Waking up in Japan to find out my book is trending on Instagram 🫶 🧿🧿🧿🧿🧿
Dr Diana T. Kudaibergen
@dianakudaibergen.bsky.social
Political Sociologist, Decolonial Writer, Central Asian to the core. Lecturing at @UCLSSEES. Most of the times you can find me writing or rummaging around the steppe, deserts and valleys. Fellow at Homerton College, previously at Cambridge Sociology
The beauty of academia is sharing ideas and having insightful conversations. Gave a talk at Tokyo University today. Decided to finish this book and also start writing another one ahahaha “this one” has been on my table for 10 years 🫢
ASEEES Syllabus Bank ASEEES invites the submission of any syllabi related to Slavic, East European, and Eurasian studies. The ASEEES Syllabus Bank brings together syllabi from across the field, submitted by faculty and instructors within Slavic, East European, and Eurasian studies. buff.ly/dBgcBQs
Liz, a teacher friend of mine, points out that Damon is Nomad spelled backwards. 🤣
July is truly the fastest week of the whole summer.
just attended my best panel online, middle of the night where I am, people gathering at RUTA in Ukraine & almost all my co-panelists joining from different sides of the world. Yet we speak of the same pain, of the same embodied knowledges and of the type of violence shared across and beyond borders
Central Asian Affairs journal June issue is out, check it out! Papers on ethnographies of Osh bazaars, Kelin discourses in Uzbek cinema, Basmachi movements in Kyrgyzstan, dissertation review on disabilities in Uzbekistan and a lot more! brill.com/view/journal...
brill.com
I spoke to Cholpon Ramizova this spring about my latest published book & it just came out in the podcast on New Books Network for Central Asian Studies. So grateful for these inspiring conversations among Central Asians <3 podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/d...
Diana T. Kudaibergen, "What Does It Mean to Be Kazakhstani?: Power, Identity and Nation-Building" (Oxford UP, 2024)
Podcast Episode · New Books in Central Asian Studies · 11 July · 58min
podcasts.apple.com
It will be exactly 53 weeks tomorrow since I didn't send my editor the revised manuscript I thought I'd do in six weeks over the summer. 53 Weeks of exhaustion, weeks and days of reading to find meaning, months of re-reading, printing, revising, hating the draft & going back weeks later.
New book alert! Bravo, Riccardo! I'm looking forward to reading it soon.
The Last Purge by Riccardo Mario Cucciolla | Hardcover | Cornell University Press
The Last Purge explores the political ramifications of what is now known as the Cotton Affair, the largest and final purge in the post-Stalin Soviet Union. A significant yet underexamined episode of.....
cornellpress.cornell.edu
my face when I want to say: "I'm on research leave, see you in September" hahaha (evil laugh). But for real, let some magic happen!
Thank you so much! I also dedicated a huge chapter in my latest book, “What does it mean to be Kazakhstani” precisely to this issue. More needs to be written and talked about though 🙏
Franziska Davies@efdavies.bsky.social · 2mo agoThe uprising in Kazakhstan in 1986 is virtually unknown in the West. Rather than labelling it as an expression of "national separatism", it would be more accurate to describe it as anti-colonial protest. I recommend this episode of @dianakudaibergen.bsky.social's excellent podcast on the uprising:
People who send emails on weekends. Why?
