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Alun Thomas

@alunrthomas.bsky.social
452 followers 383 following 47 posts

Associate Professor of Eurasian Studies at University of Staffordshire. Interested in Central Asia and Russia. Chair of Staffs UCU branch.

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Alun Thomas @alunrthomas.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Looks quite amazing!
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Alun Thomas @alunrthomas.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Today I received some of the best, kindest peer review I've ever had, and on a piece I am extremely excited about. Can't wait to get it revised and in print (yes, we are entering a post-literate age and LLMs will feast on it immediately; allow me a moment's joy nonetheless).
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Yan Matusevich @ymatusik.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan used to be the two most remittance dependent countries in the world back in 2017 and 2018, but have gone on completely different trajectories since. In 2025, remittances make up almost 60% of Tajikistan's GDP whereas that number has dropped to just 17% in Kyrgyzstan.
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Alun Thomas @alunrthomas.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
The Arday story is tragic and complex. What institution should be better suited to navigate that complexity in the public conversation than a university? But the structure of UK HE has created institutions which balk at such a challenge. And so we are once again left at the mercy of the polemicists.
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Alun Thomas @alunrthomas.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Deadline tomorrow!
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Alun Thomas @alunrthomas.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
An actual academic job! At a UK university! Temporary but full-time! Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Intelligence Studies. Deadline for applications is very soon. Please share widely. Contact me for more info. uk.indeed.com/m/viewjob?jk...
uk.indeed.com
Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Intelligence Studies - Stoke-on-Trent - Indeed.com
Apply for the Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Intelligence Studies job in Stoke-on-Trent! Learn more about the job description, salary and job details to see if you qualify on Indeed today.
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Peripheral Histories? @peripheralhist.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
For all those interested in the history of the Second World War and Latvia, we have a new author interview for you. Check out our conversation with @harrymerritt.bsky.social on his recently-published book 'Latvian Soldiers of World War II' www.peripheralhistories.co.uk/post/latvian...
peripheralhistories.co.uk
Latvian Soldiers of World War II: Fighting for the Homeland in Nazi and Soviet Service
In Latvian Soldiers of World War II: Fighting for the Homeland in Nazi and Soviet Service (Oxford University Press, 2026), Harry C. Merritt explores the wartime experiences and postwar legacies of the...
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Alun Thomas @alunrthomas.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
I'll be leading the Uni of Staffordshire UCU AGM this afternoon at 13.00 - Staffs members please contact me if you'd like more details (or consult the posters that I've carpet bombed campus with of late). @staffsucu.bsky.social we have a lot to discuss. 📢
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Yan Matusevich @ymatusik.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
Recorded the first episode of my new monthly Central Asia infused musical radio hour at Sphere Radio, an independent radio station in Leipzig The first mix includes some of my favorite retro gems from Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan on.soundcloud.com/29fjCOYHfGzS...
soundcloud.com
Orta #1 - Aralash - yaxshiyan - 14.04.2026
The first edition of ORTA is called Aralash, which means “mix” in Kyrgyz and is also the name of a popular Central Asian fizzy drink. This episode shakes things up with an eclectic outburst of tunes f
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Alun Thomas @alunrthomas.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
Rejection from Leverhulme, so no book on the origins of Kyrgyzstan from me! Not complaining; no doubt my bid was reviewed fairly, and all the best bids were moved to detailed application stage (congrats to those who were!). But it's tough working in an ever tightening national research environment.
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Alun Thomas @alunrthomas.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
Be sure to check out the latest fascinating post on the @peripheralhist.bsky.social website! Peasant Memoirs from Interwar Poland and 'the Power of Irony'. We are always seeking new academic contributors, get in touch if you'd like to know more! www.peripheralhistories.co.uk/post/peasant...
peripheralhistories.co.uk
Peasant Memoirs from Interwar Northeastern Poland and the Power of Irony
Stanisław Edward Boridczenko  Writing from the MarginsIn much of Eastern Europe, as elsewhere, contemporary national histories have traditionally been written from the perspective of elites, with a fe...
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Alun Thomas @alunrthomas.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
Many congratulations to @dianakudaibergen.bsky.social on winning the Nove Prize for her book The Kazakh Spring! There is no more deserving scholar!
