News
20 – 21 октября 2023 года
International Conference “Middle Eastern Studies in Eurasia”
On October 20-21, 2023, International Conference “Middle Eastern Studies in Eurasia”, organized by the Institute of Oriental Studies RAS and Evgeniy Primakov Center for International Cooperation, was held in Moscow. The event attracted renowned experts from leading academic centers of the Eurasian region, researchers and educators that work in the field of scholarly knowledge production and train qualified professionals in Middle Eastern linguistics, history and culturology.
The conference was attended by authoritative Oriental Studies scholars from Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and various regions of Russia where local centers and academic traditions of Oriental Studies have been established.
The discussions revolved around current and prospective issues of the Oriental Studies in general and Middle Eastern Studies as their inherent part, the status of the academic discipline in the post-Soviet Eurasian countries. Common historical roots and methodology define both the past and the present of the Oriental Studies in the post-Soviet region. At the same time, the future of the Oriental Studies as an academic and education field of knowledge is inherently connected to the capability to maintain traditions and achievements of the past generations, develop them further and combine them with innovative methodological decisions that keep up with the changing times. In many countries of Central Asia and Caucasus since their independence, academic Oriental Studies have acquired new meanings and practical applications. Preserving their classic historical and philological foothold, contemporary researchers make a significant contribution to the development and expansion of knowledge about their own countries, directly participate in the formation of historical and memory policies.
All participants unanimously pointed out that the ties between professional Oriental Studies communities of the Eurasian countries have inevitably weakened over the last 15 years. This dramatically influenced the quality and scale of interactions between professionals in Middle Eastern Studies as their knowledge about each other, and particularly about innovative research directions, has become scarce. The academic literature exchange basically ceased, joint research projects and educational cooperation are stalling, staff exchange is severely obstructed.
As a result, the two days of conference were filled with highly active and intense discussions aimed to combat the deficiency of multilateral professional communication and form new channels for the development of academic contacts.
The first day of the Conference was held in the Institute of Oriental Studies and consisted of 4 panel discussions. They were dedicated to the current status of the Middle Eastern Studies in Eurasia, development trends of the existing schools of education in Middle Eastern languages, classic academic research and specific traits of contemporary Middle Eastern Studies. On the second day, the Evgeniy Primakov Center for International Cooperation hosted discussions on the strategy of common academic and educational space creation in the Eurasian region.
Finally, the organizers thanked the participants for their interest in cooperation and proposed a set of suggestion on the development of regular cooperation formats, inviting young Oriental Studies scholars from the Eurasian region to take part in further events.
A detailed account of the Conference’s proceedings can be found on the official site of the Evgeniy Primakov Center for International Cooperation (in Russian):
Day 1: https://primakovcenter.ru/news2/tpost/jmvd2tozy1-v-moskve-nachalas-mezhdunarodnaya-konfer
Day 2: https://primakovcenter.ru/news2/tpost/lo8d97n3e1-zavershilsya-vtoroi-den-mezhdunarodnoi-k
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