Laguna Hills Mall

Today I walked down to Laguna Hills Mall for the third time since I have been here. The mall has suffered from the US economic downtown since I was last in Southern California two years ago. The book store has closed along with most of the outlets in the food court. The two Japanese restaurants that used to be in the mall are also closed or gone. Laguna Hills Mall did not get looted like the Vefa Center, but it is not looking a whole lot better.

Conspiracy Theory

It has been a couple of years since I have seen any American television programs. So I have been doing some catch up recently. A lot of US television programs remain rather insipid, but some are quite good. My current favorite television show is Jesse "The Body" Ventura's Conspiracy Theory. Today I watched him cover global warming, water theft, Wall Street, and of course the assassination of JFK.

Merry Christmas

This Christmas I am back in the US for the first time in two years. Southern Orange County now seems very different from Kyrgyzstan, much more so than it did during the winter of 2008-2009. It is sometimes hard to believe that Bishkek is on the same planet as Southern California.

Now for some very good news

This is not exactly fresh news, but I have held off on blogging about it until now. I have been appointed as a Visiting Scholar in the History Department of the University of Ghana in Legon. I start teaching classes on 31 January 2011. I am very excited about this opportunity. It will be my first time in Africa.

Weather in Southern California

The weather in Southern California has been rainy and windy since I got here. I hope it gets sunny soon. Day after day of cloudy, cold and wet weather is not what I expected here.

In the US for the Holidays

Yesterday I flew Turkish Airlines from Bishkek to Istanbul and then to Chicago. I then flew to Los Angeles by American Airlines. The trip is extremely long and security in Istanbul is very tight. I had six passport checks during transit in Istanbul. But, some people only have to do five. If anybody in Southern California wants to see me between now and late January let me know.

Another Visit to the Volksrat

Yesterday I went with a research assistant to the Volksrat der Deutschen der Kyrgysischen Republik to return some books and let them know how our interviews in Kant and Ivanovka went. They were happy to see us and told me they wanted a copy of the book I was writing when it was finished. As always they were very friendly and their assistance is greatly appreciated.

Interviews of Russian-Germans in Ivanovka

On Sunday I went with two research assistants to the village of Ivanovka (formerly Johannesdorf) to interview elderly Russian-Germans. We talked to two women and one man. Despite being founded as a German settlement by Mennonites from the Talas Valley, Ivanovka has almost no Germans or German influence left. We had to actively seek out the few remaining elderly Russian-Germans there. The town is now mostly Kyrgyz and Dungan.

Winter has arrived

The other day we had a massive snow storm here and the temperature dropped significantly. It has now stopped snowing, but it is still quite cold. The city is now covered in snow.

Weather and Book Manuscript

It has been unseasonably warm in Bishkek recently. Most days it is sunny and not too cold now. We have had a little bit of rain, but no snow recently.

I am up to almost 120 pages on my book manuscript now. I still have to add most of the information from the interviews in Kant. I also hope to finish typing up most of the background material in the next couple of weeks.

Interviews with Russian-Germans in Kant

Yesterday I went with three research assistants to interview elderly Russian-Germans in the nearby town of Kant. We interviewed four women and one man. I thought the interview with the man was the most interesting. He was born in Crimea, then deported to the North Caucasus in August 1941, and then exiled to Kazakhstan in October 1941. The Stalin regime then mobilized him into the labor army in 1942. He worked in Bakalstroi and noted that he only survived because he was small and did not need much food. All the large men perished. After his release from the labor army in 1948 he returned to Kazakhstan, then went to Uzbekistan, and finally ended up in Kyrgyzstan. For a guy in his 80s he was remarkably energetic and sharp.

Book Project

I have gotten up to 106 pages double spaced on my book manuscript dealing with Russian-Germans in Central Asia. The project is coming along faster than I expected. I hope to get a rough draft completed in a couple more months.

Kyrgyz Fast Food

On days when I have to work all day and do not have time to go home for lunch I have taken to eating at Shumkar, a chain of cafeterias here in Bishkek. It has the advantage of being fast and cheap. I usually get their manti, a smoked duck salad, and compot. I have taken to calling the place McManti since their manti is the equivalent of a Big Mac in the US, tasty and filling, but very high in fat. On days when I tire of manti I get their plov. It is not quite the Golden Arches, but it is close enough on most days.

A relatively unexplored aspect of Soviet deportations

One overlooked commonality between the various whole nationalities deported by the Stalin regime is the difficulty the Soviet government had in asserting economic control over them. In different ways the Russian-Germans, Chechens, and others managed in part to do an end run around central control over their economic affairs during the 1920s and 1930s. I have not done a whole lot of empirical research on this yet, but I think it is another motivating factor in the mass deportations.

