Our partners at the European Society for Central Asian Studies – ESCAS are organizing a conference in Tashkent and Samarkand June 12-15, 2025. Please direct all inquiries regarding the conference to escastudies@protonmail.com.
ESCAS 2025 Regional Conference – Theme: “Moving Central Asian Studies Ever Further: Orthodox vs. Unorthodox Approaches.” June 12–15, 2025: Tashkent and Samarkand (Uzbekistan).
CALL FOR PAPERS – Extended submission deadline: January 5, 2025. Location: Tashkent & Samarkand, Uzbekistan http://www.escas.org/news/. Submissions in Russian are possible, panels in regional languages are also allowed.
http://www.escas.org/next-conference/
http://www.escas.org/news/
NB. We plan to book a seat on the train to Samarkand for all registered participants and travel all in the same car. If you cannot travel or prefer to make your own arrangements, we will prepare a conference package with alternative transport means.
CALL FOR PAPERS
The European Society for Central Asian Studies (ESCAS) invites proposals for individual papers, panels and round-table discussions for the 20th ESCAS conference, which will take place in Tashkent and Samarkand, Uzbekistan. In line with regional traditions, the conference will have a nomadic format and will be held in collaboration with Tashkent State University of Economics. This format will allow you to experience different academic environments and networking with colleagues from various disciplines.
In line with our mission, we are now looking to revitalise ESCAS as an inclusive academic platform which responds to the needs of exchanging information and ideas and identifying challenges and opportunities of conducting research in and about Central Asia, fostering discussions between disciplines and scholarly traditions. The topic of this year’s conference is very broad and reflects the fact that ESCAS is interested in contributions from the humanities, social sciences, and economics disciplines. The broad scope of the conference is particularly suitable for interdisciplinary collaborations. Therefore, whether you are interested in research on remote areas, socio-economic transformations in the region, societal and cultural change, macro or micro tendencies, anthropology, archeology, environmental issues or economics, law and legal studies, sociology or political science or cross-disciplinary research, you are very much encouraged to submit an abstract and join our discussions. We also welcome sessions and presentations offering non-orthodox approaches to the study of the region as well as papers bridging social sciences with life and exact sciences (medicine, engineering, environment)
The broad Central Asian region as a topic encourages us to look at the power shifts that are now unfolding, due not only to the current war in Ukraine, but also to the changing role of the region in economic, cultural and developmental issues. We would like to promote the event as a showroom of research on Central Asia, promote collaborations and exchanges between researchers and institutions and offer career development opportunities for young and mid-career researchers.
We welcome a regional focus on the broader Central Asian region and invite interested researchers to submit an abstract for individual papers, panels, or roundtables. Proposals can be related to all aspects of research in the arts, humanities and social sciences on Central Asia – namely the republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, together with Xinjiang, Mongolia, Afghanistan and adjacent regions of Russia, China, Iran, South Asia and the Caucasus.
Our programme will feature classic academic presentations and panels, roundtables, book discussions as well as professional development workshops. Submission modalities are the following:
1) Individual presentations: 300 words and a short biographical statement
2) Complete panel: For panel proposals: a panel title, an abstract of max. 400 words, short biography and contact emails of the convenors, discussant, and chair. Panels shall have a minimum of 3 to maximum of 4 speakers, one to two discussants, and a chair. If you cannot identify a discussant or chair, we can help you with that and allocate a chair or discussant for you;
3) Book discussion: 300 word abstract with name of the presenter and the discussants (ideally 2-3). NB, the book should be from 2024 or later. For book presentations/discussions, please add “Book Discussion” followed by the title of the book and author.
4) Roundtable: 400 word rationale and name and bio of all participants, Roundtables must have a chair and minimum of 3 to maximum of 5 speakers.
If you cannot identify a chair, we can help you with that and allocate a chair for you.
We will work to prepare a programme featuring also professional training (targeting Central Asian scholars), research networking sessions as well as cultural activities since Samarkand is an amazing and historical place and it will be worth it to explore it together. After the conference, you might want to travel to Bukhara, Khiva or all other amazing places Uzbekistan offer, we will prepare an information package.
Language of the presentations
The primary language of the ESCAS Conference is English; however, proposals for academic presentations to be conducted primarily in other languages are welcome and encouraged. Panel proposals, roundtables, and book discussions should indicate the planned working language in brackets after the title (e.g. [Uzbek], [Russian], etc.) and submit an abstract in English followed by the abstract in the non-English language. Individual paper proposals can only be accepted if they will be delivered in English.
Travel support
To encourage the participation of early-career researchers from the Central Asian region with little support from their institutions, ESCAS is delighted to confirm the availability of up to 8 travel grants (max 250 euro each).
If you are interested in this opportunity, please submit a short motivation letter with your abstract indicating your circumstances (why your institution cannot support you and how much you expect your travel to cost). Priority may be given to scholars from the region (over those based in Europe/US). If you may apply for funding within your organisation, you are warmly encouraged to do so, as this would allow us to allocate money to scholars with no support.
How to apply
Please submit a 300 word abstract and 2-3 lines of biographical statement to escastudies@protonmail.com by January 5, 2025.
If you wish, you can also add information about any other activities you wish to offer (cultural tour, deliver a training session, hold a research discussion, or other). Please contact ESCAS for any clarification.