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Peripheral Histories? @peripheralhist.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
New post alert! This week we have Stanisław Edward Boridczenko on interwar Polish memoirs and the power of irony www.peripheralhistories.co.uk/post/peasant...
peripheralhistories.co.uk
Peasant Memoirs from Interwar Northeastern Poland and the Power of Irony
Stanisław Edward Boridczenko  Writing from the MarginsIn much of Eastern Europe, as elsewhere, contemporary national histories have traditionally been written from the perspective of elites, with a fe...
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Peter Whitewood @pwhitewood.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
The Smolensk archive, one of the most famous collections for the study of Stalinism and Soviet provincial government, and which supported pioneering research from the 1950s can now be found online
catalog.archives.gov
The online portal to the records held at the National Archives, and information about those records.
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Joanna Lillis @joannalillis.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
Join us tomorrow for a webinar on #CentralAsia-#China relations, hosted by @caspiancenter.bsky.social er.bsky.social. Register here to tune in on Tuesday 10 March, 1000 UK time, 1500 in #Kazakhstan #Uzbekistan www.caspianpolicy.org/events/detai...
caspianpolicy.org
CPC | Events - Central Asia and China: Partnership or Dependence?
Central Asia and China: Partnership or Dependence?
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Dr Frank Maracchione - 马峰澜 @frankmaracchione.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
Super excited to have this out! Please listen and share! :) With @juanitamarieelias.bsky.social @mybisa.bsky.social!
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Alun Thomas @alunrthomas.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
What a great topic.
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Rian Thum @rianthum.bsky.social · 02/11/2025
The book is out! www.hup.harvard.edu/books/978067...
Several copies of the book Islamic China
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Alun Thomas @alunrthomas.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
A PhD opportunity at Malmö University, 'with a focus on administrative law reform and authoritarian legitimation in Central Asia'. Deadline 31st Jan. If anyone's interested I can put you in touch with people at Malmö. web103.reachmee.com/ext/I005/101...
web103.reachmee.com
Employment as a doctoral student in Global politics
Malmö University is an innovative, urban, and internationally-oriented academic institution that, thanks to its committed
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Yan Matusevich @ymatusik.bsky.social · 10/01/2026
Much has been said about the colonial roots of anthropology. Area studies have been criticized for being an arm of US soft power. Western academia and soft power structures provided employment for those with niche interests in other places. But what happens now that it’s all crumbling?
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Alun Thomas @alunrthomas.bsky.social · 10/01/2026
Honest question, not at all snarky: why don't journal editors ever send brief notes of thanks to peer reviewers? I always submit prompt and (I'd like to think) fair, thorough peer reviews, and a two-sentence email of thanks would really hit the spot sometimes.
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Alun Thomas @alunrthomas.bsky.social · 19/12/2025
'Eurasian exchanges: Central Asian nomadic pastoralists, mountain ecosystems, and market economies in the early twentieth century', by Jennifer Keating UCD [open access] www.cambridge.org/core/service...
cambridge.org
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ASEEES Association for Slavic, East European, & Eurasian Studies @aseees.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
Congratulations to Vladimir Hamed-Troyansky, winner of the Barbara Jelavich Book Prize for Empire of Refugees: North Caucasian Muslims and the Late Ottoman State with Stanford University Press. #ASEEESPrizes See all winners: buff.ly/rh9Tt7b
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Nate Schenkkan @nateschenkkan.bsky.social · 22/11/2025
Since this wound up being a popular thread, sharing an excellent backgrounder on the elections in Kyrgyzstan from @aijanco.bsky.social in The Diplomat: thediplomat.com/2025/11/is-p...
thediplomat.com
Is Politics Dead in Kyrgyzstan?
As snap parliamentary elections approach, there’s a distinct lack of energy or interest.
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D. Anca Cretu @dacretu.bsky.social · 12/11/2025
We're advertising!!! www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPK289/a...
jobs.ac.uk
Assistant Professor in Environmental History (111009-1125) at University of Warwick
Looking for a new job opportunity in academia? Check out this job opening for a Assistant Professor in Environmental History (111009-1125) on jobs.ac.uk!
