School of Humanities and Sciences of NU convened The 1st Annual Eurasian Conference on Humanities and Social Sciences with the conference theme “Tradition and Innovation in Eurasia” on 24-26 November 2022.
The opening session was a conversation between a great-granddaughter of the former First Secretary of the USSR Communist Party Nina Khrushcheva, professor of international relations at The New School in New York City, and Maria Rybakova, Assistant professor in the Department of Languages, Linguistics, and Literatures at NU. The second day’s keynote speaker was Nazif Shahrani, Professor at Indiana University in Bloomington, who spoke on “The Makings/Inventions of National Identities in Post-Independence Central Asia”. The third day’s keynote speaker was Caress Schenk, Associate Professor in the NU Department of Political Science and International Relations, who spoke on “Process or Event: Migration Pressures in the Context of Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine”.
There were altogether six panels:
● Kazakh Linguistics
● Languages of Eurasia
● Ethics and Public Opinion in Central Asia
● Almaty and Astana – Past and Present
● Security and Geopolitics
● Soviet and the Post-Soviet Eurasia
«Excellent start of what will hopefully become an important local venue for social sciences and humanities scholars focusing on the wider region of Central Asia and beyond. It was especially encouraging to see a solid and diverse presence of graduate and even undergraduate students, having an opportunity to make their first real international conference presentations to the friendly audience of peers and authoritative experts,” said Andrey Filchenko, a Vice Dean at NU SSH.
Over 40 faculty and students participated in the conference as presenters, discussants, and chairs. Participants were from the Departments of Economics; History, Philosophy and Religious Studies; Kazakh Language and Turkic Studies; Languages, Linguistics, and Literatures; Political Sciences and International Relations; and Sociology and Anthropology. There were also participants from other universities in the United States and Astana.
