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ADI Summer School on Central Asia
The Asian Dynamics Initiative (ADI) of the University of Copenhagen invites applications for a summer school on ‘History, Identity and Religion in Contemporary Central Eurasia' to be held in Copenhagen, Denmark, 04.07.2011 - 15.07.2011
Organized within the framework of the cross-faculty Asian Dynamics Initiative at the University of Copenhagen, this summer school is designed as an interdisciplinary event to provide students unfamiliar with the region with introductory courses into the societies, polities and cultures of contemporary Central Eurasia. It will also offer students who already have some knowledge of the region a deeper insight into ongoing academic research and discussions of the post-Soviet independent states, Afghanistan, Mongolia and Xinjiang. All participants will learn to situate their studies in the context of international scholarship and receive assistance in identifying new directions for further, independent work.
Both the definition and the naming of the vast, landlocked area that
stretches from the Caspian Sea to Xinjiang and Mongolia in the East, and
from the southern parts of Siberia to Iran and Afghanistan in the
south, remain problematic, imprecise and arbitrary; but in spite of the
inherent ambiguities, enough shared features can be identified which
lend this space a certain sense of unity. In opting for the designation
‘Central Eurasia' we join a growing trend that seeks to transcend the
artificial distinction between Europe and Asia - a divide still implicit
in terminology such as Central Asia or Inner Asia. The term Central
Eurasia does justice to the continuous and complex interactions taking
place along its famous trade routes, retrospectively named the Silk
Routes by the German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen, which allowed
for a lively, two-directional exchange of goods, technologies and ideas
between the great agrarian empires of East and West Eurasia. In the late
nineteenth century, the region was the stage for political rivalry and
conflict between the great colonial powers Russia and Great Britain that
became known as the ‘Great Game`. Following incorporation into the
Russian Empire and its successor the Soviet Union, much of Central
Eurasia became inaccessible to foreign researchers for over 70 years.
The fall of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the
emergence of the new independent ‘-stan' states at the end of the
twentieth century opened up new possibilities both for the ethnographic
study of contemporary Central Eurasia and for archival research into its
history.
The intensification of knowledge production about the region is not just
a matter of making good a scholarly deficit. It is of great urgency on
account of Central Eurasia's geostrategic, economic and political
significance. A source of enormous commercial and energy potential, most
of the region has long belonged to the Islamic world. Safeguarding
internal stability is therefore of paramount interest to numerous global
actors, including not only China, Russia and the US but also India and
several Middle Eastern states, all of which seek to exert their
influence there. Yet the civil war in Tajikistan, the chronic fragility
of Afghanistan and outbreaks of horrific violence in Uzbekistan,
Xinjiang and Kyrgyzstan in recent years have all served to highlight the
region's volatility. Meanwhile authoritarian regimes give human rights
activists cause for concern, e.g. when they invoke the threat of Islamic
terrorism to legitimate their repression. As the peoples of Central
Eurasia grapple with formidable new challenges of state building in the
modernized, global world, their weak economies render them vulnerable
players in the great and small games informed by post-colonialism,
post-socialism and the international war on terror.
Students will be initiated into ongoing scholarly debates on current
issues in various disciplines of the humanities and the social sciences,
while at the same time acquiring specialized regional knowledge with a
strong historical dimension. Courses will emphasize micro-macro links,
showing how local moments can simultaneously be grasped as transnational
phenomena embedded in the broader Eurasian and global context. MA and
BA students will be given an opportunity to present and discuss their
dissertation topics. Priority will be given to the following topics:
1. processes of identity building, ethnicity and citizenship
2. state formation and state building, borders, regionalism and territoriality
3. the entanglement of the religious, the cultural and the political
The combination of regional expertise with disciplinary perspectives reflects the profile of both the Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies and the Asian Dynamics Initiative and it is consistent with the goals of other leading academic institutions worldwide. The summer school is conceived as a first step towards re-establishing and strengthening Central Asian Studies at the University of Copenhagen.
Practical information:
1. Eligibility
The Summer School is open to all applicants registered as
students at BA (second or third year), MA or PhD level who attend
courses in area studies, or in any discipline within the social sciences
or the humanities, who feel that they would benefit from familiarizing
themselves with ongoing scholarly research on Central Eurasia.
2. Finances
There is no tuition fee. Participants are expected to cover
their own travel expenses, accommodation in Copenhagen and maintenance.
(Many universities have special funds available for such purposes and
prospective applicants are encouraged to contact their International
Office).
The Asian Dynamics Initiative has a limited number of grants available
(up to 10,000 DKK per person) to contribute to the travel and
maintenance expenses of well-qualified students who are unable to obtain
funding from elsewhere.
3. Credit Points
Students who attend and complete this summer school will obtain
15 ECTS. In addition to active participation in all events of the
summer school, students are required to submit a written paper in the
autumn following the summer school.
4. Language
The working language of the Summer School is English.
Download Course Syllabus (pdf)
The application deadline has expired.
