Central Asia and Caucasus Working Group:
"Society, Politics and Culture of Central Asia and the Caucasus"

Past Working Group Meetings (2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000)

2007 (All Summaries)

• May 16, Laura Adams, "The Politics of History and Collective Memory in Tashkent" - Summary
• May 8, Venerahan Torobekova, "Tribalism in Kyrgyzstan: A Case Study" - Summary
• May 1, Darya Lobina, "Correlation of cognitive and emotional components in ethnic identity" - Summary
• April 24, Nozima Kamalova, "War against Terrorism versus Human Rights: A Case Study of Uzbekistan" - Summary
• April 3, John Schoeberlein, "Interpreting Islam and Politics in Post-Soviet Central Asia" - Summary
• March 20, Catherine Drew, "The Foreign Policy of Small States: Kyrgyzstan's Foreign Policy under President Bakiyev" - Summary
• March 13, Noah Tucker, "Into Russian Turkistan 1872-1917: English Travel Literature and the Creation of the Russian Orient" - Summary
• March 6, Emil Souleimanov, "Political Implications of the (Non)recognition of Armenian Genocide" - Summary
• Feb. 13, Eren Tasar, "Muslim Life in Central Asia, 1943-1985" - Summary
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2006 (All Summaries)

• Dec. 5, Sonia Chinn, "Discourse on Veiling in Contemporary Central Asian Society: Symbols of Oppression and Religious Extremism?" - Summary
• Nov. 28, Emil Souleimanov, "From 'Normalisation' to Chechenisation': Exploring the Roots of the Contemporary Inter-Chechen Violence" - Summary
• Nov. 21, Jim Critchlow, "Democratization in Uzbekistan: Factors which Could Enable an Upturn" - Summary
• Nov. 7, Benjamin Loring, "Sedentarization in Kyrgyzstan, 1921-41" - Summary
• Oct. 31, Bulat Rakhimzyanov, "The Kasim Khanate and the Kasim Tatars: One Aspect of Creating a Multinational State in Russia" - Summary
• Oct. 17, Scott Radnitz, "Elite Networks and the 'Tulip Revolution'" - Summary
• Sept. 26, Noor O'Neill, "NGOs in Kyrgyzstan: Civics Education and Change" - Summary
• May 2, Morgan Liu, "Capturing Central Asian Complexity"
• Apr. 25, Mukaram Toktogulova, "Visions of Syncretism: The Contestation of 'Pure' Islam and Kyrgyz Folk Beliefs," and Aida Alymbaeva, "Marrying into a Modern Kyrgyz Kin Group: Women's Changing Roles"
• Apr. 18, Dildora Abidjanova, "Central Asian Historiography: Tendencies and Perspectives"
• Apr. 11, David Montgomery, "A Phenomenological Analysis of Religion: The Habitat of Kyrgyz and Uzbek Cosmological Understanding"
• Apr. 4, Elena Campbell, "The Autocracy and the Muslim Clergy in the Russian Empire (1850s-1917)"
• Mar. 21, Susan Sypko, "Return? Homeland? Diaspora?: Interacting Identity, Political and Economic Factors and the Rootedness of Kazakh 'Diasporas'"
• Feb. 28, Niccolo Pianciola, "Decolonization in Semirech'e, 1920-22"
• Feb. 14, Sonia Chinn, "Sozanas, Ikats, and Rugs: The Construction of Gender Roles in Post-Soviet Uzbekistan via Production of Traditional Crafts"
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2005

• Dec. 13, Susan Sypko, "Muslim and Kazakh Identity in Kazakhstan"
• Dec. 6, Vera Exnerova, "Mosques, Mullahs and Transmission of Religious Knowledge in Soviet Uzbekistan (Ferghana Valley, 1950s-1980s)"
• Nov. 22, Gulnora Aminova, "Mythmaking in Women's Religious-Mystical Practice"
• Nov. 15, David Brophy, "The Origins of National Consciousness among the Uyghurs of Xinjiang"
• Oct. 25, Tsypylma Darieva, "The National Ideal and New Migrants: Encounters in Kazakhstan"
• Oct. 11, Eren Tasar, "Shrine Pilgrimage in Recent Muslim Life and History"
• May 3, Gulmira Karabalaeva, "Islam and Islamic Education in Kyrgyzstan," and Ravshanbek Akimbai, "Interactions between Islam and Local Traditions and Popular Customs in Kyrgyzstan"
• Apr. 19, Islam in Xinjiang - Special Guest Speaker
• Apr. 5, Eren Tasar, "The State's Conceptualization of Islam in Soviet Central Asia, 1954-64"
• Mar. 22, Susan Sypko, "Nursultan Nazarbaev's Identity Discourse and the 'Kazakhification' of Kazakhstan"
• Mar. 8, Farhod Inogambaev, "Uzbeks and Other Central Asians in the United Arab Emirates"
• Feb. 22, Erdin Beshimov, "Regime Change in Post-Soviet Georgia and Its Prospects in Kyrgyzstan"
• Feb. 8, David Brophy, "Uyghur Identity in the Soviet Union, 1917-1930"
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2004

• Dec. 7, Erdin Beshimov, "Central Asia on the Market of Morality: Reassessing Soviet Legacies and Their Influence on the 'Moral Chaos' in the Post-Soviet Period"
• Nov. 30, Benjamin Loring, "State-building in Central Asia: The Kyrgyz Experience"
• Nov. 16, Brian Williams, "Grafting Jihad to the Chechen Insurgency: Reassessing the 'Al Qaeda Link' to Chechen Terrorists"
• Nov. 2, Mukaram Toktogulova, "Islamic Revival in Kyrgyzstan"
• Oct. 26, Aida Alymbaeva, "Problems of Ethnic Identity in Kyrgyzstan: The Case of the Bishkek Neighborhood of Kelechek"
• Oct. 19, Farhod Inogambaev, "Authoritarianism, Clans and Power Brokers in Uzbekistan"
• Mar. 4, Mike Reynolds, "An Historical Perspective on Islam and Conflict in the North Caucasus"
• Feb. 26, Morgan Liu, "A Central Asian Khan for a Post-Cold War World"
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2003

