Kazakhstan, Astana. July 29 / Trend D.Mukhtarov /
Astana will host the International Conference on Central Asia, according to the press-service of Nazarbayev University JSC.
"Nazarbayev University will be hosting the International Conference of the European Society for Central Asian Studies / ESCAS. The conference to be held in Astana on August 5-7 will have the following title: 'From the steppes to arable land: symbiosis of nomadic and sedentary civilizations', the press service said on Monday.
The event will bring together about 200 participants from 16 countries in Asia, Europe and North America.
"This theme was chosen because we want to talk about Central Asia as a cultural space, based on the interweaving of various layers of nomadic and sedentary civilizations," the press release quoted the professor of anthropology at the Nazarbayev University, a member of the organizing committee of the conference Alma Bissenova as saying.
According to her, historical studies show that a variety of cultural layers as well as Cossacks and Kazakhs, Sarts and Tatars lived and interacted in the Kazakh steppe, the area where Astana is growing and developing today, in XVIII-XIX centuries.
The conference program includes 48 sessions on the disciplines of anthropology, art, literature, linguistics, education, history, politics, sociology as well as five round tables on "Scientific knowledge for the general public", "The holy places in Central Asia: Duration and Transformation", "The development of migration processes in post-Soviet Russia and Kazakhstan", "Central Asia: from the general history to a common future", "The Vision and Practice of Energy Consumption."
As stated in the report, Kazakhstan will be represented at this year's conference by scientists from 13 universities and research institutes. Professors of the Nazarbayev University are active participants of the conference that will lead ESCAS thematic sessions as well as present their own research on migration and national identity, civic development, material culture, music, Kazakh literature, education, culture, agriculture and population, famine, history of Islam in the region, stories of borders and sovereignty.
The Conference of the European Society for Central Asian Studies was first held in 1987 in London at the School of Oriental and African Studies. Since then, the event has taken place in 11 countries around the world once every two years.
This upcoming ESCAS conference is held in Central Asia for the first time. The previous conference was held in 2011 at the University of Cambridge in the UK.