Research Paper 25%: 1000 words, Learning Outcomes 1-4
Essay 75%: 2,500 words, Learning Outcomes 1-4

This module will introduce students to the modern history of Central Asia, a region rich in its cultural diversity and geopolitical significance which has had an important and at times dramatic historical trajectory since the early 18th century. The module posits that Central Asia’s experience of modernity is instructive for our wider understanding of the era at a global level. The module structures its content around themes including Islamification, nomadism, colonialism, nation-building, socialism and post-colonialism/post-socialism. The region’s relationship with Tsarist and Soviet Russia will be of particular importance.

1. Demonstrate an understanding of the changing social, political and economic circumstances of Central Asia from 1700 to 2000
Knowledge and Understanding

2. Reflect on and begin to deconstruct some commonly-held and erroneous stereotypes about the Central Asian region and the broader global east
Reflection

3. Learn some of the prominent trends and predilections in the historiography of modern Central Asia and apply them independently to new material
Analysis

4. Develop the idea to communicate complex ideas clearly and succinctly in writing and verbally Communication

Lectures will be organised chronologically and each one will introduce students to a discrete episode in modern Central Asian history. Each seminar will be built around a particular historiographical controversy, such as the degree of control exerted over Turkestan by the Tsarist administration or the origins of Kazakh nationhood. Independent study hours will be spent reading in preparation for the seminars and also working on the assessments.

• Library access and Blackboard

Allen J. Frank, 2001. Muslim Religious Institutions in Imperial Russia, Brill.

Adeeb Khalid, 1999. The Politics of Muslim Cultural Reform: Jadidism in Central Asia, University of California Press.

Michael Khodarkovsky, 2002. Russia’s Steppe Frontier: The Making of a Colonial Empire, 1500-1800, Indiana University Press.

Alexander Morrison, 2008. Russian Rule in Samarkand 1868–1910: A Comparison with British India Oxford University Press.

Svat Soucek, 2000. A History of Inner Asia, Cambridge University Press.

Alun Thomas, 2018. Nomads and Soviet Rule: Central Asia under Lenin and Stalin, I. B. Tauris.