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Alun Thomas @alunrthomas.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
Incredible resource for Central Asianists, just as you'd expect from Sergei Abashin: abashin.org
abashin.org
История и Антропология Центральной Азии — Сайт Сергея Абашина
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Alun Thomas @alunrthomas.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
Returning to teaching materials that I devised years ago provides a vivid sense of how far we've moved. The agonising efforts I made to force students to really think about the minutiae of bias, subjectivity, (in)accuracy, in source material; it all seems so quaint in the era of Google's AI summary.
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Yan Matusevich @ymatusik.bsky.social · 27/10/2025
Instead of building on Bishkek’s advantages (it was such a lush and green city, trolleybuses, new bike lanes). The authorities are going tabula rasa with the promise of a bombastic leap into the future, an attempt to imitate Almaty, Tashkent and the Gulf states all at once
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Alun Thomas @alunrthomas.bsky.social · 29/09/2025
My new article has just been made available online, open access, with Urban History. It looks at how Kyrgyz pastoralists, returning to the Chui Valley after the violence of 1916, were received in their new capital city in the early Soviet period 1/2 doi.org/10.1017/S096...
doi.org
‘Since it’s about to be a capital’: managing urban growth and pasturage in early Soviet Bishkek | Urban History | Cambridge Core
‘Since it’s about to be a capital’: managing urban growth and pasturage in early Soviet Bishkek
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Alun Thomas @alunrthomas.bsky.social · 12/08/2025
Manas Airport in Bishkek finally changes its IATA code from FRU (to BSZ). FRU was a legacy of the Soviet era when Bishkek was named after Mikhail Frunze, a Bolshevik revolutionary born in the city. 24.kg/english/3391...
24.kg
Manas Airport officially changes IATA code from FRU to BSZ - | 24.KG
Manas International Airport has officially changed its IATA code from FRU to BSZ. The press service of Airports of Kyrgyzstan JSC reported.
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Peripheral Histories? @peripheralhist.bsky.social · 21/07/2025
The BASEES Eurasian Regions Study Group have put together a roundtable at #ICCEES on publishing in academic journals for postgraduates and early career researchers. Come along to meet friendly editors and ask questions! You can submit questions anonymously here too: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
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Peripheral Histories? @peripheralhist.bsky.social · 18/07/2025
Heading to #ICCEES2025 next week? We have put together a list of sessions that may be of interest to Peripheral Histories? readers here: www.peripheralhistories.co.uk/post/iccees-...
peripheralhistories.co.uk
ICCEES XI World Congress 2025
The ICCEES XI World Congress is being hosted by UCL in London in 2025, and will run from Monday 21st July to Friday 25th July. There is a large and diverse range of panels and roundtables to view, ei...
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John M. Romero @romerojohnm.bsky.social · 30/06/2025
My forthcoming article on the Thaw in Tatarstan is now available online through The Russian Review. Thanks to colleagues and friends who helped make it possible!
doi.org
“I Wanted to Bite at the Chauvinists”: Tatar History, Culture, and Politics during the Thaw
This article assesses the activities of Tatar intellectual and cultural elites during the decade and a half following Stalin's death in 1953. The climate of reform and de-Stalinization under Nikita K...
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Alun Thomas @alunrthomas.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
It's easy to roll your eyes at much of the research governance jargon, but 'original contribution to knowledge' does neatly encapsulate some of what we do that ChatGPT absolutely does not do.
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Joanna Lillis @joannalillis.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
Delighted to contribute to this book of essays by authors around the world examining 35 of the world's pressing problems - for me it was "Is Democracy Under Threat?" Thanks to Dosym Satpayev for being the inspiration for the book. Now in bookshops in Kazakhstan + on Kaspi - buy it!
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Jonathan Campion @jonathancampion.com · 07/06/2025
Today's Central Asian Photo of the Day: 📷 The statue of Lenin in Osh, a city in southern Kyrgyzstan. Once the biggest Lenin in Central Asia, Kyrgyz authorities took it down this week. lifeincentralasia.picfair.com/images/02163...
lifeincentralasia.picfair.com
Lenin, Osh by Jonathan Campion - buy prints & digital downloads
Lenin, Osh by Jonathan Campion - buy prints, or license images for editorial, commercial or advertising use.
