Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
The College will not offer the long-running “Williams in Georgia” Winter Study Program (WSP) this year. The program is an internship-based course in which students travel to the Republic of Georgia. The change follows a new law passed by the Georgian government that limits the operations of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the country, according to Director of Winter Study Katie Malanson.
The College decided to suspend the program in April after the Georgian Parliament passed a law that complicates the College’s payments to its partner organizations and homestay hosts, according to Professor of Russian Julie Cassiday, who has overseen the program since fall 2017.
“A new ‘foreign agents’ law was passed last April in Georgia, and it forces any NGO or individual accepting money from abroad to label themselves as a ‘foreign agent,’ which would put their work and existence into jeopardy,” she wrote in an email to the Record. “I consulted with [Director of Study Away Christina] Stoiciu, who brought the issue to the WSP Committee and College staff, and we all agreed that the program, unfortunately, must go on hold for now.”
“We are unwilling to put anyone at risk in this way, which prevents us from paying anyone within Georgia and hence running ‘Williams in Georgia,’” Cassiday continued.
The course was started in 1987 by Professor of Russian, Emerita, Darra Goldstein when the Soviet Union opened its borders to educational exchanges with the United States, according to Cassiday. “It was originally a bilateral exchange, but soon evolved into the WSP travel course it’s been ever since,” she wrote.
The program has paused before in response to other site-specific issues: at the onset of the Georgian Civil War in 1991, after Russia’s invasion of Georgia in 2008, and during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021. The new law was enacted by the country’s pro-Russia government, led by the Georgian Dream party, which has faced intense protests in the last year.
According to Cassiday, the course’s continuation is out of the College’s control. “To be honest, there is nothing that we here at Williams can do to resume the program, since resumption depends on making it possible to pay our partners in Georgia, something that depends on the Georgian parliament,” she wrote. “If and when the ‘foreign agents’ law is repealed, I hope that we can resume ‘Williams in Georgia.’”
Malanson noted that the College is prepared to support the program’s return if circumstances allow. “The [WSP] Committee will review proposals from faculty who may want to resume the program,” she wrote in an email to the Record.
Cassiday emphasized the program’s long-standing significance within Winter Study. “‘Williams in Georgia’ has been a unique and powerful part of WSP for over thirty years, and I have seen generations of Williams students transformed by the opportunity to live and work in the Republic of Georgia for the month of January,” she wrote. “It’s made me very sad that this opportunity is not available to students due to political factors beyond our control. I only hope that the ‘foreign agents’ law is overturned in Georgia at some point soon, so that ‘Williams in Georgia’ can resume.”