Central Asia WG • Contesting Identities in Kyrgyzstan

Please join the Central Asia Working Group for a presentation by Aida Aaly Alymbaeva, an associate PhD Candidate at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, who will present on “Contesting Identities in Kyrgyzstan: The Kalmak Case.”

The paper is about people who constantly face a need to define their ethnic identities in fixed terms, while any of the choices they make can be, and contextually are, contested. It is about my interlocutors’ current perceptions and ways of expressing and interpreting the fact of being a Kalmak, Sart-Kalmak, or Kyrgyz, or of being all at once. This can be a complex undertaking, when these concepts can be used complementarily while being at the same time in tension within and with each other. By examining this ambivalence through the lens of relations between the ethnic majority and minority, I have shed light on identity politics in contemporary Kyrgyzstan.

Please use this Zoom link to join.

Sponsored by the UNC Central Asia Working Group. Please email Dr. Eren Tasar (etasar@email.unc.edu) with any questions.