Civil Protests, Art, and Politics in Kazakhstan

May 14, 2019

As Kazakhstan heads for its first presidential election without long-time leader Nursultan Nazarbayev, a group of creative youth activists has shattered the appearance of stability in the country with several…

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9 min
1.3K

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Occidentalizing America: Art of a Visiting Scholar

April 3, 2019

– I always wanted to be an artist. When I was in high school, my dream was to be accepted to the Repin Academy in St. Petersburg or the Surikov…

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3 min
3.7K

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With Love from New York: Hunza Photographer Searches for Roots in the Pamirs

October 12, 2018

New-York based photographer Nazir Abbas feels himself at home every time he travels to Pamirs. While in search of his roots, Nazir has found numerous friends, skyscraping mountains, honest hearts, and…

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10 min
4.9K

The Conquest of Central Asia through the Turkestan Album

May 2, 2018

The Turkestan Album (Turkestanskii Al’bom—1871) was one of the great colonial photography projects of the 19th century. Commissioned by the first Russian governor-general of Russian Turkestan, Konstantin Petrovich von Kaufman,…

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5 min
11.1K

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Scenes from Central Asian Migration to Russia

April 2, 2018

Between September and December 2016, photographer and reporter Iris Oppelaar followed Central Asian labor migrants from their hometowns in remote areas of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan through their journeys to Russia.…

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12 min
3.3K

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Travel

Across Eurasia in 60 Days—The New Silk Road Project

March 6, 2018

A team of four students is preparing for what it calls The New Silk Road Project—an exciting expedition across Eurasia to see the entire breadth of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, visiting ancient…

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6 min
5.3K

Feminism through Pictures: How Girls of South Kyrgyzstan Fight for Women’s Rights

February 1, 2018

Since 2014, a small feminist group called “New Rhythm” has been operating in Osh. Young activists raise the issues of women’s rights and gender inequality in the southern regions of…

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7 min
3.6K

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Dushanbe Buses and What It Means to Live in a Capital City

January 25, 2018

Author Karolina Kluczewska Karolina Kluczewska is a Maria Sklodowska-Curie Research Fellow and a PhD student at the University of St.Andrews, Scotland. She is writing about development aid in Tajikistan, looking…

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5 min
2.8K

An Insight Into Soviet Archives on Islam

January 17, 2018

Russian Perspectives on Islam (islamperspectives.org) is a unique collection of materials that documents the encounter and evolving relationship between the Orthodox/secular state and the Islamic regions, groups, individuals, and ideologies…

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8 min
4.4K

Street Art as a Public Forum in Kazakhstan: Pasha Cas

January 4, 2018

If freedom of expression is a necessary component for public debates to occur and for a public sphere to function, how does the public sphere operate in societies with restricted…

Mels Akynbekov(1942-1993). Shepherds. 1984 year. Oil on canvas, 110х139 cm

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8 min
4.4K

Socialist Realism in Central Asia

December 20, 2017

Central Asia was the largest Muslim-majority region to experience Soviet rule during the twentieth century, along with the North Caucasus and the Volga-Ural regions. The Soviet Union sought to modernize…