Conveners: Marianne Kamp and Ali Igmen 

Description of the Workshop: The year 1991 was a momentous turning point in Central Asia, and thirty years later, the changes that took place in 1991, leading up to independence, and in 1992, as independence became a reality, deserve new research and analysis. This workshop gathers scholars–historians, oral historians, sociologists to share plans for collaborative research focusing on immediate impacts and longer term impressions of the 1991 end and beginning; the end of a shared Soviet experience and the beginning of life in independent states. The research group is initiating a multi-site, multi-faceted program that will result in a new ‘people’s history’ of 1991 in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan, producing academic publications and a shared, public-facing history website. What are effective ways to access people’s memories about their own and their community’s experiences in 1991? What methods are appropriate for initiating an oral history collection: whose voices should we seek out first?

This Thursday morning workshop shares an initial discussion of the 1991 project, seeks interest from scholars who might join the project or who share similar interests, and offers a multi-lingual (English, Russian, Kyrgyz) training session in oral history methods based on readings shared before this workshop session.

This pre-conference workshop is open to up to 15 CESS members who have registered for the CESS conference (virtually or in person). To apply, email mkamp@indiana.edu and Ali.Igmen@csulb.edu with a brief paragraph explaining your research interests and your reason for wanting to participate in this workshop.

Convener: Aksana Ismailbekova

This workshop addresses several of the initiative’s priorities: it is designed to promote young researchers working on Central Asia who live in Europe, USA and Central Eurasia. The workshop addresses important issues in the academic community of Central Eurasia such as closed networks, lack of cross-border cooperation, and different sense of networking strategies. The workshop will give junior scholars a forum to network and facilitate the exchange of ideas, highlight possibilities of international cooperation, identify cross-cutting themes, research gaps, and helping them to jointly develop research projects.

We will also examine the development of academia in different countries and suggest practical steps for young academics to be aware of employment opportunities outside and inside academia. This workshop is a unique opportunity for young scholars of Central Eurasia to come together and discuss their specific concerns, exchange experiences, and engage in a dialogue across disciplinary and national boundaries, which are usually subsumed in the framework of global academic practice. Additionally, it offers young scholars living in Western countries and Central Asia strengthening a sense of scientific communities.

This pre-conference workshop is open to up to 20 CESS members who have registered for the CESS conference (virtually or in person). To apply, email aksana_ismailbekova@yahoo.co.uk or aksana.ismailbekova@zmo.de with CV and a brief paragraph explaining your research interests and your reason for wanting to participate in this workshop.

Convenors: Abel Polese

Max number of participants: up to 20
Format: online
Acceptance on a first come first serve basis, by adding your name to this form.

This course will address challenges scientists encounter while transitioning between their junior years (PhD defence) and the first stable position. This will be done while critically reflecting on whether we like academia as it has designed so far, whether we can actually live with that and what we could contribute to change to make it a more suitable place. It is organised around two main pillars:

1) Journal choice: the first session deals with the choice of an academic outlet for your work. It is well known that journals differ from one another through Impact Factor. But choice of a journal should not merely depend on IF. There are other criteria one might want to take into account from visibility of the journal to their reputation in the country where you work, speed of review process and open access options offered by the journal. This session will teach you how to orientate in the world of academic journals and what elements to take into account to make a choice.

2) Writing and publishing: you will be guided into how to structure an article to make it suitable for a given journal, how to choose and approach publishers and why sometimes it is better to target an average journal rather than a top one. Discussions will also focus on the role of open science and open access, impact factor and author processing charges in research careers.

Suggested preliminary readings

“Why was my article desk-rejected?” Academic Chatter Blog
https://academic-chatter.com/blog/why-was-my-article-desk-rejected/

“What’s the best publisher for your book?”, Inside Higher Education
https://www.insideighered.com/advice/2019/11/05/four-variables-consider-when-choosing-publisher-opinion

“Think strategically: what can co-authorship bring to your academic career?” ECHER Blog, https://www.echer.org/what-can-co-authorship-bring-to-your-academic-career/

Bio of the instructor: Abel Polese is a researcher, trainer, writer, manager and fundraiser. He has worked on questions of development, (informal) governance, identity, shadow economy, corruption and reciprocity. He is also interested in management and strategic thinking of academic career. He is the author of “The SCOPUS Diaries and the (il)logics of Academic Survival: A Short Guide to Design Your Own Strategy and Survive Bibliometrics, Conferences, and Unreal Expectations in Academia”, a reflection on academic life, research life, mental health, life-work balance and the choices and obstacles young scholars face at the beginning of their career.

