Emma Harden-Wolfson

Higher education in Central Asia blog

  • Why study abroad?

    I’ve just had a conference paper proposal accepted and so have been thinking in some detail about study abroad, the subject of my paper. The conference is called ‘Micro-level analysis of well-being in Central Asia’ and will be held at the German Institute for Economic Research in Berlin next May. My paper will be looking Read more

  • Developments in Central Asian higher education, part 1

    This is the first part of what I plan to be a monthly update on developments in higher education in Central Asia. As I mentioned in my first post on this blog, there is very little research into higher education in Central Asia, and what exists is often commissioned by external donors such as international Read more

  • A meeting with Hillary Clinton

    When I entered the Social Hall at the Ismaili Centre Dushanbe [the location for Clinton’s talk], it was full. There was no place to sit, even though I thought that I came early. There were school pupils, students, media, representatives from different NGOs and others. We waited for about an hour and finally she came Read more

  • Hillary Clinton’s visit to Tajikistan and Uzbekistan

    A slightly light-hearted post today as I’ve spent the last few days unwell and my mind is not in serious analysis mode right now! As anyone in Central Asia will know, the American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton paid a short visit to Tajikistan and Uzbekistan over the weekend. This post is a round-up of Read more

  • A two-pronged post: higher education in Russia and spreading the word

    Hello everyone. Rather than two posts in one day, today’s single post combines two quite different topics. Read on… The first topic is about higher education in contemporary Russia. I’ve just come across the work of Daria Luchinskaya, a PhD student at the University of Warwick, who has some really interesting points to make about Read more

  • Some thoughts on violence in Central Asia

    Several conversations I’ve had and articles I’ve read recently have been about violence in Central Asia. This isn’t just about physical violence – although this seems to loom large – but political and economic violence too. First, on physical violence. I heard that a friend of a friend was beaten up after leaving a wedding Read more