Negotiating Identity in Kyrgyzstan: Nationality, Islam, and the Meaning of Tradition

with Vincent Artman, University of Kansas

Since independence, Kyrgyzstan, like the other Central Asian states, has been confronted with the challenge of articulating a viable national identity.Drawing upon five months of fieldwork, this presentation examines some of the ways in which Kyrgyz people make sense of the complex relationship between their religious heritage and their national identity.

Vincent M. Artman is a Ph.D candidate in the Department of Geography at the University of Kansas. His research interests include role of religion in the modern public sphere, and his current research focuses on the intersection of Islam, national identity and collective memory in contemporary Kyrgyzstan. In addition to his work on Central Asia, Artman has published on the territorial and biopolitical aspects of passportization in Abkhazia and South Ossetia in the journal Geopolitics.