John Schoeberlein

John Schoeberlein is Director of the Program on Central Asia and the Caucasus at Harvard University, which he was instrumental in founding in 1993.  The program coordinates activities at Harvard related to the study of “Greater” Central Asia/Eurasia, extending from the Crimea and Caucasus to the Volga Basin, Mongolia, Western China, Afghanistan and the former Soviet Central Asian republics.  His research focuses on identity, ethnicity, gender, nationality, religion, and community organization among the Islamic peoples of Central Eurasia.  He has conducted a total of over five years of anthropological field research in various parts of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan.  He received his Ph.D. in Social Anthropology from Harvard University.  He has taught courses in the anthropology, history and politics of the region as Lecturer on Central Asian Studies at Harvard University since 1993.  During 1998-99, he headed the United Nations' Ferghana Valley Development Programme, working on participatory approaches to conflict resolution in the region.  During 2000-2001, he was Director of the Central Asia Project of the International Crisis Group, working to diminish the possibilities of conflict in the region.  He regularly lectures internationally and in the U.S., with recent appearances in Almaty, Bishkek, Tashkent, Yerevan, Ankara, New York, Seattle, Ann Arbor, and Washington, D.C.

His current research topics include the rise of radical Islam in Central Asia, the impact of national state formation on identity in Central Asia, the factors affecting the potential for violent inter-communal conflict, and means of promoting community-level participation in economic reform.  He has done development consulting work on the potential of local communities to participate in economic reform efforts, including major survey research in Uzbekistan.  He gives frequent consultations to various governmental and international organizations and the press regarding developments in Central Asia.

From 2000 to 2003, he held the position of the first President of the Central Eurasian Studies Society, an international scholarly association supporting the enhancement of research in the social sciences and humanities focused on the region from the Black Sea to Mongolia.  He continued to lead the organization as Director of the Secretariat, which was hosted by Harvard until 2007, when it made its first migration to Miami University of Ohio (see: http://www.cess.muohio.edu).  Under his leadership, the society was established and grew to over 1,500 members in over 60 countries.  Its 2003 conference, hosted by Harvard, attracted nearly 500 panelists with altogether over 800 attendees.

He is editor of the «Central Eurasian Studies World Wide» website (http://cesww.fas.harvard.edu) and of the Central-Eurasia-L Announcement List for Central Eurasian Studies (http://cesww.fas.harvard.edu/CESWW_Central-Eurasia-L.html).  He is a member of the International Advisory Board of the journal Central Asian Survey.

Recent Courses Taught:

Islamic Civilizations 160: The Meanings of Islam in Central Asia
Anthropology 1930. Culture Wars in Eurasia
Anthropology 2865. Islamic Eurasia and the Anthropology of Post-Socialism
Government 1286: The Politics of Identity in Central Asia
Government 2204: Radicalization of Islam in the Former Communist World
Islamic Civilizations 125: History and Culture of the Islamic Peoples of the Former Soviet Union

Selected Publications:

• Historical Atlas of Central Eurasia (editor), Harvard University Press, forthcoming 2009.
• “Talas’s Central Asian Cultural Contexts,” in Kyrgyzstan: A Photoethnography of Talas, pp. 19-35. Munich: Hirmer Verlag, 2007.
• “Doubtful Dead Fathers and Musical Corpses: What to Do with the Dead Stalin, Lenin and Tsar Nicholas?” in: John Borneman, ed., Death of the Father: An Anthropology of the End in Political Authority, pp. 201-219. New York/Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2004.
• “Central Asia: A Host of Preventable Conflicts,” in P. van Tongeren, H. van de Veen and J. Verhoeven, eds.: Searching for Peace in Europe and Eurasia: An Overview of Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding Activities. Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner, 2002.
• “Islam in the Ferghana Valley: Challenges for New States,” in H. Komatsu and S. Dudoignon, eds., Islam in Politics in Russia and Central Asia, Early Eighteenth to Late Twentieth Centuries, pp. 323-339. London/New York: Kegan Paul, 2001.
• “The Role of Resources in Conflicts in Central Asia,” in J. Verhoeven et al, eds.: Searching for Peace in Asia: An Overview of Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding Activities. Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner, 2002.
• “Setting the Stakes of a New Society,” Central Eurasian Studies Review, Vol. 1, No. 1 (Winter 2002).
• Co-authorship of a series of reports on conflict-related issues in Central Asia for the International Crisis Group, available online at: http://www.crisisweb.org (Central Asia reports published from 2000 through 2001).
• “Shifting Ground: How the Soviet Regime Used Resettlement to Transform Central Asian Society and the Consequences of This Policy Today,” in: H. Komatsu, C. Obiya and J. Schoeberlein, eds., Migration in Central Asia: Its History and Current Problems, pp. 41-64. Osaka: Japan Center for Area Studies, 2000.
• “The Caspian region: Geography, Population and National Identity,” in The Caspian Region at a Crossroad: Challenges of a New Frontier of Energy and Development, with Alisher Ilkhamov, edited by Houshang Amirahmadi, New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000.
• “Between Two Worlds: Obstacles to Development and Prosperity,” Harvard International Review, 22(1)56-61.  Cambridge, Mass., Winter/Spring 2000.
• “Central Asian Studies in an International Context,” in Re-entering the Silk Routes: Current Scandinavian Research on Central Asia, edited by Birgit Schlyter and Mirja Juntunen.  New York: Kegan Paul International, 1999.
• “The Prospects for Uzbek National Identity,” Central Asia Monitor, 1996(2)12-20.
• “Conflict in Tajikistan and Central Asia: The Myth of Ethnic Animosity," Harvard Middle Eastern and Islamic Review, 1(2)1-55, 1995.

Websites/Projects:

«CESWW» Central Eurasia Experts Directory 
«CESWW» Dissertations in Central Eurasian Studies 
«CESWW» Syllabi in Central Eurasian Studies

Contact Information:

Dr. John Schoeberlein, Director
Harvard Program on Central Asia and the Caucasus
Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies
1730 Cambridge Street, Room S-320
Cambridge, MA 02138   USA

Tel.: +1/617-495-4338  Program: +1/617-496-2643
Fax: +1/617-495-8319
E-mail: schoeber (at) fas.harvard.edu

To website of the Harvard Program on Central Asia and the Caucasus