Program on Central Asia

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

Are you a graduate student writing about Central Asia? Submit your application for the Davis Center Graduate Student Conference on Central Asia by Jan. 31, 2025!

Three REECA students get to embed with Davis Center program teams for a year of mutually fruitful collaboration on topics as diverse as AI literacy, diaspora politics, and green energy.

The Davis Center’s Graduate Student Conference on Central Asia showcases vibrant scholars eager to share and collaborate with others who study the region.

Related Events

Upcoming Event

In their new book Indulging Kleptocracy, John Heathershaw, Tena Prelec, and Tom Mayne offer an engaging inside account of the fight against kleptocracy in the UK.

Past Event

The Black Sea Lab is an exploratory collaboration across the research initiatives at the Davis Center.

Past Event

Recent works on the political behavior and identity of Asian-Americans consistently omit Central and North Asians. A pioneering online survey carried out in 13 languages aims to fill this gap.