Admission requirements
None.
Description
The five republics of Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan are known as Central Asia. The region is vast and highly diverse in its geography. It is usually associated with the ancient “Silk Road,” which was a network of trade routes, and which has recently regained currency with China’s Belt and Road Initiative. While not exoticising the people and their history, Central Asia has a rich past, in which a multitude of languages are spoken; it is the birthplace of great empires and a crossroads of many different cultures. Its fluid borders stretch into present-day Afghanistan, Russia, China, Mongolia, Iran, and the Caucasus.
This course will focus on the society, economy, and environment in Central Asia and Afghanistan. Using varied sources and materials, it offers a diachronic approach to examine past and contemporary dynamics: from consolidation of power under Chinggis Khan and the Timurids, and a merging of power and control under Russian imperial rule and the Soviet Union, to territorial fragmentation and the creation and hardening of national borders with independence in 1991. All of this has resulted in the Central Asia as we know it today. How have state-society relations in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan developed in the years since 1991? What has independence meant for these countries’ relationships with Afghanistan, with whom a part of the region’s population share a common ethnicity? What role does the Soviet legacy play in state-society relations, the organisation of the economy, and the environment? How do people grapple with the ambiguous legacies of the Soviet Union, and how can we understand and explain diverging reflections on the Soviet past? What role have international organisations and other external actors from the Global North, East, and South played in nation-building and social and economic development and change? How are the renewed interests of global powers manifested in everyday lives in rural and urban Central Asia?
Starting with a multifaceted historical overview of the region, the course will foreground the region’s more recent history and Central Asia today: it is an area that has newly experienced an increase in geopolitical interests in a multipolar world. The first series of lectures focus on dynamics through time, and are followed by thematically orientated lectures that dwell on, amongst other themes: borders, identities, migration, agency and conflict, frontiers and environments, and geopolitics.
Course objectives
This course aims to provide a background into the history, culture and current issues of a region that has often been thought of as a periphery, caught between the great powers of Asia and the Middle East.
Timetable
The timetables are available through My Timetable.
Mode of instruction
Lecture.
Assessment method
| Assessment | Weighing |
|---|---|
| Written examination with short open questions and essay questions on lectures and readings | 100% |
Resit
Written examination with short open questions and essay questions on lectures and readings (100%).
Exam review
If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will be organized.
Reading list
Readings will be made available during the course via Brightspace.
Registration
Enrolment through MyStudyMap is mandatory. General information about course and exam enrolment is available on the website
Contact
For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the information bar on the right.
For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office Herta Mohr
Remarks
Please note that the additional course information is an integral part of this course description.