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Alun Thomas @alunrthomas.bsky.social · 07/06/2025
Basically I said the statue story is about the local politics of Osh, and the big question (which I don't think I've seen answered yet?) is less why Lenin came down, but who replaces him on that plinth...
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Alun Thomas @alunrthomas.bsky.social · 07/06/2025
Assuming they use the interview I'll be on the BBC World Service tonight at 10pm chatting to Lyse Doucet(!) about Kyrgyzstan.
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Dr Sarah Irving @drtermagant.bsky.social · 06/06/2025
The last two days have seen 2 bits of bad news in academic publishing: Oxford UP using AI copyediting, and now Amsterdam UP being gobbled up by T&F. The journal I edit, @contemplevant.bsky.social, is published by T&F, and that’s not something that can be changed in the short/medium term, but…
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Peripheral Histories? @peripheralhist.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
We are heading to Alaska with our latest post. Many thanks to Aglaia Gulakova for sharing her fascinating research on the history of Old Believers’ migration and resettlement www.peripheralhistories.co.uk/post/in-purs...
peripheralhistories.co.uk
In Pursuit of Home: The History of Old Believers’ Resettlement in Alaska
Aglaia GulakovaThese remaining Old Believers must be seen – their strength, their conviction, their selfless nightly prayers (no longer feasible for us), their vital courage and determination – in tho...
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Alun Thomas @alunrthomas.bsky.social · 18/05/2025
I was Chair of my union branch when my university made 10% cuts in staffing and it was extremely tough. I don't have any special insight into how the sector is faring, but what I keep thinking is: in c. 10 years the press/business/civil service are going to ask for an expert in x or y... 1/2
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British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies @basees.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
BASEES is delighted to announce three annual prizes recognising the contribution of those teaching Slavonic, East European and Eurasian Studies (and the languages thereof). * Early Career Excellence * Distinguished Excellence * Language Teaching Excellence Full information basees.org/teaching-exc...
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Alun Thomas @alunrthomas.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
Last week we ran a workshop together with Kyrgyz scholars entitled 'Power and Space in Kyrgyzstan', kindly hosted by the OSCE Academy in Bishkek. I am very grateful to have such generous colleagues. www.osce-academy.net/en/news/full...
osce-academy.net
OSCE Academy Hosts Workshop on Power and Space in Kyrgyzstan
O Aril 17, 2025, te OSCE Acey i Bikek ote te worko title “Power Sce i Kyrgyzt, 1924–2024.” Ti evet w rt of te...
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Catherine Gibson @catherinegibson.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
Heading to Cambridge this week for the Conference on Baltic Studies in Europe? Here's a sneak peek of our 📹 documentary film 🎬 with the wonderful Maarja Merivoo-Parro and Sanita Reinsone for our panel on solidarity in the Baltics in the long 20th century! 📆 25 April 15:30 @balticstudies.bsky.social
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Alun Thomas @alunrthomas.bsky.social · 20/04/2025
Суусамыр 🇰🇬
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Alun Thomas @alunrthomas.bsky.social · 19/04/2025
Ала-Арча 🇰🇬
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Alun Thomas @alunrthomas.bsky.social · 12/04/2025
Slightly obsessed with this little shoe repair place in central Osh.
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Jonathan Campion @jonathancampion.com · 08/04/2025
I've changed my Bluesky handle. It's now the same as my website: @jonathancampion.com. Take a look at the newly updated jonathancampion.com for: – Some escapism, with photographs and stories from Eurasia; – My bio / life story; – Posts about cricket, travel, camel's milk, and Uzbek wine.
jonathancampion.com
EURASIAN ECHOES
Stories and photographs from Eastern Europe to Central Asia
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Jonathan Campion @jonathancampion.com · 07/04/2025
Finding your bearings in Osh, Kyrgyzstan: jonathancampion.com/2024/11/06/f...
jonathancampion.com
Finding your bearings in Osh, Kyrgyzstan
The centre of Osh is the mesh of quiet streets between the central bazaar – just up from Alisher Navoi Park, full of children’s rides – and the imposing statue of Lenin, opposite the mayor&#8…
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Alun Thomas @alunrthomas.bsky.social · 05/04/2025
Beshbarmak
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