This project, Eurasian Insights: Strengthening Central Asian Studies in Europe (EISCAS) is an Erasmus+ Strategic partnership for higher education, which is co-funded by the European Union
If you are a scholar, student or expert working on Central Asia, you will find that EISCAS will be able to offer you useful study and research materials, as well as some interesting events that fit your profile. Join the Wikistan Community to connect with the larger research network and find research partners. Join the mailing list to get updates about upcoming EISCAS project events and to get a free copy of the handbook (electronic version).
Central Asia (incl. Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) lies in the heart of the Eurasian continent and connects Europe, Russia, China, South Asia and the Middle East. Central Asian Studies (CAS) is a key study field to understand the geopolitical, economic, security, energy, trade and social dynamics of all these regions. CA has been of strategic importance for EU eastern foreign policy long before the EU adapted the “EU and CA – Strategy for a New Partnership” agenda in 2007. According to a recent EU Council’s conclusion on 10 years of implementation of this strategy (June 2017): the EU still needs a large pool of highly-skilled professionals with broad knowledge and understanding of the political, legal, economic, cultural and social issues of the region. EISCAS will contribute to this goal by improving the formative education of such professionals in the future.
In stark contrast to the importance of the region to policy-makers, CAS are a very fragmented field in Europe; with specialists focusing mostly on narrow topics within their respective discipline of CAS. Teachers of CAS mostly work in small and low-funded departments, using their own approaches and personal experience (often acquired through self-study) in their teaching on CA. As a result, future generations of area specialists acquire their expertise within this fragmented field and do so from various different educational backgrounds (Russian studies, Turkish studies, etc.). The EISCAS project supports the integration of this fragmented group of experts and students through the WIKISTAN community and will offer state-of-the-art teaching materials to teachers of CAS, so they can expand their course offer, as well as provide their students with a top-of-the-line, innovative, new handbook with complementary online study materials.
General project information:
Project number: 2018-1-PL01-KA203-050674
Project duration: 1 September 2018 until 31 December 2021 (40 months).
Maximum grant is estimated at: 381,779.00 EUR.
List of beneficiaries: (consortium)
- Adam Mickiewicz University – Poland (Coordinating institution)
- Charles University in Prague – Czech Republic
- Dublin City University – Republic of Ireland
- University of Eastern Finland – Finland
- French Institute for Central Asian Studies (IFEAC) – Kyrgyzstan/France
- George Washington University – USA
- School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London) – Great Britain
- Universiteit Gent – Belgium
- University of Coimbra – Portugal
- University of Glasgow – Great Britain
- University of Paris-Saclay – France