TOSCCA Recent Events Programme
Délégation Archéologique Française en Afghanistan
‘From mirage to reality: recent discoveries of the Franco-Afghan archaeological team in Bactra/Balkh’
Date: Monday 7th December 2009, 5.00 pm
Key Contact: Philippe Marquis
Location: Lecture Room 1, Oriental Institute, Pusey Lane, Oxford
(contact details at
www.orinst.ox.ac.uk/html/general/contact.html
Philippe Marquis is the head of the Délégation Archéologique Française en Afghanistan (DAFA), which is carrying out archaeological explorations in Afghanistan in collaboration with the Afghan Ministry of Culture. Initial explorations at Bactra/Balkh, which began in 1922 and were focussed on finding ancient Greek settlements, resulted in scholars concluding that Bactria was but a ‘mirage’. Much headway has been made since the programme resumed explorations in 2004, bringing the task to retrace Bactra/Balkh’s historical topography closer to reality. M. Marquis, who is based in Kabul, will provide an overview of the latest findings of the ongoing excavations and site surveys in Balkh. He will present hitherto-unpublished data, including new evidence on the sequence of pre-Mongol occupations in Balkh from the Achaemenid (6th century BC) to the Ghurid (12th century AD) periods. M. Marquis will also touch on important current issues and debates concerning the cultural heritage of Afghanistan.
Philippe Marquis assumed his position as Director of the Délégation Archéologique Française en Afghanistan (DAFA) in September 2009. Previously, he had served as Deputy Director and had participated in the excavations at Bactra/Balkh since their resumption in 2004. Before working in Afghanistan, M. Marquis was an archaeologist for the municipality of Paris over a 25-year period acting as heritage conservationist ('conservateur du patrimoine'), while at the same time working on archaeological projects in Pakistan, the UAE, Oman and Lebanon. M. Marquis also served as the UNESCO coordinator for the rescue excavations of downtown Beirut. M. Marquis graduated in Prehistoric Archaeology at Paris 1 University (Panthéon-Sorbonne) and in Arabic at INALCO (Institut National des Langues et Civilisation Orientale). Most recently, he co-authored the Dictionnaire d’archéologie, which was published by Larousse in 2008.
Central Asia and Caucasus Studies in the UK: Focusing on Communities, Societies and States.
Date: November 6-7, 2009
Location: University of St Andrews -
Parliament Hall, South Street.
(Parliament Hall is under number 67 in the alphabetical index; coordinates - J3 on the
University Map)
Download a copy of the programme.
Summary:
Panel1: LOCALITY AND AUTHORITY
Panel chair: Mohira Suyarkulova; Discussant: Dr Stephanie Bunn (U of St Andrews)
Panel 2: MORALITY, LAW AND SOCIAL ORDER
Panel chair: Alison Careless; Discussant: Dr Johan Rasanayagam ( U of Aberdeen)
Panel 3: IDENTITY, VIOLENCE AND POPULAR MOBILISATION
Panel chair: Jeanne Féaux de la Croix; Discussant: Dr John Schoeberlein (Harvard University)
Panel 4: PROFESSIONAL COMMUNITIES
Panel chair: Dr Wojtek Ostrowski; Discussant: Dr Sally Cummings (U of St Andrews)
Keynote address by Dr Johan Rasanayagam (University of Aberdeen)
Authenticity and tradition: secular and non-secular discourses in Uzbekistan
Uses of a PhD outside of academia by John Schoeberlein (Harvard University)
Using your expert knowledge in journalism by Shahida Tulyaganova
Understanding Academic Publishing by Peter Sowden (freelance editor)
PG community of students of CA&C: what are the ways forward? Planning session
Opening remarks by Mohira Suyarkulova; Moderated by Jeanne Féaux de la Croix
Closing remarks: Jeanne Féaux de la Croix and Mohira Suyarkulova
Tajikistan: Birth and Rebirth
Tajikistan: Birth and Rebirth, organised by TOSCCA and the Russian and Eurasian Studies Centre of St Antony's College. It was held at St Antony's College, 13th and 14th October 2009. Download a copy of the programme.
50th birthday celebration event of Mr Annakuly Nurmammedov
The 50th birthday celebration event of Mr Annakuly Nurmammedov (former Deputy Foreign Minister of Turkmenistan). During the event there were different presentations about Turkmenistan.
Tuesday 12th May, 6:30pm St Hilda's College, Cowley Place, Oxford.
Eldar Rustamov
Chairman
OXFORD-AZERBAIJAN SOCIETY (OXAZ)
35 William Morris Close
OX4 2JX
Oxford
Tel: +44 (0) 7551 556959
E-mail: chairman@oxaz.co.uk
Web: www.oxaz.co.uk
Down-load a copy of the event poster.
PAUL BERGNE MEMORIAL LECTURE
‘Speak not of Persian brick work but of Persian brick magic’: the architecture of 12th-century Turkmenistan
Wednesday 6 May 2009, Nissan Lecture Theatre, St Antony’s College 6.00 pm.
