The Davis Center will host its fourth annual graduate student conference on Central Asia on May 1-3, 2026. We invite paper proposals from graduate students at any stage of their academic careers, including master’s students, working on a topic related to Central Asia within any discipline. The conference will allow participants to present original work in progress (which must be at an advanced stage at the time of submission) and to receive feedback from peers and experts in the field.
The central theme of the conference is “Environment, Society, and Power in Central Asia” to commemorate and celebrate the scholarship of the late Maya K. Peterson, a Davis Center and Harvard alumna (REECA A.M. ’05, Ph.D. ’11). Maya’s work on the region changed the way we understand the intersections of knowledge and power, empire and environment.
Central Asia’s landscapes—arid steppes, mountain ranges, river basins, and mineral-rich subsoils—have long shaped patterns of governance, identity, and mobility. At the same time, political systems, economic imperatives, and security concerns have profoundly transformed environments through irrigation, extraction, industrialization, and infrastructure development. By bringing together perspectives across disciplines and time periods, the conference seeks to explore how environmental conditions and environmental governance have intersected with social organization, state power, and geopolitical dynamics in Central Asia.
Proposals may address, but are not limited to, the following themes:
- Water politics, irrigation, and river basin governance
- Environmental dimensions of empire, colonialism, and socialism
- Resource extraction, including critical minerals, hydrocarbons, and rare earths
- Environmental degradation, remediation, and sustainability initiatives
- Climate change, adaptation, and vulnerability in Central Asia
- Environment, borders, and regional security
- Environmental knowledge, expertise, and state planning
- Identity, ethnicity, and indigeneity in relation to land and resources
- Pastoralism, agriculture, and transformations of livelihoods
- Infrastructure, connectivity, and environmental change
- Environmental activism, protest, and civil society
- Competing narratives of development, modernization, and conservation
We invite contributions from multiple disciplines, including history, religious studies, anthropology, sociology, political science, economics, and other relevant fields of inquiry.
Interested graduate students should complete this online form by Feb. 9, 2026, 11:59 pm EST. Submissions must include: a working title and brief description (maximum 450 words) of your paper’s central argument and methods/sources; biographical information, including your full name, institutional affiliation, graduate program of study, and current year in that program; travel and accommodation preferences.
- Notification of acceptance will be sent no later than Feb. 27, 2026.
- Accepted participants must confirm their participation by March 9, 2026.
- Final papers must be received for peer review by April 13, 2026.
Please email Nargis Kassenova and Adam Wozniak at nkassenova@fas.harvard.edu and adamwozniak@g.harvard.edu with any questions about the conference or this call for proposals.
NB: Please note that we can consider applicants based outside the U.S. only if they are able to cover their travel expenses and independently obtain the appropriate permissions to enter the U.S.
Senior Fellow and Director, Program on Central Asia, Davis Center
