The Program on Central Asia and the Caucasus is hosting a symposium on January 30, 2015 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Belfer Case Study Room (CGIS South S020). The symposium will consist of three sessions. It is free and open to the public. Registration is not required, but is appreciated for planning purposes.

The first two sessions will focus on erasure, identity, inclusion/exclusion, belonging and citizenship. Participants will explore how categorizations—whether ethnic, national, gender, religious, economic, or other—have been created, managed, and enacted by state and non-state actors. Citizenship and identity categories are continuously contested and experienced in everyday lives. How do local, national, and international dynamics influence the negotiation of these categories and exclusionary practices? How and why are different peoples absent from national narratives in Central Asia and the Caucasus?

The third session will build on these panels by exploring fieldwork challenges connected to state and social sensitivities about categorizations, exclusions, and gaps between national narratives and lived experience. Ever-evolving politics in the region pose serious challenges to local scholars, as well as to foreign researchers trying to build professional relationships and conduct scholarly research in the region. This session is a forum for researchers to discuss methods, analyze some of the sensitivities that curb scholarly inquiry and fieldwork agendas in the region, and explore the path forward.

See the Davis Center website for the full program.

Questions may be directed to Krista Goff and Meltem Sancak at PCAC@fas.harvard.edu.