Alun Thomas
@alunrthomas.bsky.social
Associate Professor of Eurasian Studies at University of Staffordshire. Interested in Central Asia and Russia. Chair of Staffs UCU branch.
An actual academic job! At a UK university! Temporary but full-time! Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Intelligence Studies. Deadline for applications is very soon. Please share widely. Contact me for more info. uk.indeed.com/m/viewjob?jk...
Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Intelligence Studies - Stoke-on-Trent - Indeed.com
Apply for the Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Intelligence Studies job in Stoke-on-Trent! Learn more about the job description, salary and job details to see if you qualify on Indeed today.
uk.indeed.com
For all those interested in the history of the Second World War and Latvia, we have a new author interview for you. Check out our conversation with @harrymerritt.bsky.social on his recently-published book 'Latvian Soldiers of World War II' www.peripheralhistories.co.uk/post/latvian...
Latvian Soldiers of World War II: Fighting for the Homeland in Nazi and Soviet Service
In Latvian Soldiers of World War II: Fighting for the Homeland in Nazi and Soviet Service (Oxford University Press, 2026), Harry C. Merritt explores the wartime experiences and postwar legacies of the...
peripheralhistories.co.uk
I'll be leading the Uni of Staffordshire UCU AGM this afternoon at 13.00 - Staffs members please contact me if you'd like more details (or consult the posters that I've carpet bombed campus with of late). @staffsucu.bsky.social we have a lot to discuss. 📢
Recorded the first episode of my new monthly Central Asia infused musical radio hour at Sphere Radio, an independent radio station in Leipzig The first mix includes some of my favorite retro gems from Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan on.soundcloud.com/29fjCOYHfGzS...
Orta #1 - Aralash - yaxshiyan - 14.04.2026
The first edition of ORTA is called Aralash, which means “mix” in Kyrgyz and is also the name of a popular Central Asian fizzy drink. This episode shakes things up with an eclectic outburst of tunes f
soundcloud.com
Rejection from Leverhulme, so no book on the origins of Kyrgyzstan from me! Not complaining; no doubt my bid was reviewed fairly, and all the best bids were moved to detailed application stage (congrats to those who were!). But it's tough working in an ever tightening national research environment.
Be sure to check out the latest fascinating post on the @peripheralhist.bsky.social website! Peasant Memoirs from Interwar Poland and 'the Power of Irony'. We are always seeking new academic contributors, get in touch if you'd like to know more! www.peripheralhistories.co.uk/post/peasant...
Peasant Memoirs from Interwar Northeastern Poland and the Power of Irony
Stanisław Edward Boridczenko Writing from the MarginsIn much of Eastern Europe, as elsewhere, contemporary national histories have traditionally been written from the perspective of elites, with a fe...
peripheralhistories.co.uk
Many congratulations to @dianakudaibergen.bsky.social on winning the Nove Prize for her book The Kazakh Spring! There is no more deserving scholar!
Dr Diana T. Kudaibergen@dianakudaibergen.bsky.social · 4mo agoCelebrating with @uclssees.bsky.social www.ucl.ac.uk/arts-humanit...
New post alert! This week we have Stanisław Edward Boridczenko on interwar Polish memoirs and the power of irony www.peripheralhistories.co.uk/post/peasant...
Peasant Memoirs from Interwar Northeastern Poland and the Power of Irony
Stanisław Edward Boridczenko Writing from the MarginsIn much of Eastern Europe, as elsewhere, contemporary national histories have traditionally been written from the perspective of elites, with a fe...
peripheralhistories.co.uk
The Smolensk archive, one of the most famous collections for the study of Stalinism and Soviet provincial government, and which supported pioneering research from the 1950s can now be found online
The online portal to the records held at the National Archives, and information about those records.
catalog.archives.gov
Join us tomorrow for a webinar on #CentralAsia-#China relations, hosted by @caspiancenter.bsky.social er.bsky.social. Register here to tune in on Tuesday 10 March, 1000 UK time, 1500 in #Kazakhstan #Uzbekistan www.caspianpolicy.org/events/detai...
CPC | Events - Central Asia and China: Partnership or Dependence?
Central Asia and China: Partnership or Dependence?
caspianpolicy.org
Super excited to have this out! Please listen and share! :) With @juanitamarieelias.bsky.social @mybisa.bsky.social!
Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute@sperishefuni.bsky.social · 5mo agoThe global economy is lived in ordinary spaces. In the first episode of SPERI Presents… new series 'Ground Level' Dr Frank Maracchione (SOAS) and Prof Juanita Elias (BISA chair) discuss how researching everyday life reshapes our understanding of the global economy. open.spotify.com/episode/4007...
What a great topic.
