The future of Central Asia is the subject of a symposium to be held Feb. 5-6, 2004. The four sessions will address water issues like the Aral Sea, Islam, global implications of Central Asian security problems and the future possibilities for the region in light of all these issues.

Krista Goff ’04 and Kiija Manty ’04 conceived the symposium, entitled “The Future of Central Asia: Global Issues in a Regional Context,” after the student-run Sudan conference in spring 2002. The structure is modeled after that conference and the International Roundtable, featuring more than four regional specialists. There will be a keynote, two sessions for which academic papers have been submitted and a roundtable. Macalester students and professors will respond to the two papers.

“The Central Asian region is obscure and tiny, long tucked away in the Soviet Union,” International Studies Associate Professor David Chioni Moore said. “Most people don’t know much about it except a small handful of specialists.”

“The symposium is covering so many aspects [of life], it should be a good turnout,” student respondent Anneli Terry ’04 said. “I think it’s an important symposium that people should come to, especially if you don’t know anything about the region.”

The specialization of the speakers is widely varied. Dr. Nancy Lubin, the keynote speaker, is the president of JNA Associates, a consulting and research firm on the states of the former USSR and on the executive board of the Eurasia Foundation. She was one of the first Westerners to do doctoral research in Uzbekistan and will address the overall regional security situation, with an emphasis on human rights issues and global geopolitics.

Dr. Philip Micklin is one of the foremost experts on the Aral Sea and a retired professor of geography at Western Michigan University. His paper is entitled, “An Environmental Catastrophe: the Disappearance of the Aral Sea.” The Aral Sea, located between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, was the fourth largest inland sea in the world, but has lost 80 percent of its water volume in the past forty years due to Soviet irrigation systems. Geography Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellow William Rowe and Anneli Terry ’04 will be respondents.

Carleton History Department Chair Dr. Adeeb Khalid has published a book and several articles on Islam in Central Asia. International Studies Professor Muhammed Bamyeh and Sher Ali Tareen ‘05 will respond to his presentation, “Islam in Contemporary Central Asia: The Soviet Legacy and its Implications.”

University of Minnesota Central Asian Studies Professor Iraj Bashiri has spent significant time recently in Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. He will chair the roundtable, at which all the symposium speakers will participate.

According to Manty, there has been a great deal of interest in the symposium. Four student groups, six academic departments, the President’s office, the Dean of Academic Programming’s office, Project Pericles and the Chapel are sponsoring the symposium. Several professors have also pledged to incorporate the symposium in their syllabi.

“There is not a natural constituency here, which is an issue…student turnout is going to be really important,” Moore said.

“I think Macalester students are unlike students at other local colleges and find world issues of paramount importance. Response from the Macalester community has been really, really fantastic,” Rowe said.

Central Asia’s five states, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan, gained their independence following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Since then, Central Asia has experienced civil war, widespread human rights abuses, autocratic regimes, corruption, religious instabilities and a recent American-led War on Terrorism in their backyards.

Goff, Manty, and Patrick McGarrity ’06 have been working on the symposium with Rowe’s support. Moore has also helped advise the students.