Kazakh Culture: Legacies and Innovations

9:00 AM OpeningPeter Rollberg, Director, IERES, George Washington University
Ambassador Kairat Umarov, Kazakhstan Embassy in the United States

9:15-10.30 AM Keynote speaker
Ambassador Olzhas Suleymenov, Permanent Representative of Kazakhstan to UNESCO

Q&A

10:30-11:00 AM Coffee-break

11:00 – 12:30 PM Legacies and Innovations in Kazakh Literature
Chair: Marlene Laruelle (IERES, George Washington University)

An inconvenient Sage. The Legacy of Abai
Peter Rollberg (IERES, George Washington University)

Kazakh Literature in the 19th Century: The Case of the Zar Zaman Poets
Gabriel McGuire (Nazarbaev University)

‘Imagining Community’ in Soviet Kazakhstan. An Historical Analysis of Narrative on Nationalism in Soviet Kazakh Literature
Diana Kudaibergenova (Cambridge University)

12:30 – 1:30 PM Lunch

1:30 – 2:30 PM Politics and Society On the Screen
Chair: Peter Rollberg (IERES, George Washington University)

Kazakh Cinema through the Looking Glass
Michael Rouland (Georgetown University)

The Kazakh Cinema Industry. A View from the Inside
Gaukhar Noortas (Mount Helix Films Inc.)

2:30 – 3:30 PM Performing Music and Identity
Chair: Sean Roberts (George Washington University)

Discussing Kazakh Musical Identity
Alma Kunanbaeva (Stanford University)

Friction and Flows: Transnationalism and Aesthetics of Musical Performance
Margarethe Adams (Stony Brook University)

3:30 – 3:45 PM Coffee-break

3:45 – 4.45 PM The Art Scene: Plurality and Market
Chair: Sebastien Peyrouse (IERES, George Washington University)

The Contemporary Art Scene in Kazakhstan
Kendal Henry (Public Art Consultant, CEC Artslink)

Art of the Daily Life: The Artpologist Collective and the Influences of Kazakhstan
Daniel Gallegos (Artist and co-founder of The Artpologist Collective)

4:45 – 6:00 PM Reception
Dombra performance by Olzhas Bayalbayev

The Kazakhstan Initiative at GW is gratefully funded by the Embassy of Kazakhstan in Washington, DC.