Graduate Student Conference on Сentral Asia

Session I: Beliefs and Values: Continuity and Change

8:15-9:00 am: Breakfast (Concourse Level, CGIS South)

9:00-10:30 am: Introductory Remarks and Presentations 

Chair: Yipeng Zhou, Coordinator, Imperiia Project, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies

• Leora Eisenberg, Harvard University, Uzbek-Jewish Relations in WWII: Evacuation as a Testing Ground for the ‘Friendship of the Peoples’
• Yuliya Ten, Georgetown University, Relying on “Unreliable People”: Central Asian Koreans as Intermediaries in the Soviet Foreign Policy in Korea (the 1940s-1960s)
• Kianna Mahony, Harvard University, The Role of Poetry in Furthering Tajikistan's Efforts of Nation-Building and Identity Consolidation

10:30-10:45 am: Break (Concourse Level, CGIS South)

10:45-12 pm: Presentations

Chair: Toby Cox, Harvard University, A.M. Candidate in Theological Studies (MTS)

• Maia Simon, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sensitive Containers: Underground Nuclear Testing at the Semipalatinsk Test Site
• Dina Aldanova, Georgetown University, Anti-Nuclear Movement "Nevada-Semipalatinsk": Voice of Humanity
• Muling He, Harvard University, Asserting Socialism in Uzbek Neighborhoods, 1917 - 1967

Session II: In the Shadow of Big Neighbors: Central Asian Interactions with Russia and China

1-2:30 pm: Presentations

Chair: Nargis Kassenova, Senior Fellow; Director, Program on Central Asia, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies 

• Aleksei Rumiantsev, Indiana University, Nationalities policy in Russia towards Central Asian residents and domestic Turkic-speaking Ethnicities during the War in Ukraine
• Raushan Zhandayeva, George Washington University,  “Belief Formation during International Crises: The Case of Central Asia”
• John Stanko, Indiana University, The Russian Diplomatic Academy as Soft Power Resource: An Examination of Eurasian Ambassadorial Corps
• Przemyslaw Dalek, University of Warsaw,  Change of the Security Paradigm in Central Asia? CSTO Member Countries and Chinese Military Influence

2:30-2:45 pm: Break (Concourse Level, CGIS South)

2:45-3:30 pm: Presentations 

Chair: Leora Eisenberg, Harvard University, Ph.D. Candidate in History 

• Zhanara Almazbekova, Georgetown University, Between Empire and Colony: A Kazakh Intermediary’s Visions of Steppe Enlightenment
• Jonathan Raspe, Princeton University, “National in Form, Russian in Content? Industrialization, Russification, and Ethnic Tokenism in Late Soviet Kazakhstan

3:30-4 pm: Break (Concourse Level, CGIS South)

4-5 pm: Keynote Speaker: James Pickett, the University of Pittsburgh, Associate Professor, Department of History

Endemic Colonialism: Sovereignty, Public Health, and Pandemic in Pre-Soviet Bukhara

Session III: Political, Economic, and Social Transformations

8:45 - 9:30 Breakfast (Concourse Level, CGIS South)

9:30-11:00: Presentations

Chair: Aruzhan Meirkhanova, Harvard University, Innovation Fellow, Program on Central Asia, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies 

• Aidana Razhap Kyzy, Johns Hopkins University, “Impact of Debt and Equity Market Development on Renewable Energy Consumption in Kazakhstan”
• Pengshan Pan, University of Pittsburgh, Foreign Mining, Labor Welfare and Local Trust: Evidence from Kyrgyzstan
• Akbota Karibayeva, George Washington University, “Ungrateful Successors: Why Do Authoritarian Leaders Turn On Their Predecessors?” 
• Otabek Akromov,  University of Minnesota, “Understanding Political Liberalization in Uzbekistan:  Breaking from the Past?”

11:00-11:15  Break (Concourse Level, CGIS South)

11:15-12:00: Presentations 

Chair: Muling He, Harvard University, A.M. Candidate in Regional Studies, REECA

• Nazerke Mukhlissova, Yale University, The ‘Great Steppe’ Narrative: Origins, Politics, and Aspirations of Eternal Kazakhstan
• Adam Lenton, George Washington University, Dear Compatriots: New Year Speeches as Sites for Post-Soviet Identity Construction (co-authored with Akbota Karibayeva)

12:00-12:15 Concluding Remarks by Nargis Kassenova 

Please direct any questions about the conference to Nargis Kassenova and Aruzhan Meirkhanova.