“Moving Central Asian Studies ever further: Orthodox vs Unorthodox approaches”

DATA CHANGED!!! 12-15 June 2025: Tashkent and Samarkand (Uzbekistan)

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We are pleased to announce the program of the International Conference «Geopolitics, Migrations and Identities in Central Eurasia,» a Joint Meeting of the CESS (Central Eurasian Studies Society) and the ESCAS (European Society for Central Asian Studies). We look forward to your presence in Lisabon soon!

See conference webpage for further information and other events

A Joint Workshop by CARSI / ESCAS / MARMARA University

Marmara University, Istanbul 11-13 October 2024 (deadline 31 July 2024)

The organisers

The European Society for Central Asian Studies, in collaboration with the project CARSI (Central Asian Research on Social Innovation), is planning to hold cosy and friendly workshop at Marmara University in October.

Rationale

This small workshop, and possibly the book project that will result, is intended as a platform for reflecting on how far research on Central Asia and its neighbourhood has gone. We welcome papers with virtually any focus and spacing from contemporary Central Asia’s societal, political, and economic dynamics as long as they propose a novel focus (be this an underexplored topic, an innovative methodology or a novel theorisation of existing phenomena). We are particularly interested in topics and approaches that sound unorthodox or unusual. On the other hand, we are not obsessed with discussing only extremely unorthodox or unusual topics. We rather seek to stimulate a conversation to look at mainstream and alternative topics through some different lenses or frameworks for interpretation.

Expected sessions

This presential (no online presentations) workshop will host a small amount of papers to leave space for discussions and reflections but also socialisation, networking and building up new collaborations across the region. There will be space for social events (i.e. dinner, a walking tour) and training sessions (i.e. publication strategies, fundraising). A specialist will chair each session to promote constructive discussions and offer suggestions

Geographical scope

The geographical focus is also flexible. We are open to comparisons with other regions (as long as Central Asia is in the picture) and to the broader Eurasian region, spacing from Turkey and the Caucasus to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Mongolia and Western China in addition to the five Central Asian post-Soviet republics.

Follow-up plans

We plan to share plans for a joint publication (special issue of a journal or edited book, or both if there are enough good papers), and the event shall also be an occasion to discuss possible future workshops in the region.

Submissions

If interested, please send, by 31 July 2024, a 300-word abstract and a short biographical statement to escastudies@protonmail.com. Please cc to: melanie.sadozai@zea.uni-regensburg.de and abel.polese@dcu.ie.

Financial conditions

• there is no workshop fee
• meals will be provided to all participants
• it is not possible to take care of travel but for those with limited funding we can cover accommodation for 2-3 nights

If you want your accommodation to be covered please mention it in the abstract document. If you have your university funding try to use that one as this will give us a chance to fund some extra people.

ESCAS 2023 Regional Conference: “Power, people and cultural change in an ever-evolving Central Asia”

21 – 24 September 2023, Almaty, Kazakhstan

Further information about the conference