• Dec. 16, Hisao Komatsu, "The Ferghana Project: Central Asian Area Studies with GIS"
• Dec. 2, Catherine Osgood, Documentary Film: "Victims of the Russo-Chechen Conflict"
• Nov. 18, Asbed Kotchikian, "Making Sense of the Current Crises in Georgia"
• Oct. 28, Luise Druke, "Developing National Refugee Regimes in Post-Communist Countries in Transition"
• May 6, Haila Hamad, "Political Islam in Uzbekistan"
• Apr. 29, Yasha Haddaji, "Potential Side Effects of the War in Iraq on Oil and Gas Investments in Central Asia"
• Apr. 15, Azim Malikov, "Some Observations on the Ethnic History of the Uzbeks of Samarkand Province of Uzbekistan (19-20th Centuries)"
• Mar. 18, Doug Blum, "Globalization, National Identity, and Agency: Constructing Youth Culture in the Transcaspian Region"
• Feb. 25, Mythologies of Fratricide: Civil War, Collective Memory, and Nation-Building in Tajikistan"
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2002

• Dec. 3, Vahe Boyajian, "Foreign Elements among the Baluchi Tribes"
• Nov. 19, Morgan Liu, "An Islamic Postsocialism: Political Imagination in a Central Asian City"
• Nov. 5, Naz Modirzadeh, "Reforming the Legal System in Post-War Afghanistan"
• Oct. 22, Chris Kaplonski, "Democracy Comes to Mongolia"
• Oct. 8, Asbed Kotchikian, "Where Worlds Collide: The Geopolitics of the Caucasus in a New World Order"
• April 10, Kai Wegerich, "Natural Drought or Human Made Water Scarcity in Uzbekistan?"
• Mar. 20, Raisa Varenik, "Coverage of Inter-Ethnic Relations by the Kazakhstani Press"
• Mar. 13, Gulnara Abikeyeva, "Central Asian Cinematography as an Indicator of Social and Political Vectors of Development"
• Feb. 20, Discussion led by Laada Bilaniuk: "Language, Identity and Politics"
• Feb. 6, Michael Hall, "Mythologies of Fratricide: Civil War, Collective Memory, and Nation-Building in Tajikistan"
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2001

• Dec. 12, Abdusabur Abdusamadov, "Conflict Issues in Transitional Tajikistan"
• Nov. 28, Kelly McMann, "The Civic Realm in Kyrgyzstan: The Defining Influence of Soviet Economic Legacies"
• Nov. 14, Discussion: "Current Research Conditions in Central Asia"
• Oct. 31, Haila Al-Mekaimi, "Jihad, Holy War or Peaceful Co-existence?
• Oct. 14, Miriam Lanskoy, "Chechnya 1996-1999: Why Did the Khasavyurt Peace Fail?"
• Sept. 19, Discussion: "Implications of Possible War in Afghanistan and Central Asia"
• May 2, Yuri Bossin, "Interethnic Relations in Central Asia: A Theoretical Approach"
• Apr. 25, Edward Schatz, "Relocating the Capital City: Astana, Nation Building and State Building in
  Comparative Perspective"
• Apr. 18, Film Showing: "Revenge of the Daughters-in-Law"
• Mar. 21, Sean Pollock, "Empire by Invitation: Russian Political Patronage, Frontier Diplomacy and
  Imperial Rivalries in the Caucasus, 1774-1825"
• Mar. 14, Maria Louw, "Post-Soviet Morals: A View from the Eye of the Heart"
• Feb. 28, Scott Urbom, "Local Organizations and Civil Society: Mahallas of Uzbekistan"
• Feb. 21, Blanka Hancilova, "Nagorno Karabakh: Negotiating the Self-Determination"
• Feb. 14, Nicholas Daniloff, "Developing a Free Press in Uzbekistan"
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2000

• Dec. 13, Fereydoun Safizadeh, "Iranian Azerbaijan: Local Responses to the Independent Republic of Azerbaijan"
• Dec. 6, Miriam Lanskoy, "Revealing the Futility of Power: Chechnya and the Lessons of Resistance"
• Nov. 29, Kornely Kakachia, "Groupings in CIS -- Five against Six: Russia's policy towards the 'Near Abroad'"; Sun Zhuangzhi, "China and Central Asia in the New International Environment"
• Nov. 8, Sean Pollock, "The Power of Place: Frontier Diplomacy in South Caucasia under Catherine the Great"
• Oct. 3, Michael Hall, "Tajikistan Three Years after the Civil War"
• May 1, Kathleen Collins, "Clan Politics, Regime Convergence, and the Long-term Transition (1995-1999)"
• Apr. 24, Brenda Shaffer, "Azerbaijanis in Iran: Ethnic Politics and Collective Identity"
• Mar. 14, William Shingleton, "Uzbekistan's Transition to Authoritarianism"
• Feb. 28, Jay Dautcher, "Islam in the Mähällä: The Social Dimensions of Uighur Religious Practice"
• Feb. 7, John Schoeberlein, "Political Polarization and Social Cleavage in Central Asia: Implications for the Future"
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Program on Central Asia and the Caucasus
Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies
1730 Cambridge Street Rm S-320
Cambridge, MA 02138
centasiafas.harvard.edu
617-496-2643 | 617-495-8319 (fax)