Program on Central Asia

Scholar-Entrepreneur Initiative

The Program on Central Asia promotes research and teaching at Harvard on the history and current affairs of five Central Asian countries—Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

We support the study of the Central Asian region using tools and insights from various fields of social sciences and humanities. Our activities include research projects, seminar series, curriculum development and course offerings, creation of digital resources for the study of the region, facilitation of research by students and visiting scholars, and cultural events. 

While the program aims at generating and disseminating knowledge and resources on Central Asia spanning different periods of its history, our main focus is on the independence period and current developments. We approach Central Asia as a region that opened up as a result of the dissolution of the USSR. The states, economies, and people of Central Asia are now an integral part of the globalized world, and developments in the region cannot be properly understood without tracing and analyzing different forms of connectivity, influence, and interdependence.

Our Projects

Related Insights

Davis Center visiting scholar Rahat Sabyrbekov explores the region’s climate change challenges, spotlighting original work on decarbonization efforts in the region.

A mix of gifts and interpersonal elite ties marks China’s approach to Central Asia, contrasting starkly with a Western approach focused on political norms and principles, writes Nargis Kassenova.

In a new policy memo, Davis Center senior fellow Nargis Kassenova argues that Central Asia should follow the EU’s example in fostering regional cooperation and integration, particularly around the water-energy-climate change nexus.

Related Events

Upcoming Event

The talk will chart the birth of Muslim atheism in Central Asia in the 1950s and its development into a diverse and rapidly expanding body of literature in the 1960s.

Upcoming Event

This seminar will discuss the origins of Uzbek popular music, including where it comes from and how it developed.

Past Event

This documentary attempts to tell the story of more than 18,000 people in Uzbekistan formerly designated as “extremists” by the Karimov government.