ESCAS regional conference ended in KazNU

A regional conference of the European Society for Central Asian Studies (ESCAS) "Power, People and Cultural Change in a Constantly Developing Central Asia" was concluded at the Al-Farabi Kazakh National University

The two-day conference included eight sessions, two plenary sessions and 49 panel discussions. 300 scholars from Central Asian countries, USA, Great Britain, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, France, Finland, Russia, Japan, South Korea, China, India, studying the history, culture, economy and politics of Central Asia participated in the conference.

The subject of scientific discussion was the analysis of global trends, assessment of key trends and events in Central Asia, as well as scenarios for the future against the background of instability in the world. Experts shared the results of research on the transformation of political institutions in geopolitics, Central Asian migration, religion, culture, media education and media literacy, gender equality, urbanization, and education. The scholars paid much attention to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

During the conference, Tatiana Saburova from Indiana University (Bloomington, USA) noted that the conference was an opportunity for the EU to reiterate its strong commitment to the Central Asian region in addressing socio-political and cultural issues.

"The European Society for Central Asian Studies is a non-political, non-profit international academic association with about 1000 members, committed to the free and open dissemination of knowledge about Central Asia. We are a global community whose work focuses on the active engagement of scholars and students from around the world," she said.

In addition, experts discussed Central Asian security issues and problems of conflict prevention in the region.

For young researchers, doctoral students were the most relevant sessions concerning the evolution of scientific journals in the social sciences, the practice of writing articles in Web of science Scopus journals.

The conference, organized by the Department of Political Science and Political Technologies of the Faculty of Philosophy and Political Science of Al-Farabi KazNU together with KIMEP University and the Kazakh-German University (DKU), gave an opportunity to expand the collaboration between scientists, to write joint scientific publications, to create new research projects at the international level in the study of Central Asia.

At the end of the conference, the President of the European Society for Central Asian Studies (ESCAS), Prof. Abel Polese was awarded the medal "Eren eenbegi ushin" for his contribution to the development of international cooperation of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University

Press-service of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University