Laurence Broers@laurencebroers.bsky.social · 5mo agoskytte.ut.ee/en/news/unit... 6-day summer school in Cyprus, 29 June-4 July 2026, run by Uni of Tartu on sovereignty & territorial contestation, secessionism & statehood bids, combining expert lectures, guided discussions & immersive field visits. Tuition in English, price €700, deadline 6 April.
A PhD opportunity at Malmö University, 'with a focus on administrative law reform and authoritarian legitimation in Central Asia'. Deadline 31st Jan. If anyone's interested I can put you in touch with people at Malmö. web103.reachmee.com/ext/I005/101...
Employment as a doctoral student in Global politics
Malmö University is an innovative, urban, and internationally-oriented academic institution that, thanks to its committed
web103.reachmee.com
Much has been said about the colonial roots of anthropology. Area studies have been criticized for being an arm of US soft power. Western academia and soft power structures provided employment for those with niche interests in other places. But what happens now that it’s all crumbling?
Honest question, not at all snarky: why don't journal editors ever send brief notes of thanks to peer reviewers? I always submit prompt and (I'd like to think) fair, thorough peer reviews, and a two-sentence email of thanks would really hit the spot sometimes.
'Eurasian exchanges: Central Asian nomadic pastoralists, mountain ecosystems, and market economies in the early twentieth century', by Jennifer Keating UCD [open access] www.cambridge.org/core/service...
cambridge.org
Congratulations to Vladimir Hamed-Troyansky, winner of the Barbara Jelavich Book Prize for Empire of Refugees: North Caucasian Muslims and the Late Ottoman State with Stanford University Press. #ASEEESPrizes See all winners: buff.ly/rh9Tt7b
Since this wound up being a popular thread, sharing an excellent backgrounder on the elections in Kyrgyzstan from @aijanco.bsky.social in The Diplomat: thediplomat.com/2025/11/is-p...
Is Politics Dead in Kyrgyzstan?
As snap parliamentary elections approach, there’s a distinct lack of energy or interest.
thediplomat.com
Incredible resource for Central Asianists, just as you'd expect from Sergei Abashin: abashin.org
История и Антропология Центральной Азии — Сайт Сергея Абашина
abashin.org
Returning to teaching materials that I devised years ago provides a vivid sense of how far we've moved. The agonising efforts I made to force students to really think about the minutiae of bias, subjectivity, (in)accuracy, in source material; it all seems so quaint in the era of Google's AI summary.
Instead of building on Bishkek’s advantages (it was such a lush and green city, trolleybuses, new bike lanes). The authorities are going tabula rasa with the promise of a bombastic leap into the future, an attempt to imitate Almaty, Tashkent and the Gulf states all at once
My new article has just been made available online, open access, with Urban History. It looks at how Kyrgyz pastoralists, returning to the Chui Valley after the violence of 1916, were received in their new capital city in the early Soviet period 1/2 doi.org/10.1017/S096...
‘Since it’s about to be a capital’: managing urban growth and pasturage in early Soviet Bishkek | Urban History | Cambridge Core
‘Since it’s about to be a capital’: managing urban growth and pasturage in early Soviet Bishkek
doi.org
Manas Airport in Bishkek finally changes its IATA code from FRU (to BSZ). FRU was a legacy of the Soviet era when Bishkek was named after Mikhail Frunze, a Bolshevik revolutionary born in the city. 24.kg/english/3391...
Manas Airport officially changes IATA code from FRU to BSZ - | 24.KG
Manas International Airport has officially changed its IATA code from FRU to BSZ. The press service of Airports of Kyrgyzstan JSC reported.
24.kg
The BASEES Eurasian Regions Study Group have put together a roundtable at #ICCEES on publishing in academic journals for postgraduates and early career researchers. Come along to meet friendly editors and ask questions! You can submit questions anonymously here too: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Heading to #ICCEES2025 next week? We have put together a list of sessions that may be of interest to Peripheral Histories? readers here: www.peripheralhistories.co.uk/post/iccees-...
ICCEES XI World Congress 2025
The ICCEES XI World Congress is being hosted by UCL in London in 2025, and will run from Monday 21st July to Friday 25th July. There is a large and diverse range of panels and roundtables to view, ei...
peripheralhistories.co.uk
My forthcoming article on the Thaw in Tatarstan is now available online through The Russian Review. Thanks to colleagues and friends who helped make it possible!
“I Wanted to Bite at the Chauvinists”: Tatar History, Culture, and Politics during the Thaw
This article assesses the activities of Tatar intellectual and cultural elites during the decade and a half following Stalin's death in 1953. The climate of reform and de-Stalinization under Nikita K...
doi.org
It's easy to roll your eyes at much of the research governance jargon, but 'original contribution to knowledge' does neatly encapsulate some of what we do that ChatGPT absolutely does not do.