The legacy of perestroika discourses in knowledge production on Central Asia

The workshop aims to shed a critical light at the process of academic knowledge production on Central Asia - what is now commonly known as “Central Asian Studies” - over the last 30 years.  

Organisers: Ulaanbaatar University (Mongolia), International Institute for Asian Studies (the Netherlands), Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (sponsored by VolkswagenStiftung, Germany), The National Institutes of the Humanities (NIHU) and National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka (Japan)

Host: Ulaanbaatar University

Convenors: Prof. Jigjidijn Boldbaatar & Dr. Irina Morozova

The process of institutionalisation of Central Asia-focused research in the social sciences and humanities within Asian studies started in the 1980s when “Perestroika” was launched in the USSR and when Western scholars got access to the field. This re-conceptualisation of socialist socio-historical and cultural legacies had a tremendous impact upon the way academic understanding of the region is now shaped.

Our knowledge of communal life, identities and religion in late socialist Central Asia has been greatly influenced by Cold War ideological biases on the causes of the USSR’s disintegration. It is not only official historiographers of the newly independent states who view the whole socialist period as a deviation from the normal development of their nations. This vision also prevails in the writings of many prominent Western scholars. Not only political clichés, but also all-catching notions of “ethnicity” and “culture” have now formed the mainstream Central Asia’s research lexicon through which scholars repeatedly try to approach the problems of late socialist transformations. Basing their research on the available Soviet sources, Western academia has enthusiastically supported the accent put on ethnicity in the studies of the Soviet Central Asia.

The workshop will bring together scholars from Asia and the West who are actively engaged in researching late socialist Central Asia to discuss current trends of studies and set up alternative research agendas, hopefully grounded on a more contextualized experience with a more balanced platform of scholars and institutions, including those from the region itself.

Participants:

Academician P. Ochirbat (Mongolia), Prof. Morris Rossabi (the U.S.A.), Dr. Gulnara Aitpaeva (Kyrgyzstan), Dr. Tolganai Umbetalieva (Kazakhstan), Academician J. Boldbaatar (Mongolia), Prof. Choi Key Ho (Korea), Prof. Dr. B. Norzhvanchig (Mongolia), Dr. Willem Vogelsang (The Netherlands), Prof. Dr. N. Hishigt (Mongolia), Dr. Irina Morozova (Germany), Prof. Dr. D. Lundeejantsan (Mongolia), Prof. Dr. Tsedendamba (Mongolia), Prof. Yuki Konagaya (Japan), Prof. G. Doohuu (Mongolia), Dr. Ch. Boldbaatar (Mongolia), Ms. Ainura Turgangazieva (Kyrgyzstan), Mr. M. Enkhbaatar (Mongolia), Ms. Saltanat Orazbekova (Kazakhstan), Dr. B. Bathishig (Mongolia), Dr. Ch. Sosorbaram (Mongolia), Ms. D. Otgonchimeg (Mongolia)

For any enquiry, also for attending the Workshop as an observer, please, contact the convenors: irina.morozova@asa.hu-berlin.de, jigjid_boldbaatar@yahoo.com