Main text: Polese, A. (2019) The SCOPUS diaries and the (il)logics of academic survival A short guide to design your own strategy and survive bibliometrics, conferences and unreal expectations in academia. Stuttgart: Ibidem Verlag https://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-scopus-diaries-and-the-illogics-of-academic-survival/9783838211992

Chair and discussant: Prof. Christopher Atwood (University of Pennsylvania)

Panel presenters:
Prof. Simon Wickhamsmith (Rutgers University): Yeröölch Jigmed remembers the Revolution

Dr. Tsedendamba Batbayar (Institute of History, MAS): Regional Geopolitics and the Issue of Mongolia’s International Status (1920-1921)

Prof. Orna Tsultem (Herron School of Art + Design, IUPUI): Impact of the 1921 Revolution in Mongolian Art: the cases of Sharav and Yadamsüren

Dr. Lhagvademchig Jadamba (Department of Anthropology and Archeology, National University of Mongolia): The Impact of the Revolution of 1921 for the Establishment of Socialist Mongolian Hamba Lama Institution

Dr. O.Batsaikhan (Mongolian Archives); “1921 historical event in Mongolia.” 

Discussant: Prof.  Johan Elverskog (SMU Dedman College)

Presenters:
Dr. Sam H. Bass (Indiana University): Notes on the Inventories of the Buddhist Paraphernalia and Books of the Fourth Noyon Khutugtu Jamiyan Oidub-Čoyijamču

Prof. Brian Baumann (University of California, Berkeley): Unlikely Genius: Géluk sa bdag as Divinations of Chinese Stars

Prof. Eveline Washul (Indiana University): Tibetan-Mongol Royal Lineages in the Kokonor: A Preliminary Study of a Chaghadaid Genealogy

Prof. Jonathan Washington (Swarthmore): Mongolic Elements in Kazakh and Kyrgyz

Chair: Ambassador (Ret.) Pamela Slutz

Presenters:
Dr. Julie LEFORT  (CRLAO): From lexical borrowing to metatypy:  An overview of Sino Mongolian Language Contact

Dr. Saruul-Erdene Myagmar (Library of Congress): Linguistic jokes of Professor György Kara and Long-Term Memory

Gedun Rabsal (Indiana University) and Mrs. Tserenchunt Legden (Indiana University): Hor or Sogpo: A History of Tibetan words to describe Mongolia

Tuvshinbayar Damdinsuren (Mongolian University of Life science): Mongolian slang study by the theory of Bernstein

Chair: Prof. Timothy May (University of North Georgia)

Presenters:
Dr. Krisztina Teleki (Eötvös Loránd University): Lamiin Gegeen’s Smoke Offering Ritual to the Khangai Mountain Range

Dr. Mátyás Balogh (ELTE University ): Some murky lines in the Buryat shamanic invocations translated by Prof. György Kara

Charles Manson (Oxford University): Tibetan Buddhism Comes to Qara Qorum

Prof. Wei-Chieh (Shenzhen University): Tsogtu Khong Tayiji and the Khalkha-Khoshot Contest for Supremacy in Seventeenth-century Tibet (Dedicated to Professor György Kara)

Chair: Tserenchunt Legden (Indiana University)

Presenters:
Dr. D.Tsend-Ayush (International School of Mongolian Medicine), Ch.Batnairamdal (Mongolian National University of Medical Sciences (MNUMS)), &  Ananda (World Federation of Mongolian Medicine): The Contribution of Mongolian Healers on the Development of Oriental Traditional Medicine

Batnairamdal.Ch (MNUMS),  Badmaarag.Ch (NUMS), Otgonchimeg.B (National Center for Maternal, Newborn and Women’s),  Tsend-Ayush.D (International School of Mongolian Medicine. MNUMS): Clarifying hidden words used in Mongolian medicine

Prof. Khuvsgul Sambuu (Mongolian National University of Education, Mongolia): The Theatrical aspects in the Gorim of Drama “Saran Khukhuu” by D.Ravjaa

Mungunsukh Munkhtumur (Mongolian State University, Mongolia): Regarding the origin of the bow–string (spike fiddle) instrument the “erhu”