Cold Front

It has gotten very cold  in Bishkek. This week we had a snowstorm. The snow has all melted, but it is still quite chilly for October.

Progress

So far I have gotten over 21,000 words or 72 pages double spaced written on the new book manuscript. I hope to be able to finish a complete draft before the year is over. Currently I am averaging about two pages a day.

Russian-Germans in Kyrgyzstan

Thursday I visited the Volksrat der Deutschen der Kyrgysischen Republik as part of my research for my book on the history of the Russian-Germans in Central Asia. The people there were very friendly and helpful. They let me use their library and agreed to assist me in finding people to interview about life during Soviet times. According to their figures there are still around 11,000 Russian-Germans left in Kyrgyzstan. But, they have become very dispersed. The isolated and compact settlements that previously existed in places like Nikolaipohl (now Leninpohl) in Talas Oblast have largely dissipated due to emigration. Despite these losses, the community is very well organized and has a number of regional centers throughout Kyrgyzstan.

Working on a new book

I have been working on a new book recently. It is a history of the Russian-Germans in Central Asia. I have 54 pages double spaced written so far. I still do not have a cool title for the work yet. If anybody has any suggestions please let me know.

I found another mystery novel

Yesterday I found a novel by Alex Cava for 80 som. Again I read the whole book in a day. Now that the number of foreigners in Bishkek is rapidly dwindling it is possible to find small parts of their former libraries for sale. I do not know how many Americans are left in the city, but it is not many.

Thank You

I would like to thank all of those people in the US, Canada and elsewhere who have stood by me and helped me in my recent time of need. Your support is greatly appreciated. Things are much better for me and my family now than they were in June in large part because of this assistance. I am truly grateful.

A New Start

Now that I am over 40 I am hoping to be able to get a new start on life. Granted it is not a very promising start at the moment. But, I am a lot better off than I was a couple of months ago. So I am hoping that the rate of improvement will continue and I can find a job at a university somewhere in the next year. If not then I need to reconsider my career. Maybe I can go back to making coffee. It certainly paid a lot better than teaching.

Political Islam in Central Asia

I noticed that Islamic militants staged an attack in Tajikistan recently. It is very unlikely anything like that will happen here soon. But, I do think there is a potential for an Islamic political movement to develop here. I have noticed that people have become increasingly religious recently. Most Kyrgyz still drink vodka during the day during Ramadan, but a growing minority have started actually practicing the tenets of Islam.

It has gotten cold here

The weather here in Bishkek went from boiling hot to freezing cold in a single day last week. It would have been nice to have had a short interval of moderate weather. But, overall things are much better now than they were in the summer.

A Small Treasure

It has been a long time since I read a mystery novel. But, yesterday while walking Askarbek to school I found a Lawrence Sander's novel for sale on the street for 50 som (a little over a dollar). I can not say it was the best piece of fiction I have ever read, but I did devour it in one day. The amount of English language literature available in this country is quite limited. Popular novels in particular are hard to come by.

Update on my status

Now that I have solved the problem of impending starvation for a few months, I am trying to deal with more long term problems. I am applying to jobs in the US and elsewhere even though getting work in a US university seems like a long shot. I have also started writing a little bit again after work. But, most of all I have been trying to keep a positive attitude. Not having to worry about my family going hungry helps a lot.

Aftermath

I fixed my visa and registration problems in July. It now looks like I can cobble together enough paying work to sustain us at least until December. Longer term I hope I can find something steady that pays decently before next August. I am willing to travel anywhere in the world so if anybody has any suggestions please let me know.

One Month Old

Mary Lynn is now over a month old. The last time she went to the doctor she had gained a kilogram in weight since her birth. I am not sure what the future holds for her, but for now she seems happy.

Askarbek was on TV

Friday Askarbek was on TV here. One of the local channels filmed a piece at his kindergarten and there is a segment with him and a teacher doing an art project. It was filmed over a week ago, but we knew before hand so Oksana could dress Askarbek up.

Improvement

I think things are going a little bit better now. I am pretty sure that my family is not going to go hungry now. For a while I was not sure.

Happy Birthday Askarbek

Today is Askarbek's birthday. He has been fascinated like the rest of us with the new baby. She spends most of her time sleeping quietly. But, she does eat a lot.

A new addition to the family

Early this morning Oksana gave birth to our new daughter, Mary Lynn. She weighed in at 3.3 kg (about seven and a quarter pounds). 

