Dialogues on Central Asia: In Search of Subfields
- Date
- 9 October 2026
- Time
- 09:00 -18:00
- Location
- Bushuis/Oost-Indisch Huis
- Room
- Kartini Room
In a recent report of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), experts flagged the importance of Central Asia to Europe, citing Central Asia's current drive to diversify its partnerships. This overall strategic importance notwithstanding, few events in Dutch universities have Central Asia as their entire focus. Often research on Central Asia problems are scattered over several panels in a conference, with the thrust of scholarly attention remaining on Russia and more recently Ukraine. Central Asia remains on the margins, a strategic miss that needs to be addressed. Coming after the 'inaugural' Central Asia-EU summit in April 2025, this is an excellent time for an academic event at the UvA, focused singularly on Central Asian countries, with an interest in diversifying subject areas and shifting our attention to themes related to society and culture.
We invite you to attend Dialogues on Central Asia: In search of Subfields, an interdisciplinary workshop on 9 October 2026 in the Kartini Room, Bushuis/Oost-Indisch Huis. Scholars from Central Asia, Mongolia, India, Europe and Canada will speak on a wide spectrum of topics, on panels organised around themes of mediatised identities, cultural memory, decoloniality /race, and digital cultures.
Please make a note of this event and do attend if you are interested!
Organisers
Sudha Rajagopalan (UvA), Micha Kemper (UvA), Rashid Gabdulhakov (University of Groningen) and Bakhrombek Narimanov (UvA / Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University)
Schedule
| Time | Programme |
| 09:00-09:30 | Arrival & Coffee |
| 09:30-09:45 | Opening Remarks |
| 09:45-11:15 | Panel I – Mediatised Identities |
| Assel Kamza Almaty Management University · Almaty, Kazakhstan Screening the Secular: The Politics of Veiling and Islamophobia in Modern Kazakh Cinema (2019–2025) |
|
| Ramazan Bakyradinov Nazarbayev University · Astana, Kazakhstan Reifying the Other: Anti-China Narratives in the Kazakh-Soviet Literature |
|
| Lena Wolf Independent Author · London, UK Drawing Memory Across Borders: A Graphic Memoir of Soviet Germans in Kazakhstan |
|
| 11:15-11:30 | Coffee Break |
| 11:30-13:00 | Panel II – Cultural Memory |
| Görkem Atsungur American University of Central Asia · Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan SKAD Analysis of Heritage, National Identity, and Tourism Branding in Post-Soviet Central Asia |
|
| Olivier Arifon Côte d'Azur University · Nice, France Between Soviet Legacy and Sovereign Memory: State and Independent Russian-Language Media Discourses in Kazakhstan |
|
| Bushra Alhuzili University of Leeds · Leeds, UK The ‘Islam Card’ in Soviet–Saudi Relations: The Role of Central Asia – A Case Study of Hajj (1944–1979) |
|
| 13:00-14:00 | Lunch |
| 14:00-15:30 | Panel III – Decoloniality and Race |
| Kamila Smagulova Leiden University · Leiden, The Netherlands Nevada-Semipalatinsk Anti-Nuclear Movement: Placing the Soviet Union into the Framework of Global Colonialism |
|
| Nodira Kholmatova [online] University of Amsterdam · Amsterdam, The Netherlands Is the Global East a Neo-Orientalism? The Ethics of Framing Central Asia |
|
| Lyazzat Shakirova [online] University of Toronto · Toronto, Canada Knowledge Production at the Periphery? Collaboration and International Visibility of Central Asian Social Science Research, 2000–2025 |
|
| 15:30-15:45 | Coffee Break |
| 15:45-17:30 | Panel IV – Digital Media |
| Aditya Verma Jamia Millia Islamia · Delhi, India Scrolling Through the Steppe: TikTok, Youth Identity, and the Vernacular Politics of Central Asian Digital Culture |
|
| Mukarram Otamurodova Webster University · Tashkent, Uzbekistan Gender-Based Online Violence Against Female Journalists in Uzbekistan: Digital Safety Issues and Legal Measures |
|
| Zebo Isakova Kimyo International University · Tashkent, Uzbekistan Platformed Migration: Digital Communities, Skills, and Mobility Among Central Asian Migrants |
|
| Christopher Wizda [online] Independent Researcher · Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia AI, Linguistic Asymmetry, and the Reproduction of Colonial Knowledge in Central Asian Studies |
|
| 17:30-18:00 | Coffee & Wrap-up |
| 18:00 | Dinner (Restaurant to be decided) |
