Research conference: Uzbekistan behind the iron curtain
The Swedish Institute of International Affairs (UI), together with George Washington University's Central Asia Program (CAP), is organizing a two-day research conference on June 11-12, 2015, on the approaches used to analyze Uzbekistan's society, politics and identities.
The conference will gather some of the main scholars of today, having contributed to the knowledge of Uzbekistan, and aims to further generate a kind of introspective approach of what has been learned in the last two decades.
The knowledge about Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan is at the core of Central Asia. With close to 30 million inhabitants it is the regions second largest economic power, behind Kazakhstan, thanks to its cotton production and developed industrial networks and it is a key cultural and historic power. However, since the early 2000s, Uzbekistan is increasingly becoming a kind of "black hole" in terms of scholarly research.
The country's growing isolationism, the authoritarian hardening of the regime and its shutting out of research work have all worked to hinder the ability to conduct fieldwork, thus affecting knowledge of the country's domestic evolutions.
Nonetheless, a new form of knowledge about Uzbekistan has noticeably arisen, stemming from the Uzbek diasporas scattered from around the world, including Russia, Europe and the United States. These communities from abroad provide news from the ground that attests to a quickly evolving societal fabric, as well as a new cultural and socio-economic dynamics from grassroots level.