Things are more stable now

It looks like I have taken care of my most immediate concerns now. For a while things looked very bad. Now things look considerably better. Thank you to those people here in Bishkek that helped me negotiate this very difficult time.

I am still alive

For those wondering, yes I am still alive. But, recently my life has been very hectic. I will post more when things settle down somewhat.

Second half of Interview up at Moon Brothers

The second half of the interview with me is now up at the Moon Brothers' blog.

Update on Kyrgyzstan

Bishkek is still safe. But, there have been reports of ethnic clashes in Talas and Tokmok as well as Osh and Jalabad. The official toll of dead in Osh given by the government is over 2000. The UN estimates that some 400,000 people have been displaced from their homes by the recent events. This is definitely the worst violence Kyrgyzstan has seen in many decades.

Heat Wave

It has been really hot in Bishkek the last week. It has also been very humid. I do not mind the heat itself, but the humidity is very uncomfortable.

Moon Brothers Interview of me

A couple of months ago the Moon Brothers conducted an interview with me by e-mail about the history of the Russian-Germans. The interview is meant to provide historical background to their forthcoming movie Under Jakob's Ladder. The interview can be found here.

http://amoonbrothersfilm.blogspot.com/

Trouble in Osh

Other than what I see on the news and read on the Internet I do not have much information on the recent events in Osh. But, it looks very bad. This is certainly the worst ethnic violence in Kyrgyzstan since 1990 and may end up being worse. Already the news is reporting that more people have been killed in Osh in the last few day than were killed in Bishkek on April 7th. So far Bishkek has not been too badly effected. Prices are going up noticeably, but other than that things still seem fairly normal. That could all change if we start getting waves of internally displaced peoples fleeing the violence in Osh.

What little information I do have that I have gotten from sources other than the news or Internet is that the attacks on Uzbeks were motivated by the rumor that a gang of Uzbeks raped and mutilated some Kyrgyz girls. I am sceptical of the veracity of this claim since it sounds like the justification for a lot of lynchings and pogroms. But, even if it does contain a kernel of truth the racist ascription of these criminal acts to Uzbeks in general by some Kyrgyz and the subsequent violence is truly disturbing.

Thank You to all my Supporters

I would like to thank everybody who has written or is planning to write to incoming AUCA president, Andrew B. Wachtel on my behalf. I believe your letters have had a positive effect. At least Dr. Wachtel now knows that there are people out there that do respect my scholarship and teaching. For those of you familiar with my scholarship and teaching that have not yet written Dr. Wachtel I am again reproducing his e-mail below. Type in the information between the brackets. If I do not include the brackets it will be a live link and subject to spiders and robots sent by spammers. I only want real people writing to Dr. Wachtel.

[a-wachtel@northwestern.edu]

If you have written on my behalf already and have not received a personal thank you from me, please send me an e-mail so I can express my gratitude. Some of you have shared the letters you have sent to Dr. Wachtel with me and I have been very touched. Your words mean a lot to me.

It has been over three years since I left Arivaca

I have now lived in Kyrgyzstan for a year longer than I lived in Arivaca. Yet it seems that I lived in Arivaca for much longer. There are a lot of things I miss about Arivaca. But, being treated with respect by everybody there is close to the top. The AUCA administration's complete lack of respect for me as a human being, scholar and teacher has really been galling. I wish they would at least stop lying to me and take responsibility for their actions.

Vefa Center is Open Again

Vefa center is open again, but it is not the same. Only some of the stores have reopened and they have a lot less inventory than they used to carry. The old Vefa center could have fit nicely in the ritzy areas of Orange County. Now it looks like it belongs in a run down section of Fresno.

New Publication Coming Soon

It has taken a while to get into print, but the book chapter based upon the paper I gave at Tartu Univeristy in 2005 for the Border Changes in 20th Century Europe: International Conference in Honor of the 85th Anniversary of the Tartu Peace Treaty is going to be published soon. It will be the following chapter in the book below. That makes eight scholarly publications since I started working at AUCA. Nobody else in the department even has a Ph.D. yet alone that many publications.

J. Otto Pohl, “Ethnic Erasure: The Role of Border Changes in Soviet Ethnic Cleansing and Return Migration” in Eero Medijainen and Olaf Mertelsmann, eds., Border Changes in 20th Century Europe, vol. 1 Tartu Studies in Contemporary History (Hamburg, Germany: Lit-Verlag, 2010), pp. 217-236.

