New Books Network
Central Asian Studies
Genocide Studies February 9, 2021

The Resistance Network

The Armenian Genocide and Humanitarianism in Ottoman Syria, 1915-1918

Khatchig Mouradian

Hosted by Steven Seegel
The Resistance Network: The Armenian Genocide and Humanitarianism in Ottoman Syria, 1915-1918 (Michigan State University Press, 2020) is the history of an underground network of humanitarians, missionaries, and diplomats …

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Central Asian Studies January 21, 2021

Polymaths of Islam

Power and Networks of Knowledge in Central Asia

James Pickett

Hosted by Nicholas Seay
James Pickett's new book, Polymaths of Islam: Power and Networks of Knowledge in Central Asia (Cornell University Press, 2020) analyzes the social and intellectual power of religious leaders who created a …
East Asian Studies November 20, 2020

Securing China's Northwest Frontier

Identity and Insecurity in Xinjiang

David Tobin

Hosted by Ed Pulford
Greater interest in what is happening in the northwestern Chinese region of Xinjiang in recent years has generated a proportional need for context, and especially insights into the politics and …
Asian Review of Books November 19, 2020

Young Mongols

Forging Democracy in the Wild, Wild East

Aubrey Menard

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
Mongolia is sometimes seen as one of the few examples of a successful youth-led revolution, where a 1990 movement forced the Soviet-appointed Politburo to resign. In Young Mongols: Forging Democracy …
Central Asian Studies November 5, 2020

The Politics of Police Reform

Society against the State in Post-Soviet Countries

Erica Marat

Hosted by Nicholas Seay
In her book, The Politics of Police Reform: Society against the State in Post-Soviet Countries (Oxford University Press, 2018), Erica Marat provides an answer to a very important question: “What …
Central Asian Studies September 14, 2020

Afghanistan

A History from 1260 to the Present

Jonathan Lee

Hosted by Nicholas Seay
Jonathan Lee’s comprehensive study of Afghanistan’s political history in Afghanistan: A History from 1260 to the Present (Reaktion Books) tells the story of the emergence and sometimes surprising longevity of …
Central Asian Studies September 11, 2020

The War on the Uyghurs

China’s Internal Campaign against a Muslim Minority

Sean Roberts

Hosted by Shehnaz Haqqani
In today’s new episode, we speak with Sean Roberts about his brand new book The War on the Uyghurs: China’s Internal Campaign against a Muslim Minority (Princeton University Press, 2020) …
Central Asian Studies July 30, 2020

The History of the Civil War in Tajikistan

Iraj Bashiri

Hosted by Nicholas Seay
In The History of the Civil War in Tajikistan (Academic Studies Press, 2020) Iraj Bashiri provides an overview of the Civil War in Tajikistan that emerged amidst the collapse of …
Central Asian Studies July 21, 2020

Toward Nationalizing Regimes

Conceptualizing Power and Identity in the Post-Soviet Realm

Diana T. Kudaibergenova

Hosted by Steven Seegel
The collapse of the Soviet Union famously opened new venues for the theories of nationalism and the study of processes and actors involved in these new nation-building processes. In Toward …
Central Asian Studies July 15, 2020

The Bukharan Crisis

A Connected History of 18th-Century Central Asia

Scott Levi

Hosted by Nicholas Seay
In his new book, The Bukharan Crisis: A Connected History of 18th-Century Central Asia (University of Pittsburgh, 2020), Scott Levi brings new perspectives into the historiography of early Modern Central …
Central Asian Studies June 23, 2020

Imperial Desert Dreams

Cotton Growing and Irrigation in Central Asia, 1860-1991

Julia Obertreis

Hosted by Nicholas Seay
In Imperial Desert Dreams: Cotton Growing and Irrigation in Central Asia, 1860-1991 (V & R Unipress, 2017), Julia Obertreis explores the infrastructural, technical, and environmental aspects of the history of …
Central Asian Studies April 27, 2020

Tatar Empire

Kazan's Muslims and the Making of Imperial Russia

Danielle Ross

Hosted by Nicholas Seay
In her new book Tatar Empire: Kazan's Muslims and the Making of Imperial Russia (Indiana University Press, 2020), Danielle Ross looks at how the Tatars of Kazan participated in the …
Central Asian Studies April 16, 2020

Pipe Dreams

Water and Empire in Central Asia’s Aral Sea Basin

Maya K. Peterson

Hosted by Steven Seegel
The drying up of the Aral Sea - a major environmental catastrophe of the late twentieth century - is deeply rooted in the dreams of the irrigation age of the …
Central Asian Studies March 25, 2020

Russia and Central Asia

Coexistence, Conquest, Convergence

Shoshana Keller

Hosted by Nicholas Seay
Shoshana Keller’s new book, Russia and Central Asia: Coexistence, Conquest, Convergence (University of Toronto Press, 2019) provides an excellent introduction and overview of the history of Central Asia, from roughly …
Central Asian Studies February 27, 2020

The Central Asian Economies in the Twenty-First Century

Paving a New Silk Road

Richard Pomfret

Hosted by Nicholas Seay
Richard Pomfret’s The Central Asian Economies in the Twenty-First Century (Princeton University Press, 2019) looks at the economies of the five former Soviet Republics of Kazkahstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and …
Folklore February 10, 2020

The Battle for Fortune

State-led Development, Personhood, and Power among Tibetans in China

Charlene Makley

Hosted by Timothy Thurston
Rebgong, in the Northeastern part of the Tibetan Plateau (China’s Qinghai Province), is in the midst of a ‘Battle for Fortune.’ That is, a battle to both accumulate as much …
Literary Studies February 6, 2020

Bygone Days

Abdullah Qodiriy (trans. Mark Reese)

Hosted by Nicholas Seay
Mark Reese’s recent translation of Abdullah Qodiriy’s 1920s novel O’tkan Kunlar (Bygone Days) brings an exemplary piece of modern Uzbek literature to English-speaking audiences. The story, which simultaneously follows the …
Central Asian Studies January 9, 2020

The Nazarbayev Generation

Youth in Kazakhstan

Marlene Laruelle

Hosted by Nicholas Seay
The Nazarbayev Generation: Youth in Kazakhstan (Lexington Books, 2019), edited by Marlene Laruelle, looks at the younger generations of Kazakhstan that have come of age during the post-Soviet presidency of …
Literary Studies January 3, 2020

Night and Day

A Novel

Abdulhamid Sulaymon o’g’li Cho’lpon (Chistopher Fort, trans.)

Hosted by Nicholas Seay
Christopher Fort’s new translation of Abdulhamid Sulaymon o’g’li Cho’lpon’s Night and Day: A Novel (Academic Studies Press, 2019) (Kecha va Kunduz) gives readers a chance to dive into the world …
Central Asian Studies December 23, 2019

The Other Emptiness

Rethinking the Zhentong Buddhist Discourse in Tibet

Michael R. Sheehy  and Klaus-Dieter Mathes

Hosted by Sangseraima Ujeed
Michael R. Sheehy and Klaus-Dieter Mathes's edited collection The Other Emptiness: Rethinking the Zhentong Buddhist Discourse in Tibet (SUNY Press, 2019) brings together perspectives of leading international Tibetan studies scholars …