Professor Robert Hillenbrand (University of Edinburgh).
Materialising state space: "creeping migration" and territorial integrity in southern Kyrgyzstan
Friday 13th March, Hovenden Room, All Souls College, Oxford, 5pm
Dr Madeleine Reeves (Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change, University of Manchester)
Dr Reeves' presentation will explore the materialisation of state space in the region of the new international border between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan in the Isfara valley. Its empirical point of entry is a phenomenon known in Kyrgyzstani political discourse as 'creeping migration'.
This process refers to the illegal purchase or lease of land and property in Kyrgyzstani border villages by citizens of neighbouring border villages in Tajikistan. Drawing on extended ethnographic fieldwork, the presentation examines the dynamics of this phenomenon in its historical context, examining the legacies of Soviet delimitation and the contemporary political economy of land on both sides of the border that has rendered swathes of territory 'contested'.
It is also concerned to understand the life that 'creeping migration' has come to acquire in contemporary Kyrgyzstani political discourse. Drawing on Timothy Mitchell's concept of 'state effects', the paper considers how this phenomenon has been used to legitimise a variety of initiatives aimed at 'stabilising' the state in border regions, justified through threats to territorial integrity and cultural loss.
It argues that the 'creeping migration' of political discourse is quite detached from the dynamics of coexistence in the Isfara valley, and warns against the tendency to materialise state separation through the militarization of borderland space.
Dr Alexander Morrison
Lecturer in Imperial History
The School of History
University of Liverpool
9 Abercromby Square
Liverpool L69 7WZ
Tel: 0151 794 2392
Postsocialist land reforms and rural society in Uzbekistan
Friday 6th March, Hovenden Room, All Souls College, Oxford, 5pm
Dr Tommaso Trevisani (Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, Berlin)
Post-socialist land reforms and rural society in Uzbekistan.
Dr Trevisani will be speaking about the Government of Uzbekistan's current agricultural
reform policies and on the new social conflicts which arise from these, together with the
recent move towards 'consolidation' in the agricultural sector. The presentation will be
based largely on the extensive fieldwork which he has carried out in Khorezm over the last
seven years.
International Review discussion on the Russia-Georgia conflict.
The seminar took place on Friday 24th October in the Nissan Lecture Theatre of St Antony's college between 5pm and 7pm. Down-load a copy of the flyer.
Discussants: |
George Khelashvili - Ph.D. candidate, Department of International Relations, Oxford University |
| Dr Alex Pravda - University Lecturer in Russian and East European Politics, Oxford University |
| Dr Kalypso Nicolaidis - Professor of International Relations, Oxford University |
| Sir Adam Roberts - Senior Research Fellow of the Centre for International Studies, Oxford University |
| Professor Edmund Herzig - Soudavar Professor of Persian Studies, Oxford University |
Agenda: |
Different narratives of the crisis and implications thereof for assigning responsibility and formulating an international response |
| Will anyone benefit from the crisis? Did it serve any party's larger strategic goals? |
| Merits and faults of personal diplomacy in responding to the crisis |
| Role of multilateral institutions in promoting peace and stability in the region |
| Prospects of NATO enlargement on CIS countries, most notably, how did the crisis affect Georgia's chances of getting into NATO? |
Trinity Term Sessions
Date |
Subject |
Venue |
Participants |
|
Friday 16 May, 2008 |
'Alibek Mergenov's Kokpar: Kazakh Horsemen of Apocalypse at Play' |
Swire Seminar Room, |
Alibek Mergenov |
|
Friday 23 May, 2008 |
'Adam Thirwell's Nigora: Locality and Representation' |
Swire Seminar Room, |
Adam Thirwell |
|
Friday 6 June, 2008 |
'In the (Post) Soviet Mood: Art Practices in the Epoch of Turbulences' |
Swire Seminar Room, |
Galim Madanov |
|
Friday 13 June, 2008 |
'Traditional Overtone Music: Cultural Policy in Soviet and Post-Soviet Tuva' |
Swire Seminar Room, |
Professor Valentina Suzukei, |
Hilary Term Sessions
Date |
Subject |
Venue |
Participants |
Friday 25 January, 2008 |
‘Hamid Ismailov’s Railway: Appropriated Russianness?’ |
Swire Seminar Room, |
By Hamid Ismailov & Robert Chandler, |
Friday 22 February, 2008 |
‘The Use of the Russian Language in Contemporary Central Asian Cinema’ |
Swire Seminar Room, |
By Eugenie Zvonkine (University Paris VIII) |
Friday 7 March, 2008 |
‘Soviet Oriental?: Socialist Realism and Formation of Identities in Soviet Central Asia’ |
Swire Seminar Room, |
By Aliya de Tiesenhausen (Courtauld Institute of Art), |
The inaugural Paul Bergne Memorial Lecture was held on Tuesday 29th April at St Antony's College Oxford.
Back to the events page