ASIAC Days in Central Asia

I contributed to organise ASIAC Days in Central Asia, the first ASIAC regional conference, which took place in Almaty, Kazakhstan, 7-8 September 2026

I feel blessed for the week I spent with ASIAC – Association for Studies on Central and the Caucasus and CAPS Unlock organising and running the first edition of the ASIAC Days in Central Asia. I can say it was a big success with dozens of great panels and amazing local and international researchers. Thank you our CAPS colleagues Aida Aidarkulova and Tlegen Kuandykov, and all the interns and volunteers. What was born as a funny idea became a vibrant conference in the heart of Kazakhstan.

Highlights for me were the panels with Joanna Lillis, both the presentation of her book ‘Silk Mirage: Through the Looking Glass in Uzbekistan’, which I had the pleasure to run and the roundtable with local journalists about media freedom in Kazakhstan. I am also grateful to William Callahan for joining us again and for bringing his ‘Gone South Village’ film to our conference (and also for being a fun travel buddy).

I also had the chance to present the theoretical background of my new project on the everyday political economy of Chinese production in Uzbekistan, which will be the basis for my next postdoc (more news about this soon). I presented it in a panel on China and Central Asia with great colleagues Jessica Neafie, PhD and Aleksei Chigadaev, chaired by my academic sister Giulia Sciorati.

I also was amazed by the depth and variety of local feminist research which I had the opportunity to appreciate in many panels and presentations. For example, the fanstastic work by Almira Tabaeva, and her Suzani feminism, and NIGINAKHON Saida, with her work on youth perceptions of the Soviet Hujum campaign. Can’t wait to hear and read more.

Thank you everyone for making this experience so enriching and hopefully see you at the next edition! 🇰🇿❤️🇮🇹