Works that have cited my research since 2008

My research has held up well over the last decade. Even though my first book was published in 1997 and my second one in 1999 they are still frequently cited in the scholarly literature. This is a pretty big accomplishment. From 2008 to 2010 alone my work was cited in total of more than 20 scholarly works by other researchers. Some of these people are pretty big names. Nicholas Werth, Yaacov Ro'i and Martin Dean are all in the top of their field.

Books 2010

Steven Rosefielde,  Red Holocaust (London and New York: Routledge, 2010).

Journal articles and Book Chapters 2010

David Gerlach, “Beyond Expulsion: The Emergence of ‘Unwanted Elements’ in the Postwar Czech Borderlands 1945-1950, East European Politics and Societies. No. 24, 2010.

Nicholas Werth, “Mass Deportations, Ethnic Cleansing, and Genocidal Politics in the Later Russian Empire and the USSR,” in Donald Bloxham and A. Dirk Moses eds.,  The Oxford Handbook of Genocide Studies (Oxford University Press, 2010).

Books 2009

Richard Bessel and Claudia B. Haake,  Removing People: Forced Removal in the Modern World (Oxford University Press, 2009).

Zaur T. Gasimov,  Militar schreibt Geschichte: Instrumentalisierung der Geschichte durch das Militar in der Volksrepublik Polen und in der Sowjetunion 1981-1991 (Munster: LIT Verlag, 2009).

Anna Moltchanova, National Self-Determination and Justice in Multinational State(Heidelberg, London, New York: Springer, 2009).

David Priestland, The Red Flag: How Communism Changed the World (London: Allen Lane, 2009).

Marie-Carin von Gumppenberg and Udo Steinbach, eds.,  Zentralasien: Geschichte Politik, Wirtschaft: Ein Lexikon (Munich: C.H. Beck, 2009).

Journal Articles and Book Chapters 2009

Yaacov Ro’i, “The Transformation of Historiography on the ‘Punished Peoples’,”  History & Memory,  vol. 21, No. 2 (Fall/Winter 2009).

Alexander Statiev, “Soviet Ethnic Deportations: Intent Versus Outcome,”  Journal of Genocide Research , vol. 11, nos. 2-3 (June 2009).

Zoe Waxman, “The Unknown Black Book,” Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History, vol. 10, no. 1 (Winter 2009).

Books 2008

Per Brodersen, Die Stadt im Westen: Wie Koningsberg Kaliningrad wurde, Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2008).

Joseph Morse, Everybody Agrees: Book I: Words, Ideas, and a Universal Morality,(San Diego, CA: Amelior, 2008).

Kledja Mulaj, Politics of Ethnic Cleansing: Nation-State Building and Provision of In/Security in Twentieth Century Balkans, (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2008).

Walter Richmond, The Northwest Caucasus: Past, Present, Future (London and New York: Routledge, 2008).

Journal Articles and Book Chapters 2008

Golfo Alexopolous, “Stalin and the Politics of Kinship: Practices of CollectivePunishment 1920s-1940s,” Comparative Studies in Society and History, no.50 (2008).

Helmut Altrichter, “Ilse Bandomir im ‘Jahrhundret der Deportationen und Vertreibungen” in Klaus Hildebrand, Geschichtswissenschaft und Zeiterkenntnis: Von der Auflkaerung bis zur Gegenwart Festschrift feur Horst Moeller,(Oldenbourg Wissenshaftsverlag, 2008).

Martin Dean, “Soviet Ethnic Germans and the Holocaust in the Reichs Commissariat Ukraine, 1941-1944,” in Ray Brandon and Wendy Lower, eds., The Shoah in Ukraine: History, Testimony, Memorialization, (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2008).

Robert Geraci, “Genocidal Impulses and Fantasies in Imperial Russia.” In A. Dirk Moses, Empire, Colony, Genocide: Conquest, Occupation, and Subaltern Resistance in World History, ed., (NY and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2008).

Mara Kozelsky, “The Challenges of Church Archaeology in Post-Soviet Crimea.” In Philip L. Kohl, Mara Kozelsky and Nachman Ben-Yehuda, eds., Selective Remembrances: Archaeology in the Construction, Commemoration, and Consecration of National Pasts (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008).

I Have Received an Anonymous Threat Regarding my Blogging on AUCA

Last night at 11:16 I received an anonymous text message threat on my cell phone regarding my blogging about AUCA. I have reproduced the complete message below.

"Otto, I'm a friendly. Please stop blogging on your firing. You're burning bridges for a pointless cause. Let it go."

The coward did not leave his name, but failed to block his phone number. It is listed below.

