Cholpon Turdalieva – Landscapes of Imperial Violence: Kyrgyzstan and the Kyrgyz through the Lens of Western Travelogues

Russian colonial dominance in Central Asia changed the economics, politics and culture of the conquered lands and peoples. Various sources document these changes, including travelogues written by nineteenth and early twentieth century travelers from the U.S. and Europe, such as Frenchman Gabriel Bonvalout; Americans Allworth Huntington and Eugene Schuyler; Lady Catherine Macartney, Henry Lansdell, and Ella Sykes of Britain; and Sven Hedin of Sweden. Each visited Turkestan when it was already a Russian colonial province, which impacted their analysis of the region. Not only did they observe the local settings–natural landscape and societies–but they also conveyed and observed physical and psychological violence. This presentation explores violence as a tool in the production of imperial knowledge and Eurocentric power in the space of Russian colonialism.

Cholpon Turdalieva is a Doctor of Historical Sciences and Professor at the American University of Central Asia. She has participated in the Central Asian Research and Training Initiative (CARTI) project, and was a Fulbright scholar at the University of Washington in Seattle and a visiting scholar at Columbia University in New York.

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