Central Asian Studies

Central Asian Studies

episodes

Interviews with scholars of Central Asia about their new books.

Legal Cultures in the Russian Empire

March 13, 2024

Legal Cultures in the Russian Empire

Nancy Kollmann and Paolo Sartori
Hosted by Erika Monahan

Law. How does the state form and use it? How do people use and shape it? How does law shape culture? How does the practice of law change over time in …

Eren Tasar, "Soviet and Muslim: The Institutionalization of Islam in Central Asia" (Oxford UP, 2017)

December 30, 2023

Soviet and Muslim

Eren Tasar

How was the Soviet Union able to avoid issues of religious and national conflict with its large and diverse Islamic population? In his new book, Sovie…

Christine E. Evans, "Between Truth and Time: A History of Soviet Central Television" (Yale UP, 2016)

December 29, 2023

Between Truth and Time

Christine E. Evans

In Between Truth and Time: A History of Soviet Central Television (Yale University Press, 2016), Christine E. Evans reveals that Soviet television in …

Sasha Goldstein-Sabbah et al., "Life & Legacy: A Window into Jewish Life Across the Islamic World" (U Groningen Press, 2023)

December 8, 2023

Life & Legacy

Sasha Goldstein-Sabbah, Lucía Farias García, Maxime Heijman, William Whitcombe, and Michel Gordon
Hosted by Drora Arussy

Through stunning images, maps and insightful commentary, Life & Legacy: A Window into Jewish Life Across the Islamic World (U Groningen Press, 2023) o…

Empires of the Steppes: A History of the Nomadic Tribes Who Shaped Civilisation

December 2, 2023

Empires of the Steppes

Kenneth W. Harl
Hosted by Maggie Freeman

The “barbarian” nomads of the Eurasian steppes have played a decisive role in world history, but their achievements have gone largely unnoticed. These…

Valerie Kivelson et al., "Picturing Russian Empire" (Oxford UP, 2023)

November 7, 2023

Picturing Russian Empire

Valerie Kivelson, Sergei Kozlov, and Joan Neuberger
Hosted by Erika Monahan
Listen:

Picturing Russian Empire (Oxford UP, 2023) appears as Russia’s imperialist war of aggression against Ukraine grinds on. The stakes could not be higher…

Christopher P. Atwood, "The Rise of the Mongols: Five Chinese Sources" (Hackett, 2021)

October 8, 2023

The Rise of the Mongols

Hosted by Lance Pursey

In this interview we deep dive into the historiographical issues of the texts in The Rise of the Mongols: Five Chinese Sources (Hackett, 2021), edited…

Isaac McKean Scarborough, "Moscow's Heavy Shadow: The Violent Collapse of the USSR" (Cornell UP, 2023)

October 1, 2023

Moscow's Heavy Shadow

Isaac McKean Scarborough
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Moscow's Heavy Shadow: The Violent Collapse of the USSR (Cornell University Press, 2023) by Dr. Isaac Mckean Scarborough tells the story of the collap…

The Secret History of the Mongols: An Interview with Chris Atwood

September 24, 2023

The Secret History of the Mongols

Chris Atwood
Hosted by Maggie Freeman

The Secret History of the Mongols is one of the literary wonders of the world. Writing in the thirteenth century, the Secret Historian - whose identit…

Antony Kalashnikov, "Monuments for Posterity: Self-Commemoration and the Stalinist Culture of Time" (Cornell UP, 2023)

September 23, 2023

Monuments for Posterity

Antony Kalashnikov
Hosted by Aaron Weinacht

Antony Kalashnikov's Monuments for Posterity: Self-Commemoration and the Stalinist Culture of Time (Cornell UP, 2023) analyzes Stalinist monument-buil…

Yiannis Kokosalakis, "Building Socialism: The Communist Party and the Making of the Soviet System, 1921–1941" (Cambridge UP, 2023)

August 6, 2023

Building Socialism

Yiannis Kokosalakis
Hosted by Samantha Lomb

By placing the party grassroots at the centre of its focus, Yiannis Kokosalakis' book Building Socialism: The Communist Party and the Making of the So…

Archaeology and Nomadism in the Russian Empire: An interview with Ismael Biyashev

July 29, 2023

Archaeology and Nomadism in the Russian Empire

Ismael Biyashev
Hosted by Maggie Freeman

In the second half of the 19th century, both professional and amateur archaeologists, surveyors, and explorers of the “periphery” of the Russian Empi…

Mongol Nomadism, Mongol Identity, and the Fall of the Mongol Empire

June 25, 2023

Mongol Nomadism, Mongol Identity, and the Fall of the Mongol Empire

Nicholas Morton
Hosted by Maggie Freeman
Listen:

In part two of our conversation about his book The Mongol Storm: Making and Breaking Empires in the Medieval Near East (Basic Books, 2022), Nicholas M…

Sofia Samatar, "The White Mosque: A Memoir" (Catapult, 2022)

June 22, 2023

The White Mosque

Sofia Samatar
Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
Listen:

In the late 19th century, a group of Mennonites leave Russia for what is now Uzbekistan. Driven out by Russian demands that the pacifist group make th…

Alexander Jabbari, "The Making of Persianate Modernity: Language and Literary History between Iran and India" (Cambridge UP, 2023)

April 16, 2023

The Making of Persianate Modernity

Alexander Jabbari
Hosted by Ahmed Almaazmi

Alexander Jabbari’s The Making of Persianate Modernity: Language and Literary History between Iran and India (Cambridge University Press, 2023) narrat…

Alfrid Bustanov and Vener Usmanov, "Muslim Subjectivity in Soviet Russia" (Brill, 2022)

April 10, 2023

Muslim Subjectivity in Soviet Russia

Alfrid Bustanov and Vener Usmanov
Hosted by Aruuke Uran Kyzy

The world as seen by a Qur’an specialist in late imperial and early Soviet Russia. Alfrid Bustanov and Vener Usmanov's book Muslim Subjectivity in S…

Jonan Pilet, "Nomad, Nomad" (Bound to Brew, 2021)

April 3, 2023

Nomad, Nomad

Jonan Pilet
Hosted by Maggie Freeman

In his debut short story collection, Nomad, Nomad (Bound to Brew, 2021), Jonan Pilet explores the lives of Mongols and expats looking for a sense of h…

The Transformation of Livestock Herding in Socialist Mongolia

March 31, 2023

The Transformation of Livestock Herding in Socialist Mongolia

Kenny Linden
Hosted by Maggie Freeman

Between 1956 and 1960, leaders in the Mongolian People’s Republic embarked on a collectivization campaign to change the way in which Mongolians intera…

Xin Wen, "The King’s Road: Diplomacy and the Remaking of the Silk Road" (Princeton UP, 2023)

March 9, 2023

The King’s Road

Xin Wen
Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

Many of us–who maybe aren’t historians–have an image of the Silk Road: merchants who carried silk from China to as far as ancient Rome, in one of the …

The Future of the Silk Road: A Discussion with Tim Winters

March 7, 2023

The Silk Road

Tim Winter

The term "Silk Road" evokes images of trade and exotic luxurious goods and Orientalist images. Today, however, it also is associated with the projecti…