Professor Paul Manning received his Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of Chicago in 2001. He has taught anthropology at Northern Illinois University, Reed College, and Bard College. His research focuses on linguistic and semiotic anthropology in Wales and Georgia. He has done fieldwork on Georgian-speaking populations in  Georgia and Russia. Urban anthropology is one of his core interests and research areas. His publications include:  (with Zaza Shatirishvili). Why are the dolls laughing? Tbilisi culture between intelligentsia culture and socialist labor. In Tsypylma Darieva et al. (eds.), Urban Spaces after Socialism: Ethnographies of Public Places in Eurasian  Cities, 207-225. Frankfurt: Campus Verlag, 2011, The city of balconies: elite politics and the changing semiotics of the post-socialist cityscape. In K. Van Assche, J. Salukvadze, N. Shavishvili (eds.), City Culture and City Planning in Tbilisi.