Happy May from the Central Eurasian Studies Summer Institute! We hope that the students among you are having a smooth end to the semester as graduation season and summer approaches.

Since our April newsletter, we've been busy notifying eligible applicants of Title VIII and Summer FLAS Fellowships from the Departments of State and Education, respectively. We are excited to announce here that we are hosting a supplemental competition for Title VIII funding for applicants eager to study online with CESSI this summer. Read on for more information, and email us if we can answer any questions.

Calling all eligible applicants! CESSI is opening a supplemental application for Title VIII Fellowships this summer. If you are interested in studying intensive elementary Kazakh, or any level of Uyghur, we encourage you to apply. The CESSI application and Title VIII statement of purpose are due May 9; additional application materials will be accepted until May 15.

The Title VIII Fellowship is administered by the U.S. Department of State to develop U.S. expertise in the critical languages of Eurasia. The fellowship covers full tuition at CESSI as well as a $3,500 stipend. Eligibility requirements and application instructions are at cessi.wisc.edu/apply.

Henry Misa, a Title VIII Fellow who attended CESSI to study Tajik in 2017 and 2021, recently published a new article along with co-author Alisher Khaliyarov: "A climate for the Khans: reinterpreting the economic history of the Khivan Khanate with paleoenvironmental evidence" appears in the Central Asian Survey. More information can be found here. The abstract and article are located here and may require a subscription to read in full. Congratulations, Henry!

The Central Eurasian Studies Society’s 2025 Graduate and Early Career Scholar Interdisciplinary Workshop (GEIW) will be hosted by the History Department at Ohio State University on September 12–13, 2025. The workshop will offer 10-12 graduate students and early career scholars (up to 5 years post-PhD) the opportunity to share and receive feedback on their work (chapter, paper, or article). This year's theme is "The Political Economy of Central Eurasia," which includes but is not limited to: migration, environment and climate change, wealth inequality, agriculture and industry, water use, education, energy production and use, and artificial intelligence.

For more information and application requirements, click here. Applications are due May 31, 2025.

This conference on academic freedom organized by the Center for Independent Social Research and the Central Asia Program at George Washington University will be held at the Tashkent State University of Economics October 16-18, 2025. The entire conference will be conducted in English. They welcome applications for individual contributions, including the title, a brief description (up to 200 words), and a short academic biography of the presenter (approximately 100 words).

For more information, see here. To apply, click here. The application deadline is June 30, 2025.

Contributions are invited for a special issue of The Archive Revisited Gazette focused on Audre Lorde’s lesser-known essay, “Notes on a Trip to Russia.” This issue warmly welcome submissions from anyone interested in engaging with this essay. The first issue of the Gazette can be viewed here.

Written after her 1976 journey to Soviet Eurasia—including her participation in the Afro-Asian Writers Conference in Tashkent—Lorde’s essay offers a glimpse into her transnational political imagination, her encounters with Central Asian women and Indigenous poets such as Antonina Kymytval’, and her reflections on language, intimacy, and solidarity.

Please send submissions or queries regarding accepted formats to: shchurkot@usf.edu