Thank you so much for having me, Oxford! I gave a talk, attended a formal, had fascinating conversations with Tamar Koplatadze who invited me (thank you!!!!) and Bota Kassymbekova while we celebrated my BASEES book prize ❤️
One BIG problem though. Kazakhstan pavilion in Venice was supposed to have this work of Asel Kadyrkhanova on Stalinist repressions as one of the central pieces at the exhibit. The vice minister of culture of Kazakhstan came to “inspect” it the day before pre-opening & ordered to remove it
I'm still in awe reading someone's citations of my earlier works where they highlight the things I've been struggling with in my next-next book and I'm like, "Did I really write this in 2019? And OMG it was so well-written!" I should stop living under the rock of my own self-doubt
a man in a suit and tie looks surprised
ALT: a man in a suit and tie looks surprised
media.tenor.com
If in London, make sure to see Almagul Menlibayeva’s exhibition
Dr Diana T. Kudaibergen@dianakudaibergen.bsky.social · 3mo agoIt’s been a busy week. We’ve installed and opened Qazaq artist Almagul Menlibayeva’s solo show at No.9 Cork street. Come and see “Contested Cosmos:Women, Myth, and Technology Across Central Asia” curated by yours truly. The exhibition will run till the end of May with planned artist talk mid-May
NEW PODCAST! This episode is a recording of the talk given by Keto Gorgadze at the launch of Errant Journal's ninth issue titled Companions at Framer Framed in Amsterdam on 18 April 2026. soundcloud.com/errant-podca...
It’s been a busy week. We’ve installed and opened Qazaq artist Almagul Menlibayeva’s solo show at No.9 Cork street. Come and see “Contested Cosmos:Women, Myth, and Technology Across Central Asia” curated by yours truly. The exhibition will run till the end of May with planned artist talk mid-May
in the past two years I came across several mistranslations from Qazaq to English. Reading beautiful Qazaq texts in English with russian translations in the middle is just breaking my heart. It breaks and cuts the text, it loses & misses its meaning & beauty. Why not to translate Qazaq directly?
A lot of friends are asking me about my current fieldwork. I’m used to doing things in solitude but this time and due to my digitalisation, it’s quite collective. Reflecting on these questions actually allows me to think more abt my overall project & loose ends of it. It’s a beautiful experience 🧿
Join us today at Spore Berlin! Our conversation on decoloniality starts today at 1 pm. And I’m in Berlin till tomorrow morning 🧿🙏 spore-initiative.org/en/programmi...
Wonderful news. This book is a crucial read that tells on what it takes to overthrow a dictatorship and honours the efforts of those who try, even when success isn’t linear or instant and can take generations. There might soon be a symposium published about the book and several revolutionary Springs
Dr Diana T. Kudaibergen@dianakudaibergen.bsky.social · 4mo agoThe Kazakh Spring by Cambridge University Press is the winner of the BASEEES Alexander Nove Prize ❤️ Thank you so much!!! basees.org/nove-prize
Thank you so much for all your messages pouring in. I'm very grateful for the kind words!
Alun Thomas@alunrthomas.bsky.social · 4mo agoMany congratulations to @dianakudaibergen.bsky.social on winning the Nove Prize for her book The Kazakh Spring! There is no more deserving scholar!
Celebrating with @uclssees.bsky.social www.ucl.ac.uk/arts-humanit...
Dr Diana Kudaibergen Wins 2026 Alexander Nove Prize
We are delighted to announce that Dr Diana Kudaibergen has been awarded the 2026 BASEES Alexander Nove Prize for her book The Kazakh Spring: Digital Activism and the Challenge to Dictatorship
ucl.ac.uk
The Kazakh Spring by Cambridge University Press is the winner of the BASEEES Alexander Nove Prize ❤️ Thank you so much!!! basees.org/nove-prize
I got invited to the super cool decolonial conference as a speaker & it’s in one of my fav contemporary art museums in Berlin. The only problem is that it’s on the same day I was supposed to receive my Alexander Nove prize for best book in person at BASEEES. I guess I’ll get the prize by post 😩
Follow Mariya Levitanus work on decolonial queerness in Central Asia! To talk about scraps, drafts, failures & things that can be reconciled was superb this Thursday @uclssees.bsky.social Look out for Mariya’s & Mohira Suyarkulova’s book “In our Words” coming out open access on the 1st of April
Dr Diana T. Kudaibergen@dianakudaibergen.bsky.social · 5mo agothis Thursday, Seminar with Mariya Levitanus! 5-7 pm, SSEES Masaryk Room Link for registration below