Rikki Brown

I am a second-year Ph.D. student in cultural anthropology studying the formation of post-Soviet national identity through gastro tourism, in particular – wine in the Republic of Georgia. I am interested in the narratives that intertwine pasts into presents, and how Georgians weave these into imagining futures – crafting “winescapes” and “heritagescapes”. Currently, I’m asking questions that explore the framing of identities through wine, the interactions between human and non-human entities in wine and wine-making, and how tourism influences identity making (linguistically, socially, and politically).