not involved in the Erasmus+ mobility, knowledge and skills in the direction of perfecting methodologies and knowledge within the general theme of the conservation and enhancement of cultural heritage, on a dual global and local level. The work carried out by the international teams was structured by comparing multidisciplinary points of view to understand the role of local cultural identities in the ongoing pressing dynamics of territorial transformation. In the 2019 Erasmus+ program, the Georgian valley of Svaneti landscape was chosen as an exemplary place for applying the research theme, in continuity with master's degree theses discussed at Politecnico di Milano and with studies merged into a paper. In the subsequent Erasmus+ program, the three universities chose to apply their collaborative activity to theoretical studies and design proposals on the historic centre of Tbilisi. Specifically, on its possibilities of welcoming contemporaneity into a past of great value according to intervention strategies that respect the identity of places and cultural values of which these places can continue to be active testimony. With a focus on these aspects, the work team is now specifying the lines of possible future developments of its international cooperation, beyond, but also thanks to further mobility experiences offered by the Erasmus+ programmes. There are several possible scientific issues that, at the moment, seem suitable, on the one hand, to be integrated into institutional course programs and Master's degree and PhD theses in the three universities and, on the other hand, to become the heart of experimental projects to be applied to international calls. The paper reveals possible outcomes of this specific line of collaboration.