Nana Iashvili

Nana holds an MA in Sociology and Social Anthropology from Central European University in Vienna and a BA in Economics and Politics from Bard College Berlin, Germany. For her MA research project, Nana conducted an ethnographic study on the historical and socio-economic transformation of post-socialist Tbilisi. Her work focused on the flea market at the heart of the city, exploring the urban changes shaping both the market and its workers. This research highlighted the complex interplay between urban restructuring and the livelihoods of those navigating these transformations.
Currently, at the Social and Cultural Anthropology department at the University of Vienna, Nana's PhD research centers on housing-related debts in Georgia. She investigates credit-debt arrangements in the country where individuals use their homes to access credit, examining the roles of creditors ranging from banks to informal moneylenders, to Giravnoba. Her work delves into the transformation of housing into a financial asset, subsequent displacements and dispossessions and how these processes affect households and people’s daily lives.
Nana is a fellow at the Challenge of the Urban Futures Platform, a research platform that brings together researchers investigating transformations of cities over the past century.