996779126686

I have repeatedly tried to call the number, but I keep getting a message saying the phone is turned off. Maybe somebody else in Bishkek can track down who it came from. In the US such attempts at intimidation are clearly illegal.

For those of you in the US this attempt to silence me through anonymous threats is something else you can add to your letter to your local congressman regarding continued US funding of AUCA.

A Major Structural Problem with AUCA

American University of Central Asia must be the only place in the world calling itself a university where somebody with a mere MA can fire the only PhD in the department without any justification. In the US and Europe people with only MAs generally do not get hired at all yet alone as the chair of the department. But, at AUCA like the rest of Kyrgyzstan, appointments are all based solely upon ethnic-racial and political considerations. Merit, especially in the form of publications and teaching counts for absolutely nothing here.

New Publication on 66th anniversary of Crimean Tatar Deportation

My new article, "The False Charges of Treason Against the Crimean Tatars" is now available in PDF form at the International Committee for Crimea website. The address is below.

http://www.iccrimea.org/scholarly/pohl20100518.pdf

The article will be published in Turkish translation in _Emel_ in a few weeks for their 80th anniversary issue. If you find the article to be informative and scholarly then I encourage you to write in protest of my recent firing. The relevant addresses are in the blog posts below.

Update on my Firing from American University of Central Asia and the Contact Details of AUCA's New President

I talked to my union representative today. She had a long talk with my chairman and could not get any straight answers as to why I was fired. He did admit, however, that my teaching was very good and my research excellent. She said she suspected my firing was ordered from higher up in the univeristy for reasons that are probably not legal.

AUCA is getting a new president next semester. I encourage everybody familiar with my academic work or teaching to write him. Before he assumes his work at the American University of Central Asia he should be familiar with their disrespect for scholarship and learning. The new president of AUCA is Andrew Baruch Wachtel, the Bertha and Max Dressler Professor of the Humanities and Dean of the Graduate School of the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at Northwestern University. His e-mail and phone number are below. I encourage as many people as possible to contact him and protest my firing.

email: a-wachtel@northwestern.edu

phone: 847-467-1970

My Attendance Record at American University of Central Asia

During the three years I worked at AUCA I did not ever miss a single day of work. Even on days I thought I was going to die from various strains of Central Asian flu I managaed to teach all of my classes. The only time I did not teach class as scheduled was when the administration cancelled them.

My Publication Record While at the American University of Central Asia

Since starting work at AUCA I have had six scholarly publications published. They are listed below in the order of their publication. Given my high course work load of between three and five classes a semester I believe this is a fairly good record. It is almost certainly better than anybody else working at the university. I will have more on this last point later.

J. Otto Pohl., “Deportierte in der Sowjetunion im und nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg” trans. Jochen Oltmer in Klaus J. Bade, Pieter C. Emmer, Leo Lucassen and Jochen Oltmer, eds., _Enzyklopadie Migration in Europa: Vom 17 Jahrhundret bis zur Gegenwart_ (Paderborn, Germany: Ferdinand Schonigh Verlag, 2007).

This is an article summarizing the deportation and return of various nationalities in the USSR during and after World War II. It was published as part of an extensive academic encyclopedia on migration in Europe since the 17th century.

J. Otto Pohl, “A Caste of Helot Labourers: Special Settlers and the Cultivation of Cotton in Soviet Central Asia: 1944-1956” in Deniz Kandiyoti, ed., _The Cotton Sector in Central Asia: Economic Policy and Development Challenges_, (London: School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 2007).

This article was published as part of a book on the role of cotton in the economies of the various Central Asian states. The book grew out of a conference organized by Deniz Kandiyoti at the School of Oriental and African Studies in 2005. The conference brought together academics, independent scholars, and people working for a variety of NGOs and international financial institutions such as the World Bank and Asian Development Bank.

J. Otto Pohl, “Loss, Retention, and Reacquisition of Social Capital by Special Settlers in the USSR, 1941-1961” in Cynthia Buckley, Blair Ruble, and Erin Trouth Hofmann, eds., _Migration, Homeland and Belonging in Eurasia_ (Washington DC: Woodrow Wilson Center and Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins Universtiy Press, 2008).

This book was published as part of a project by the Kennan Center in Washington DC to integrate current scholarship on migration in Eurasia. It involved two workshops in 2004 and 2005. Despite only coming out in print in December 2008 it has already garnered a number of positive reviews from prominent scholars in the field. I have quoted two of them below.

