Borderland Spaces Ruins, Revival(s) and Resources 6th Conference of the Asian Borderlands Research Network Venue American University of Central Asia Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan 13-15 August 2018 Design © Ruziali Ruzimatov, PR Office, AUCA Inna Piskareva, Student's Life Office, AUCA Cover images © Dr Henryk Alff, Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT) TABLE OF CONTENTS Welcome ............................................................................................................................................................ 5 Borderland Spaces: Ruins, Revival(s) and Resources ........................................................................................ 6 Organizing and Sponsoring Partners ................................................................................................................. 7 Venue ................................................................................................................................................................. 9 Schedule at a Glance ....................................................................................................................................... 11 Program ........................................................................................................................................................... 12 Monday 13 August ....................................................................................................................................... 12 Tuesday 14 August ....................................................................................................................................... 15 Wednesday 15 August ................................................................................................................................. 19 Special Events .................................................................................................................................................. 22 Keynote .................................................................................................................................................... 22 Photo Exhibition ....................................................................................................................................... 22 Films ......................................................................................................................................................... 23 Abstracts .......................................................................................................................................................... 24 Monday 13 August ....................................................................................................................................... 24 10.15 – 12.00 ............................................................................................................................................ 24 13.15 – 15.00 ............................................................................................................................................ 31 15.30 – 17.15 ............................................................................................................................................ 36 Tuesday 14 August ....................................................................................................................................... 43 9.00 – 10.45 .............................................................................................................................................. 43 11.15 – 13.00 ............................................................................................................................................ 49 14.00 – 15.45 ............................................................................................................................................ 56 16.15 – 18.00 ............................................................................................................................................ 62 Wednesday 15 August ................................................................................................................................. 66 9.00 – 10.45 .............................................................................................................................................. 66 11.15 – 13.00 ............................................................................................................................................ 73 14.00 – 15.45 ............................................................................................................................................................ 79 WELCOME Dear conference participants, Welcome to Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek and the American University of Central Asia (AUCA)! We are honored and pleased that for its 6th conference on “Borderland Spaces: Ruins, Revival(s) and Resources,” the Asian Borderlands Research Network and the International Institute for Asian Studies chose our university as a host institution. AUCA serves Central Asia, where democracies are functioning in, relatively, newly born nation states. We develop the skills and the attitude of mind that foster sensitivity to the region’s rich traditions and adaptability for its development. In 2003, on our 10th anniversary as an independent learning community, we launched a plan for academic development designed to enable our University to soar to a new level of excellence. Our distinctiveness derives from our highly strategic location, where peoples from east and west have been exchanging goods and ideas for millennia. Our University is a small but powerful engine of intellectual freedom and critical thinking that fuels education in a caring, corruption-free, student- centered environment. We treasure Central Asia’s historic role as facilitator of mutual understanding and entrepreneurial ideas. Students and faculty eager to study and pursue their dreams come to us from 25 different countries, including all the Central Asian states, Afghanistan, China, Holland, Germany, Pakistan, Russia, South Korea, and the United States. Their diverse beliefs, languages and perspectives are openly shared and valued. In this vibrant atmosphere, where the freedom to study is considered a privilege, we design new paths forward for social transformation and international understanding. Currently, AUCA runs 14 undergraduate and 8 graduate programs organized in 6 divisions (Applied Geology, Politics and International Studies, Law, Science, Social Sciences, Economics and Business). The University has a Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology; a Writing and Academic Resource Center; and two research units: the Central Asian Studies Institute and the Tian Shan Policy Center. The Central Asian Studies Institute (CASI) is the research unit that helped co-organize 6th conference of the Asian Borderlands Research Network. CASI was established in 2011 with the mission of promoting the study of Central Asia locally and internationally. CASI was and remains one of AUCA's main research hub on Central Asia. Since its creation, the Institute has been a preferred destination for well-established or young scholars on Central Asia from some of the best universities in the world and, more recently, for some of the key events in the field of Central Asian studies. CASI hosts seminars, talks, and workshops centered on critical regional concerns. Additionally, CASI runs successfully a Master of Arts program in Central Asian Studies (MACAS). Meant to make a Western graduate education realistic and affordable for Central Asian students, the program is also designed to allow foreign students the possibility of studying Central Asia in Central Asia: it combines AUCA’s extensive expertise on the region with a complete immersion in the culture of Bishkek, a city in which Soviet and Central Asian heritages collide with the newly introduced traditions of the West. We welcome you again on our campus. We wish you a successful conference, and we hope that your first encounter with Kyrgyzstan and AUCA will be followed by many others in the future. Dr Svetlana Jacquesson Director, Central Asian Studies Institute 5 BORDERLAND SPACES: RUINS, REVIVAL(S) AND RESOURCES Asian borderlands create spaces that induce dedicated livelihood strategies, inspire self-definition on both individual and collective scales, and allow for specific regimes of resource extraction. Borderlands in Asia tend to be peripheral to the centers of state power, while they are at the same time a prime locus for the enactment and realization of state authority. Across Asia borderlands are experiencing a dual connectivity linking spaces across borders as well as to the economic and political heartlands of the states that claim them. This conference aims to focus attention on the generative and productive capacity of border spaces, which is urgently in need of being addressed. Remnants of the past, both material as well as immaterial ruins , constitute heritages that continue to affect livelihoods across Asian borderlands. Increasingly, borderlands witness a surge in religious, cultural, linguistic, and ideological revival(s) , where the past is perceived as a resource for securing community futures. Whether through the bottom-up claims of marginalized communities or top-down state processes of recognition, designations of cultural heritage have become arenas of contestation where varied actors seek to reframe histories. The past and present of borderlands are intimately linked to resource extraction. Often,