Day 1  Thursday 19 October 2023

9:30

Opening by Julie Yu-Wen Chen, Professor of Chinese Studies, University of Helsinki

9:40-10:20

Keynote speech by Robert Hamilton, Research Professor of Eurasian Studies

US Army War College

The Sheriff, the Banker, and Power Transition in Central Asia

10:30-11:45

PANEL 1: Dynamics of Sino-Russian-Central Asian Relations

Chair: Monique Taylor, University of Helsinki, Finland

·       Alliance of Autocracy? Shanghai Cooperation Organization as Foucauldian Critique of Neo-liberal World Order

Chih-yu Shih, National Taiwan University, Taiwan

·    When Tigers Meet in Central Asia, Does Grass Thrive or Succumb? A Socio-Industrial Field View of Investments and Private Sector Engagement

Matthew Gray, ESG Risk in Eurasia’s Emerging Markets, Morningstar, Denmark

Discussant: Emilian Kavalski, NAWA Chair Professor at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland

11:45-13:00

Lunch

13:15-14:45

PANEL 2: China’s Soft Power in Kazakhstan

Chair: Anni Kangas, Tampere University, Finland

·       Visualising China’s Story in Museum Exhibitions: Insights from the Central State Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan

Giulia Sciorati, LSE, UK

 ·       Kazakhstan’s Perceptions of China: Media and Society

Aziz Burkhanov, Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan

 ·       ‘They See Kazakhstan as a Tasty Morsel’: A Study on Popular Perceptions of China in Kazakhstan 

Dana Rice, Australian National University, Australia

Discussant: Kristiina Silvan, Finnish Institute of International Affairs, Finland

14:45-15:00

Coffee break

15:00-16:30

PANEL 3: The Learning about China in Central Asia

Chair: Sirke Mäkinen, University of Helsinki, Finland

·       Academic Collaboration along the New Silk Road and China’s Scarce Engagement in Higher Education institutions in Central Asia

Eva Seiwert, Research Associate, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany & Associate Research Fellow, OSCE Academy, Kyrgyzstan

·       Knowledge Production About China in Central Asia: Oral History Interviews with Senior China Experts and Sinologists

Julie Yu-Wen Chen, Professor of Chinese Studies, University of Helsinki, Finland

Discussant: Aziz Burkhanov, Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan

Day 2 Friday 20 October 2023

10:15-11:30

PANEL 4: China’s Security and Military Presence in Central Asia

Chair: Emilian Kavalski, NAWA Chair Professor at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland

·       China Marches West: Beijing’s Security Presence in Tajikistan

Edward Lemon, Research Assistant Professor at the Bush School of Government and Public Service in Washington DC, USA; Oleg Antonov, Visiting Researcher, Department of Global Political Studies, Malmö University, Sweden

·       Russia and China in Central Asian Security: Partners or Rivals?

Temur Umarov, Fellow at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Berlin, Germany

Discussant: Eva Seiwert, Research Associate, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany & Associate Research Fellow, OSCE Academy, Kyrgyzstan

11:45-13:00

Lunch

13:15-14:45

PANEL 5: Future Collaboration and Networking (Closed-door meeting, only invited scholars can join)

How to improve research on China’s relations with Central Asia

·       Topics, questions, hypotheses

·       Methods and data

·       Research ethics

·       Safety of researchers

·       Disciplinary, interdisciplinary, or multidisciplinary research?

·       Networking

·       Future funding applications