Central Asia: (Re)thinking a region in space and time

Argumentary of the scientific event

These study days aim to promote Central Asian studies by giving an account of their dynamism and diversity, Central Asia being understood here in a broad geographical sense, stretching from Iran to Mongolia and from Afghanistan to Russia. Multidisciplinary in nature, they also aim to promote dialogue between different approaches to Central Asian societies, in space and time, and to provide a forum for exchange between researchers of all status engaged in work on the region. These days follow on from the meetings held in February 2023 and December 2024 as part of the activities of the GIS Middle East and Muslim Worlds (MOMM).

Scientific event program

Thursday, December 11th, 2025

Inalco - Maison de la Recherche

Auditorium Dumézil

2 rue de Lille - Paris 7^e

- 9am-9:30am : Opening

• Jean-François Huchet (president of INALCO)
• Frédéric Abécassis (director of GIS MOMM)
• Frantz Grenet (professor at Collège de France)

- 9:30am - 11am: Fabrique de la ville et récits du territoire

Moderation: Catherine Poujol (Inalco, CREE)

• Adrien Fauve (Université Paris-Saclay, IEDP), Julien Thorez (CNRS, CeRMI) and Paul Wolkenstein (Inalco, CREE): "La fabrique d'Astana: derrière le mirage des 'starchitectes' : A city made by Kazakhs"

• Marina Fedorovsky (University of Geneva, Switzerland): "From Soviet blocks to 'elite' residences: new urban aspirations in Bishkek"

• Robin Leterrier (Université Paris 8, IFG) : "Rurality staged: Astana, Rodina and the 'food belt' of independent Kazakhstan"

- 11am - 11:30am: Coffee break

- 11:30am - 12:30pm : Ritual expenditure and accounting obsessions

Moderator : Zhanna Karimova (CMW, Université Lumière Lyon 2)

• Isabelle Ohayon (CNRS, CERCEC) "Les élites politiques et religieuses face aux dépenses rituelles en Asie centrale au XXe siècle: naissance d'une raison comptable"

• Caroline Dufy (Institut d'études politiques de Bordeaux, CED) "Compter le faste. Ethno-counting ceremonial expenditure among the urban middle class in Kazakhstan"

- 12:30pm - 1:45pm : Lunch

- 1:45pm - 2pm : Presentation of the French Archaeological Delegation in Afghanistan (DAFA): Laurianne Sève (Director of DAFA)

- 2pm - 3pm : Trade routes and ancient cities

Moderation : Laurianne Sève (DAFA)

• Noyib Khudoyorov (Andijan State University, Uzbekistan): "The earliest stage of the formation and development of Andijan based on archaeological evidence"

• Simon Berger (CNRS, CeRMI):"Beyond the 'Silk Road': New leads on the origins of Muslim trade in the Mongol Empire"

- 3pm - 4pm : Kazakhstan's opinion challenged by institutional and digital transformations

Moderator: Isabelle Ohayon (CNRS, CERCEC)

• Marat Absattarov (Université Lumière Lyon 2, Transversales): "Towards a unicameral parliament in Kazakhstan: issues and prospects of institutional reform"

• Zhanna Karimova (Centre Max Weber, Université Lumière Lyon 2), Sholpan Jamanbalayeva and Aitzhamal Amanzholova (Institute of Philosophy, Political Science and Religious Studies, Almaty, Kazakhstan): "Beyond innovation: public trust and AI debates in Kazakhstan"

- 4pm - 4:30pm: Coffee break

- 4:30pm - 6pm: Geopolitical and epistemological repositionings after 2022

Moderation : Adrien Fauve (Université Paris-Saclay, IEDP)

• Asel Doolotkeldieva (University of Potsdam, Germany) and Stefanie Ortmann (University of Sussex, UK): "Towards 'vernacular' Central Asian geopolitics: Russia-Kyrgyzstan/Kazakhstan"

• Michaël Levystone (Inalco, CREE):"Kazakhstan-Ouzbékistan: vers une alliance centrasiatique?"

