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Cinema Club Film Screening: The Rhythm (Uzbekistan, 2014)

Directed by Nozim Tulahodjaev This featured film tells the fate of a talented Uzbek musician who plays 'doira' (a musical instrument). As his life runs its course, Sharif-aka is exposed to a bitter truth about the betrayal of his beloved wife, his friends, and his colleagues. Through this despair, his salvation comes from an unexpected bond… Continue reading Cinema Club Film Screening: The Rhythm (Uzbekistan, 2014)

What Changes in a Post-Karimov Uzbekistan?

2:15-3:45pmSession 1. Changes in the Uzbek domestic landscape Chair: Marlene Laruelle (GWU) Bruce Pannier (RFE/RL) Softer on the Outside but Still Hard at the Core Dillorom Abdulloeva (Tashabbus) What Changes are Needed and Expected in the Field of Human Rights and the Legal Sphere? Roger Kangas (NESA Center, NDU) Uzbek Foreign Policy After Karimov: Change… Continue reading What Changes in a Post-Karimov Uzbekistan?

Richard Weitz – Enhancing the Georgia-US Security Partnership

For several decades, Georgia has been one of the most important economic and security partners of the United States. The US is the largest bilateral aid donor to Georgia, having provided several billion dollars since 1991. This support has always enjoyed bipartisan backing.  Since 2009, Georgia and the United States have had a Strategic Partnership… Continue reading Richard Weitz – Enhancing the Georgia-US Security Partnership

Michael Clarke – Beijing’s “March West”: One Belt, One Road and China’s Quest for Great Power Status

With Michael Clarke, National Security College, Australian National University Much ink has been spilt over the past two decades debating the impact of the 'rise' of China on the international relations and strategic environment of Asia. Geographically, the dominant focus within these debates has been on the Asia-Pacific geopolitical space. China's increasing material power, and consequently… Continue reading Michael Clarke – Beijing’s “March West”: One Belt, One Road and China’s Quest for Great Power Status

Alexander Wolters – Islamic Finance in Central Asia: From ‘Great Potentials’ to Lasting Stagnation

The rise of Islamic Banking in Central Asia has been predicted and expected by both experts and state and economic stakeholders. The financial crisis in 2008 had triggered first initiatives to launch sharia'h conforming financial businesses in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, yet most enterprises never managed to survive this early stage of development. The presentation discusses… Continue reading Alexander Wolters – Islamic Finance in Central Asia: From ‘Great Potentials’ to Lasting Stagnation

Zhanna Issabayeva – Kazakh Film Festival: Nagima (2013)

with director Zhanna Issabayeva in person "Heartrending is too mild a word to describe "Nagima," an unblinking look at the vulnerable social position of single women in Kazakhstan. Zhanna Issabayeva depicts her protags' economic and emotional deprivations with a somberness that builds to a shocking, stupendous finale." - Maggie Lee   Please RSVP.

David Montgomery – Becoming Muslim in an Islamic Land: Social Navigation and Religious Change in Kyrgyzstan

Central Asia is s a Muslim-majority region, though what that means for social and political life is contested. Discussing the argument of his recent book, Practicing Islam: Knowledge, Experience, and Social Navigation in Kyrgyzstan, Montgomery will focus on how the social context of knowledge acquisition influences religious and cultural practice. Seeing this process of "becoming" Muslim… Continue reading David Montgomery – Becoming Muslim in an Islamic Land: Social Navigation and Religious Change in Kyrgyzstan

Edward Lemon – Extraterritorial Security: Governing Islam and Security Beyond Tajikistan

Often considered Central Asia's 'weakest' state, Tajikistan has nonetheless created a relatively sophisticated network through which it monitors and targets both secular and religious opponents abroad. Since 2002, the government of Tajikistan has targeted at least 51 of its citizens living abroad, subjecting them to harassment, intimidation, attack, detention, kidnapping and assassination. Drawing on and… Continue reading Edward Lemon – Extraterritorial Security: Governing Islam and Security Beyond Tajikistan

Murad Ismayilov – (Homogenising) Hybrid Intentionality and the Dialectics of Elite Attitudes to Islam: Towards a Re-Sacralisation of the Political Space in Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan's independence came after seven decades of militant atheism of the Soviet modernization project and emerged into staunch secularism of Western modernity, two factors that, on a par with the country's precarious neighbourhood, promised a sustained indigenous effort towards a desacralization of the country's political space and the associated exclusion of religion from politics, a… Continue reading Murad Ismayilov – (Homogenising) Hybrid Intentionality and the Dialectics of Elite Attitudes to Islam: Towards a Re-Sacralisation of the Political Space in Azerbaijan

Central Asia Fellows Seminar. Social, Cultural and Spatial Inequalities in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan

4:30pm. Opening Marlene Laruelle (Director, Central Asia Program) 4:45pm. Presentations Savia Hasanova (Kyrgyzstan) Income Inequality in Kyrgyzstan: The Redistributive Effect of Social Benefits   Berikbol Dukeyev (Kazakhstan) Ethnic Return Migration in Kazakhstan: Shifting Dynamics and Changing Perceptions   Serik Jaxylykov (Kazakhstan) Migration Policy and Patterns in Kazakhstan: When the Southern People Meet the Northern Region   5:30pm.… Continue reading Central Asia Fellows Seminar. Social, Cultural and Spatial Inequalities in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan

Cinema Club Film Screening: Daughter-in-Law (Kazakhstan, 2009)

Directed by Ermek Tursunov"Kelin, which translates to 'daughter-in-law', tells the story of a young woman living in the 2nd century A.D. in Kazakhstan, a setting in which traditional notions of womanhood and family life at the time are explored. Directed entirely without dialogue and with very little music, the film revolves around the young and beautiful… Continue reading Cinema Club Film Screening: Daughter-in-Law (Kazakhstan, 2009)

Opening of the Exhibition “Through the Eyes of Durdy Bayramov”

The Central Asia Program is proud to announce the launch of the exhibition Through the Eyes of Durdy Bayramov Turkmen Village Life, 1960s-1980s An exhibition at the Central Asia Program February 7 - May 26, 2017 With H.E. Meret B. Orazov, Ambassador of Turkmenistan to the United States These photographs were selected from Durdy Bayramov's… Continue reading Opening of the Exhibition “Through the Eyes of Durdy Bayramov”

Galina Yemelianova – Official Islamic Leadership in Central Asia: The Soviet Legacy

Central Asia is widely associated with Islam. However, throughout history the role of Islam in the region has been ambiguous and it has been mitigated by the pre-Islamic civilizational heritage, the nomadic tribal and customary norms and the Soviet legacy. An outcome of this ambiguity has been a significantly weaker political role of Islam and… Continue reading Galina Yemelianova – Official Islamic Leadership in Central Asia: The Soviet Legacy

Sophie Roche – The Moscow Cathedral Mosque in the Life of Migrants from Central Asia

In this discussion, Sophie Roche will unfold the social life of migrants in, around and through the main mosque in Moscow, Prospekt Mira. This mosque is important for Putin's politics of Islam as well as for inner-Russian Islamic sectarian tensions, and is increasingly linked to ordinary migrants from Central Asia, who constitute the large majority… Continue reading Sophie Roche – The Moscow Cathedral Mosque in the Life of Migrants from Central Asia

Cinema Club Film Screening: Angel on the Right (Tajikistan, 2002)

Directed by Djamshed Usmonov"Hamro, an unrepentant prodigal son straight out of a Russian jail, returns to his hometown to help his mother die with dignity. But his debts are many and long overdue, the townspeople are tough as nails, and he gets more than he expected from the quiet village. In this dark comedy, his… Continue reading Cinema Club Film Screening: Angel on the Right (Tajikistan, 2002)

Central Asia Security Workshop

The Central Asia Security WorkshopMarch 6, 2017, 10:00am-4:00pm Central Asia Program, IERES George Washington University 1957 E Street, NW, Lindner Commons, Suite 602 10.00am. PANEL 1. CENTRAL ASIA’S DOMESTIC LANDSCAPES. CHANGING MORE THAN WE THOUGHT? Chair: Lawrence Markowitz (Rowan University) Alexander Cooley (Harriman Institute, Columbia University) Central Asia’s Global Authoritarian Spaces: Politics and Contestation Outside… Continue reading Central Asia Security Workshop

Zuhra Halimova – Foreign Aid to Eurasia: Donors’ Agendas, Local Perceptions, and Lost Illusions

Various donor agencies have become active players in defining and drafting strategies of transition from communist heritages and pasts to modern democratic societies and market economies, as well as in funding the implementation of these strategies.   However, after a quarter century of independence, most of Eurasia’s political elites have transformed into more autocratic regimes,… Continue reading Zuhra Halimova – Foreign Aid to Eurasia: Donors’ Agendas, Local Perceptions, and Lost Illusions

Thomas Kent – Media and Trends in Central Asia

Please join us for a breakfast discussion with Thomas Kent, president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) on the latest trends in the media sector in Central Asia. Topics to be discussed include the current status of media, increasing restrictions on press freedom, the influence of Russia's negative propaganda to the region, and the challenges and opportunities for independent… Continue reading Thomas Kent – Media and Trends in Central Asia

Douglas Blum – Cosmopolitan Kazakhs: A Case Study in How Globalization Works

On the basis of extensive fieldwork in Kazakhstan, Douglas Blum considers the experiences of young people who spent time in the US, asking what cultural "baggage" they brought home with them, and whether they were able to incorporate new values and practices into their lives. In answering these questions Blum combines insights from sociological and… Continue reading Douglas Blum – Cosmopolitan Kazakhs: A Case Study in How Globalization Works

Cinema Club Film Screening: Little Angel, Make Me Happy (Turkmenistan, 1993)

Directed by Usman SaparovThis film "tells an intimate story within the larger historical context of the deportation of ethnic Germans from Turkmenistan to Siberia during the Second World War. Saparov's historical narrative touches on one of the most complex questions for the modern 'little person,' the question of 'motherland'. The film received Grand Prizes at six… Continue reading Cinema Club Film Screening: Little Angel, Make Me Happy (Turkmenistan, 1993)

Sergey Abashin – Central Asian Migrants in Russia: Will there be a Religious Radicalization?

Religious radicalization among Central Asian migrants to Russia have raised particular attention in connection with the active recruitment by the "Islamic State" of many people from the region, as well as their participation in a series of terrorist attacks in Turkey. Many experts have wondered whether Central Asian migration to Russia creates fertile ground for… Continue reading Sergey Abashin – Central Asian Migrants in Russia: Will there be a Religious Radicalization?