“This is a highly relevant book for scholars, policy makers, and government institutions, offering a glimpse at the myriad cross-country issues that emerge regarding the problems and opportunities associated with the movement of people across borders." - Kathleen Kuehnast, United States Institute of Peace

"This is an interesting book which brings a range of new and interesting case studies into view. There are only a handful of books on this subject and arguably none have the breadth of scope that this collection offers." - Hilary Pilkington, University of Warwick

At nearly the same time I had a chapter published in a collection of essays on German diasporas published by Wilfrid Laurier University Press in Canada.

J. Otto Pohl, “Suffering in a Province of Asia: The Russian-German Diaspora in Kazakhstan” in Mathias Schulze, James M. Skidmore, David G. John, Grit Liebscher, and Sebastian Siebel-Achenbach, eds., _Germanic Diasporic Experiences: Identity, Migration, and Loss_ (Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2008).

This book grew out of an international conference hosted by the Waterloo Center for German Studies in 2006. It too has already garnered a number of positive reviews from prominent scholars despite being published in December 2008. I have quoted one of them below.

“Thirty-nine brief but lively, evocative essays testify to the universal human experience of exile. The editors of this fascinating, wide-ranging collection have chosen their title well, as ‘diasporic experiences’ neatly sidesteps the thorny question of what constitutes a diaspora as such.” – Renate Bridenthal, Brooklyn College, City University of New York, _Journal of World History_

I also had two peer reviewed journal articles published in 2009.

J. Otto Pohl, “Volk auf dem Weg: Transnational Migration of the Russian-Germans from 1763 to Present Day,” _Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism_, vol. 9, no. 2, 2009.

J. Otto Pohl, Eric J. Schmaltz and Ronald J. Vossler, “‘In our Hearts we Felt the Sentence of Death:’ Ethnic German Recollections of Mass Violence in the USSR, 1928-1948,” _Journal of Genocide Research_, vol. 11, nos. 2-3. June-September 2009.

AUCA Students on my firing

My students have been very supportive of me in the last week. I did not come to work on the 5th of May because it was a holiday. When I returned to work on the 6th, I found a series of notes by students on my desk. I have quoted them below.

"Dr Pohl!! You are the best advisor! We r for you!"

"Dr Otto Pohl! If they fire you I don't need AUCA's diploma!"

"Dr. Pohl! U R an awesome Professor!"

"Dr. Pohl! ICP/IR Needs You!"

"Dr. Pohl!!! ICP/IR Needs You!"

"Dr. Pohl!!!! We will fight for you!!"

"Dr. Pohl!!!ICP/IR desperately needs you!"

My students have been organizing on my behalf. They have taken up a petition and have confronted the Vice President of Academic Affairs, Bermet Tursunkulova. I am the only Ph.D. in the department and many of the students feel that being taught by people without a terminal degree is cheating of them of the education that they deserve. Many of them are on academic scholarships and the US State Department pays their tuition. So they worked hard to be taught by somebody with proper credenitials, not somebody with a mere MA. Why the US State Department allows their money to be wasted by AUCA in this manner is a good question to ask your congressman.

Another Union update

I saw my union representative today and she said that since I was only on a temporary one year contract the administration could legally not renew it for any reason. But, she said the "official" reason was obviously not correct and promised to try and find out the real reason for my termination. I still urge people to write in protest.

More on my firing from AUCA

Last year AUCA only paid foreign faculty 38 som to the dollar even though the exchange rate was 44 to the dollar. They fixed this by converting all salaries into som at the 38 rate. Then in the summer they refused to provide visa support. Now they have fired me. I contacted my union representative and they said that the firing was illegal under the labor legislation of the Kyrgyz Republic. (Update they have since said that refusal to renew my contract is legal since it was temporary). For those of you who know my academic work I urge you to write in protest to the following people:

Executive Assistant to the Vice President of Academic Affairs, Jamilya Karabaeva.

karabaeva_j@mail.auca.kg

Also since AUCA is accredited through Bard College now you should write to their man on our board of trustees, Dean of International Studies, Jonathan Becker.

jbecker@bard.edu

Finally, for those of you who are US citizens I urge you to write to your congressman. AUCA is funded largely by state department funds. Your tax dollars are paying the salaries of the administration here.

The one thing the administration here is most fearful of is publicity. So please spread the word. The more coverage the better.

