Dinmukhamed Kunaev’s House Museum
Dinmukhamed Kunaev was a leader of Soviet Kazakhstan. As the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan he was in office from 7 December 1964, to 16 December 1986.…
Civil Protests, Art, and Politics in Kazakhstan
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…
Occidentalizing America: Art of a Visiting Scholar
– 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…
With Love from New York: Hunza Photographer Searches for Roots in the Pamirs
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…
The Conquest of Central Asia through the Turkestan Album
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,…
Scenes from Central Asian Migration to Russia
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.…
Across Eurasia in 60 Days—The New Silk Road Project
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…
Feminism through Pictures: How Girls of South Kyrgyzstan Fight for Women’s Rights
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…
Dushanbe Buses and What It Means to Live in a Capital City
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…
An Insight Into Soviet Archives on Islam
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…
Street Art as a Public Forum in Kazakhstan: Pasha Cas
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…
Socialist Realism in Central Asia
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…