Campus of the Tajik national university. Source: Personal archive.In a recent Eurasianet commentary, two respected figures of Eurasian studies, Edward Schatz and John Heathershaw, discuss the Tajik government’s tightening control over the local academic sphere by the government. They elaborate three options for funding bodies, western universities and field researchers: a refusal to cooperate with Tajik state institutions and academics employed there; a blacklist of institutions with a track record of repression, which, in their opinion, in practice would be similar to “a comprehensive boycott”; and finally, critical engagement and caution in entering partnerships with Tajik state institutions.
As a young, foreign researcher in Tajikistan who collaborates with official bodies, I am particularly concerned with the authors’ conclusion:
“In light of the deepening authoritarianism in Tajikistan, it is difficult to see how most partnerships in the social sciences and humanities with [Tajik] official bodies can either be academically valuable or ethically permissible.”
