Comparative and International Higher Education Policy Specialist; Focus on Central Asia
The very lovely cover of the new book It's been a very long time in the making but the new book Building research capacity at universities: Insights from post-Soviet countries is now out! The book offers a comprehensive analysis of developments in higher education systems across the former Soviet space with a focus on research …
Continue reading Building research capacity at universities in the former Soviet space (new book)
With a lineage that goes back well over a thousand years, it might seem surprising that political science in Uzbekistan is considered a relatively new subject for teaching and research. Why yes, we can talk politics in Uzbekistan (as of 2019) As pointed in an excellent review of the development of political science recently published …
Continue reading Politics with pedigree: Tracing the long history of political science in Uzbekistan
Here's a very nice (Russian language) summary of a recent (English language) seminar given by Professor Sarfaroz Niyozov of the University of Toronto, Canada on knowledge production in Tajikistan. Niyozov draws on global discourses of decolonization, recolonization and indigenization as they might pertain to the contemporary Central Asian context. You can also watch the seminar …
It's been longer than usual since I've posted, mainly because there's not much to say about education in Central Asia that's not related to Covid-19. For a round-up of how the five states have been approaching the novel coronavirus, take a look at my April 1 post (not a joke, sadly). Since then, Tajikistan has …
Continue reading Doing environmental research in Central Asia (online lecture, May 7)
Hot off the online press! International research collaborations - whether these are informal groupings of researchers working together on a scientific problem of common interest or more formal arrangements (often with a budget and fixed timelines) - have increased so rapidly in number that one expert has called this growth "one of the most dramatic …
Continue reading New article: Negotiating international research collaborations in Tajikistan
Published in well rated peer-reviewed journal Compare, Dilrabo Jonbekova's 2018 article examines the challenges and opportunities open to researchers of Central Asia, studying both 'insider' and 'outsider' researcher perspectives (and the blurring of the lines between these two groups). Jonbekova, a faculty member at Nazarbayev University in Kazakhstan, is well placed for a study like this, …
Over on Kazakh social media, something rather brilliant is happening. At the end of March, a new Yvision (a trilingual Kazakh blogging platform) blog was set up to support an Instagram account that's already been in operation for several months. The aim of the blog and Instagram accounts are to promote a very exciting project: #KZPHDGIRLSUNION The …
Continue reading #scienceiamdoing – Kazakh women tell all about research and life abroad
The Academy of Sciences in Turkmenistan is facing major budget cuts that will see a third of its personnel lose their jobs and structural changes that may see the Academy disappear from the science scene in the country. As an institution, the Academy of Sciences brings together researchers from across disciplines, historically separating them from …
Congratulations to Professor Saidrahmon Sulaymoni of Tajik National University, who has been awarded a Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation and International Understanding! Professor Sulaymoni built his academic career in Arabic language at Tajik National University (TNU), working there from 1972 to 1985. He then worked at the Soviet/Tajik Academy of Sciences but in 2005, returned …
Continue reading Tajik research recognized on international stage
After a break from blogging to attend the recent and quite fantastic World Cup in Russia, I'm back with the good news that I have a new publication out. This is a book chapter co-written with my supervisor Professor Creso Sá and is titled Scientific nationalism in a globalizing world. It's part of a hefty new Handbook …
Continue reading New publication: Scientific nationalism in a globalizing world
Emma Sabzalieva 