Workshop: Unorthodox Approaches to Eurasian Studies

The European Society for Central Asian Studies http://www.escas.org/about-escas/ in collaboration with the project CARSI (Central Asian Research on Social Innovation) https://www.carsi-se.eu/ is planning to hold a workshop at Marmara University in October

This small workshop, and possibly book project that will result, is intended as a platform for reflection about how far research on Central Asia and its neighbourhood has gone so far. We welcome papers with virtually any focus and spacing from societal, political to economic dynamics of contemporary Central Asia as long as they propose a novel focus (be this an underexplored topic, an innovative methodology or novel theorization of existing phenomena). We are particularly interested in topics and approaches that sound unorthodox or unusual. On the other hand, we are not obsessed with having to discuss only extremely unorthodox or unusual topics. We rather seek to stimulate a conversation to look at mainstream and alternative topics through some different lenses or frameworks for interpretation.

Expected sessions

This presential (no online presentations) workshop will host a small amount of papers so to leave space for discussions and reflections but also socialization, networking and building up new collaborations across the region. There will be space for social events (i.e. dinner, a walking tour) and for training sessions (i.e. publication strategies, fundraising). Each session will be chaired by a specialist to promote constructive discussions and offer suggestions.

Geographical scope

The geographical focus is also flexible. We are open to comparisons with other regions (as long as Central Asia is in the picture) and to the broader Eurasian region, spacing from Turkey and the Caucasus to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Mongolia and Western China in addition to the five Central Asian post-Soviet republics.

Follow-up plans

We plan to share plans for a joint publication (special issue of a journal or edited book, or both if there are enough good papers) and the event shall also be an occasion to discuss possible future workshops in the region.

Submissions

If interested, please send, by 31 July 2024, a 300-word abstract and a short biographical statement to escastudies@protonmail.com. Please cc to: melanie.sadozai@zea.uni-regensburg.de and abel.polese@dcu.ie.

Financial conditions

• there is no workshop fee
• meals will be provided to all participants
• it is not possible to take care of travel but for those with limited funding we can cover accommodation for 2-3 nights

If you want your accommodation to be covered please mention it in the abstract document. If you have your university funding try to use that one as this will give us a chance to fund some extra people.