APPEAL- Consider Joining the Central Eurasian Studies Society

[John Schoeberlein]

Dear Colleagues:

Central Eurasian Studies is coming into its own and we want to seek
your cooperation to move this process forward.  The signs of this
development are various.  We have much wider attention to Central
Eurasia -- such places as Afghanistan, Chechnya, Georgia, Uzbekistan,
Xinjiang -- than ever before, albeit often for unfortunate reasons.
We have far more young scholars exploring these domains than ever
before.  In 2001 alone, I suspect there were more books published in
English on this region than in the three decades from 1960 to 1990.

There has long been a core of scholarship on this region, though
often it has been treated as peripheral to other fields of study
such as study of Russia or of China.  Now we have the chance to
really build critical mass and strengthen the community and standards
of scholarship.

These are the goals of the Central Eurasian Studies Society (CESS)
-- building communication and scholarly standards.  The CESS was
established in 2000, and I had the privilege of being elected its
first president.  Over the last two years, membership has grown to
approximately 800 now, representing over 50 countries and all fields
of humanities and social science scholarship.

We hope you might be interested in joining us in our efforts to build
this field.  Whether or not you wish to join now (perhaps you would
prefer to watch our development for the time being), I hope you will
do three things:

1) Join the CESS Occasional Mailing List.  This is a very low volume
list (average about one message per month) that will keep you up-to-
date on our conferences, publications, elections, and the like.  Visit
this webpage to sign up (or just let us know of your interest):
       http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~cess/CESS_Mailing_List.html

2) Have a look at our new journal, the Central Eurasian Studies
Review.  It addresses the state of the field from a variety of
perspectives, and I think it is an impressive all-volunteer effort.
We hope you will also contribute to it.  This is distributed free of
charge to all members and by subscription to institutions.  It is
also available on-line:
       http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~cess/CESS_Review.html

3) Consider attending the third Central Eurasian Studies Society
Annual Conference, to be held in Madison, Wisconsin, October 17-20,
2003.  It is a wonderful opportunity to meet colleagues and see what
interesting work is being done in the field.  One month remains
before the extended deadline for submissions -- Aug. 1.  Find full
information at:
       http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~cess/CESS_Conference.html

Please also have a look at all the momentum which is developing in
our activities (main webpage: http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~cess/ ).
We hope you will join in actively in the team effort of pursuing
these goals -- to consider where you can become involved, see:
       http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~cess/CESS_Participation.html

If you do wish to become a member, note that our dues are modest
(from $0 to $30, depending on one's income) -- for details and
registration, see:
       http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~cess/CESS_Membership.html


It is an exciting time to be involved in the study of this part of
the world.  And many of us who have become involved in the effort
to build the Central Eurasian Studies Society have found it a
gratifying way to contribute to worthy effort and become involved
in the community.  We hope you will join us!

Sincerely,

John Schoeberlein

________________________________________________________________________
Dr. John S. Schoeberlein
President, Central Eurasian Studies Society
c/o Program on Central Asia and the Caucasus \ Harvard University
625 Massachusetts Avenue \ Cambridge, MA 02139 \ USA
tel.: +1/617-495-4338  asst.: +1/617-496-2643  fax: +1/617-495-8319
CESS at fas.harvard.edu
CESS website: http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~cess
CESS Registration: http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~cess/CESS_Membership.html
Central Asia Program website: http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~centasia
<Central Asian Studies World Wide>: http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~casww
CentralAsia-L: http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~casww/CASWW_CentralAsia-L.html
________________________________________________________________________

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