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Ship Graveyard, Moynaq
Red Sky (2025), Lyra Browning Lyra Browning is a second-year student of Russian and History at The University of Cambridge. Alongside her studies, Lyra is a keen artist and has drawn inspiration from recent travels in Central Asia. Lyra plans to deepen this engagement during her upcoming Year Abroad in Bishkek, where she will be…
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The Only Eagle Huntress
Byambasuren Enkhee was born and raised in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. She received her bachelor’s degree in English and Environmental Studies at the University of Washington and worked as a community engagement professional in Seattle, Washington, before switching fields to gain an MPhil in Social Anthropology from the University of Cambridge. Her research focuses on identity, language,…
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Selling Uyghur Foodways: The Shift in Culinary Borders Between China and Pakistan
Basmah Arshad is a doctoral candidate of history at the University of North Texas. Trained in cultural history, she is interested in issues of migration, race, and gender relevant to modern Asian and Asian American foodways. Previously, Arshad earned her Master’s in International and Regional Studies from the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor in…
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Desert Castles and Canals: Evolving Discourses on the Hydraulic Heritage of the Amu Darya
Robert Willard is a PhD student at the University of Vienna, in the department of Near Eastern Studies. His current research focuses on the use of heritage as a framework for practicing and maintaining water governance in Western Uzbekistan. Robert has 10 years of experience in ecological advocacy and fieldwork in Uzbekistan, in partnership with…
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Writing The History of the Kazakh SSR in Wartime Almaty.
In 1952, the Kazakh historian Yermukhan Bekmakhanov was sentenced to twenty-five years in a labour camp for his work on Kenesary Kasymov, the leader of a nineteenth-century Kazakh uprising against Russian rule.[i] The work that led to his arrest was published in The History of the Kazakh SSR, a text written during the Second World…
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Introduction
Views of Central Asia have historically been caught between an orientalised image from imperial powers and the visions that Central Asian societies hold of themselves. For this, the third volume of the Student Central Asia Forum, we invited proposals that consider the multitude of Central Asian horizons. We are delighted to present five submissions, encompassing…
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Generationality and Community in Turkmenistan: A Celebration of Durdy Bayramov’s Photography
Luke Bannerman from the University of Cambridge looks back on Turkmen photographer Durdy Bayramov’s work.
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Tourism in Uzbekistan: Weaving Silk Roads from the Louvre to your Instagram Reels
Travel to Uzbekistan continues to gain popularity, and it’s not just thanks to social media.
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Tapestry of the Alash Nation
Alara Nar Clayton from the University of Cambridge pens a prose poem for the Student Central Asia Forum.
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Monumental Art in Almaty
Ana Ross from the University of St Andrews explores the legacy of Soviet-era mosaics in modern street art in Kazakhstan.
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Repurposing Identities: the World of Fashion Designer Jenia Kim
Colin Hood from Charles University in Prague analyses how Jenia Kim’s designs articulate the complexities of post-Soviet identities in Central Asia.
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‘My Heart is a Tapestry Woven in Time to a Techno Beat’
Claudia-Macey Dare from Charles University, Prague takes you on a journey through the Eastern European and Central Asian techno scenes.
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Secularism under siege? The State, Media and Religion in Kyrgyzstan
Ana Ross, a student at the University of St. Andrews, explores how in spite of Kyrgyzstan’s constitutional secularism, religion has, on occasion, impacted policy-making in an environment of increasing hostility towards the freedom of religion.
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The Fall of Otrar and Kazakh Identity
Lewis Ebert, master’s student at Oxford University, analyses how Ardak Amirkulov’s ‘Fall of Otrar’ uses medieval history to explore Kazakh identity at the fall of the USSR
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My Brutalist Bishkek
James Mair from the University of Cambridge discusses all there is to love about the often-overlooked Soviet architecture of Bishkek.
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Wu-Stan Clan: Central Asia’s ancient rap tradition
Meet aitysh, an adversarial, ad-libbed performance tradition that’s half music and half sick flow.
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In terms of space, Central Asia has a lot of it. With a combined land…
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Central Asia’s financial institutions have slowly aligned with the Middle Eastern world of Islamic banking…
Manas, Memory, and the Making of the Kyrgyz National Myth
How one epic poem has defined Kyrgyz identity.
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The unique, and not so unique, ways in which social media are helping, and hindering,…
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Growing Activity of Russia and the EU in Kazakhstan Could Lead to Economic Conflict by 2030
Eldaniz Gusseinov analyses the growing possibility of economic conflict between Russia and the EU in…
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What role can Britain play in Central Asia?
Peter Molloy, undergraduate in Modern Languages at the University of Cambridge, discusses Britain’s potential to…
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A New Era of Accessibility: How the Internet is Helping Disabled Kyrgyz Citizens Bridge Barriers, and their Ideas Cross Borders
Gunner Bauer, a recent graduate of Lawrence University, explores how the internet has benefitted disabled…
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The Necessity of Both National and Denational Approaches to Central Asian Studies
Emma Larson, Master’s candidate at the Harriman Institute of Columbia University, evaluates the relative value…
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