Publish, Teach and Perish at AUCA

Two days ago despite getting good teaching and research evaluations the administration of American University of Central Asia unexpectedly refused to renew my contract. The "official" reason for firing me is that they are making curricular changes in the department to eliminate comparative politics and political history classes in favor of only IR courses. In the three years I have been here I have had six academic publications including two peer reviewed journal articles last semester. I have also gotten very good student evaluations including two perfect scores last semester. So apparently neither good research or teaching count for anything here. I am currently looking for work elsewhere in Central Asia and any advice would be much appreciated. I would also like to express my deepest gratitude to my students for their support in the last few days.

Grading Time

For the next few weeks I will be doing almost nothing but grading at work. I hope to finish it all before my vacation officially starts on 28 May 2008. It is times like this I really wish I had a graduate student slave to do the grading for me. I would much rather be working on my article on Stalin's national deportations as a form of internal colonialism.

Classes are finally done!

I am finally done with classes for the semester. Now I just have to grade a huge pile of papers. Then I can take my summer vacation.

Mobilization of Russian-Germans from Turkmenistan into the Labor Army

Between 7 October and 1 November 1942, the NKVD mobilized a total of 566 Russian-Germans in Turkmenistan into labor columns. Only 169 of these labor army conscripts were men and the remaining 397 were women. The NKVD then transferred these mobilized men and women by rail to work in other regions of the USSR outside of Turkmenistan.

Source: N.F. Bugai, ed. _"Mobilizovat' nemtsev v rabochie kolonny...I. Stalin:" Sbornik dokumentov (1940-e gody)_ (Moscow: Gotika, 1998), doc. 216, p. 288 and doc. 217, pp. 288-289.

Progress Report on Askarbek

Askarbek's English has been advancing quite well recently. He knows more English than his mother now. His teachers at school are quite impressed with his progress.

Last Week of Classes of the Semester

I only have two more days of classes this semester. After that I just have to grade lots of papers. My summer vacation officially starts on 28 May 2010. Today the last two of the four honors students I am supervising in International and Comparative Politics gave their practice presentations for their senior theses. Overall I think they went very well.

Future of the Kyrgyz Economy

It appears that things are going to get considerably worse in the near future. Food prices are going up again. I do not think wages will follow.

Life in Bishkek

Kyrgyzstan seems to be returning to its former position as a rather laid back and somewhat isolated country in Central Asia. The political situation seems to have stabilized enough for most people in the city to return to their normal routines. It seems a lot longer than ten days ago that a revolution overthrew the Bakiev regime.

More on Internal Colonialism and Deported Peoples in the USSR

The Stalin regime deported almost all the Russian-Koreans, Russian-Germans, Karachais, Kalmyks, Chechens, Ingush, Balkars, Crimean Tatars and Meskhetian Turks from their homelands in the USSR to internal exile in Siberia, Kazakhstan and Central Asia. These nationalities collectively suffered from all four features of colonialism that Robert Blauner believed applied historically to African-Americans as an internal colony of the US. First their dispersed presence throughout Siberia, Kazakhstan and Central Asia was a result of a forced transplantation similar to the removal of slaves from Africa. Second, this forced relocation in both cases greatly disrupted the social and cultural institutions of the displaced peoples. Third, these internal colonies came under the administrative control, largely through the use of police organs, of people belonging to the dominant ethnic group of the state. Whites in the case of the US and Russians in the case of the USSR. Finally, both African-Americans and the various deported nationalities became racialized by the state. That is the categories were defined as being inherited and immutable. The model of internal colonialism presented by Blauner thus closely fits the deported peoples of the USSR.

Source:

Robert Blauner, "Internal Colonialism and Ghetto Revolt," _Social Problems_, Vol. 16, No. 4 (Spring 1969), pp. 393-408.

I got my money back!

This morning I went to the bank and got all my money out. So that problem is solved. Granted it was not a lot of money, but still it was earned with sweat and blood.

Note to students: classes only get cancelled if demonstrations are violent

Yesterday there was a peaceful rally in front of the school to get people to join the volunteer militia. Like other former Soviet states the police are still called militia here. Since classes had already been cancelled by the administration twice due to violent demonstrations, some of my students wanted me to cancel class in response to the non-violent gathering outside as well. I of course did not cancel class. In fact it is my policy not to cancel classes. The administration has a policy of closing the university if there is a threat to the physical saftey of students and employees. But, there was no such threat yesterday.

Revolutionary Aftershock

Yesterday I was again sent home for my own saftey as word of approaching rioters inspired the university administration to once again cancel classes. The university was unhurt. I have seen evidence that two people were killed elsewhere. I do not know much more. I am going to try going to the bank again this week to see if I can get my money. They told me on the phone I could get it today or tomorrow, but maybe there was a misunderstanding since the conversation was in Russian.