• Xavier Le Torrivellec (CERCEC, EHESS): "Geopolitical changes and epistemological impacts: Central Asia after 2022"

Friday, December 12th, 2025

Inalco - Maison de la Recherche

Auditorium Dumézil

2 rue de Lille - Paris 7^e

- 9am - 10:30am : Instrumental culture and dissident culture in the colonial and Soviet periods

Moderation : Svetlana Gorshenina (CNRS, Eur'Orbem)

• Xavier Hallez (CETOBaC, EHESS): "On the eve of major administrative reforms in Central Asia, the Moscow Ethnographic Exhibition of 1867 - reflecting the stakes for local tsarist administrations and Central Asians"

• Kristina Bekenova (Scuola IMT Altu Studi Lucca, Italy): "From Russian colony to Soviet Republic: museums, cultural transfer, and nation-building in Central Asia (the 1830s-1930s)"

• Ulan Bigozhin (Nazarbayev University, Astana, Kazakhstan): " Kazakh Muslim anti-colonial poetry as inspiration for anti-Soviet dissidence: Shortanbay Aqïn and Kämel Zhu̇nīstegī "

- 10:30am - 11am : Coffee break

- 11am - 12pm : History and production of environmental knowledge

Moderation: Vincent Fourniau (EHESS, CETOBaC)

• Katja Doose (Université Lumière Lyon 2, LARHRA): "From landscape to resource: glaciers and the production of knowledge (1930-1960)"

• Anna Safronova (Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin):"Fishermen of the steppes : for a history of fish farming in Kazakhstan"

- 12pm - 1:30pm : Lunch

- 1:30pm - 2:30pm: Migration strategies and access to resources

Moderation : Juliette Cleuziou (Université Lumière Lyon 2, LADEC)

• Daniel Kashnitsky (Université Paris Cité, Cermes3):"Access to healthcare for migrants from Eastern Europe and Central Asia: Roles of community organizations in the face of health barriers"

• Svetlana Russkikh (Sorbonne Paris Nord University): "The Korean diaspora in Central Asia and its migratory pathways to South Korea"

2:30pm - 3:30pm : : Gender, violence and reproductive policies

Moderation : Gaëlle Lacaze (Sorbonne Université, IESS)

• Roman Zorzetto (University of Strasbourg) : "Behind closed doors: intimate partner violence in a changing Kazakhstan"

• Lucia Direnberger (CNRS, IFEAC, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan) and Irène Mestre (MEAE, IFEAC, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan): "Reproductive policies and agriculture in Central Asia"

- 3:30pm - 4:00pm : Coffee break

- 4pm - 5:30pm: Imaginaries and practices of pastoral societies

Moderation: Carole Ferret (CNRS, LAS)

• Boris Chichlo (MNHN, Eco-anthropologie): "Tamïr - spirit of rain and love among Turkish peoples"

• Antoine Eichelberger (University of Geneva, Switzerland): "Une mobilité en tension: le pastoralisme transhumant comme modèle d'élevage transitoire au Kazakhstan soviétique (1930-1960)"

• Gaëlle Lacaze (Sorbonne Université, IESS) : " Présent et avenir du pastoralisme nomade en Mongolie contemporaine? "

Organization

• Juliette Cleuziou, anthropologist (Université Lumière Lyon 2, LADEC)
• Katja Doose, historian (Université Lumière Lyon 2, LARHRA)
• Adrien Fauve, politiste (Université Paris-Saclay, IEDP)
• Olivier Ferrando, politiste (Université catholique de Lyon, UR Confluence: Sciences et Humanités)
• Svetlana Gorshenina, historian (CNRS, Eur'Orbem)

Zhanna Karimova, sociologist (Centre Max Weber, Université Lumière Lyon 2)

• Isabelle Ohayon, historian (CNRS, CERCEC)

Catherine Poujol, historian (Inalco, CREE)

• William Rendu, archaeologist (CNRS, Zoostan)
• Camille Rhoné-Quer, historian (Aix-Marseille Université, IREMAM)
• Julien Thorez, geographer (CNRS, CeRMI)

Contacts

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