We have bananas now!

I have noticed that a lot of street vendors and merchants in the bazaar are now selling bananas imported from Ecuador. Oksana purchased some this weekend. In other news the government stated on television that they would pay back the accounts of people with money in Asia Universal Bank in two to three months. So maybe things are not going to be so bad. At least we can buy bananas now.

Saturday

Today I had to go to work to give a review lecture to seniors taking the state exam for graduation. I talked about ethnicity, nationalism, and race for most of the time and then covered political culture near the end. Tomorrow, I am not going to work.

Any Good Conspiracy Theories Regarding Kyrgyzstan?

Finding out any real information appears impossible for the time being. So I was wondering if anybody has any plausible or at least entertaining conspiracy theories about the recent events in Kyrgyzstan.

Life in a Country of Rumors and Gossip

It has been over a week since the revolution and I have still not met anybody who can shed any real light on what happened. Bishkek and the internet are filled with rumors and gossip, but getting any real information is difficult. Everything real takes place in shadows that ordinary people like myself can not access. This is not a very promising start for the provisional government.

Another Day in Post-Revolution Kyrgyzstan

This morning it was raining as I walked to work. By now the streets have almost assumed a status of normalcy again. The police still seem to be absent, but the rest of society seems to have resumed. Last night on the way home I saw that the Tan and Shoro stands had even set up shop again after several days absence.

Looking on the Bright Side of Things

Other than a huge pile of papers to grade and the fact I can not access my bank account things are going pretty well right now. I am hoping that there are no more violent disturbances in Bishkek. I still have no well grounded analysis of the recent events here. But, right now things seem fairly stable in comparison to last week.

Random Observations About Bishkek

I have noticed that one building not being repaired is the White House. Its windows are still broken out and its exterior remains scorch marked from the fire there on 7-8 April 2010. Most other damaged and even some destroyed buildings seem to be being rebuilt.

Last I heard on the news it will be two weeks to a month before I can access my money at AUB. This is better than what they told me at the bank. But, I am still sceptical.

Security is still a major concern. Only a small fraction of the city's police have returned to work. The university is now closing at 5 pm since it is dangerous at night.

I suspect that the economic situation in Kyrgyzstan will deteriorate considerably. The looting and banking scandals are major disincentives for any kind of foreign investment. Most of the large stores in the city were both foreign owned and completely destroyed during the looting.

The Running of the Banks: AUB

Usually revolutions begin with the running of the banks. In this case it came after the revolution. The collapse of my bank and the freezing of my account does not make me very happy. Economically it seems Kyrgyzstan is turning into a Banana Republic without the benefit of any bananas.

Last night a friend called me and asked me what was up with Asian Universal Bank (AUB). I said I did not know, but that it was the bank in which I kept my money. Granted it is not much money, only $1,711, but still enough to worry about. I then called a couple of students and ex-students to ask. The overall picture I got was bad and I decided to go the next morning and withdraw my money. I got to the bank at ten minutes to nine and they opened a little after nine. However, they refused to allow me to withdraw any money. People with normal bank accounts, i.e. people who are not rich can not touch any of their money indefinitely. People with Deposit Accounts, that is rich people may take out up to 100,000 som (about $2,000). The bank was evidently looted by Maxim Bakiev and has no insurance outside of Kyrgyzstan. There were a lot of angry people in the bank. I signed a petition to the procurator, but I doubt that it will do any good. So currently I am out a fair chunk of change. If you see Maxim Bakiev tell him he owes me and a lot of other people some dough.

Fortunately, I have enough money at home to last until my next pay check without any problem. The bank told me I would eventually get my money, but they were not sure when. It could be anywhere from two to six months. But, given the complete lack of any law currently in Kyrgyzstan it is quite possible that I will never get my money back.

Update from Bishkek

Blogger is still blocked at work, but I can access it from a proxy server. The walk to work today was not much different than every other day. I did notice, however, a lot of people repairing damage caused by looters to shops and banks. Most of them had broken windows and "Biz El Menen" (Kyrgyz for We are with the People) spray painted on them. The university was untouched by the violence. So far it appears that none of our students were hurt during the recent confrontations between the previous government and opposition demonstrators. Rumors and speculation are rife, but nobody I know seems to have any inside information on what really happened.

The Damages

According to the local television news the toll for 7-8 April 2010 in Bishkek is 79 dead and 75 destroyed businesses. Almost all of the big and medium grocery stores got completely looted. A number of them were foreign owned. For instance the Vefa Center near me with its new Beta Store anchor was owned by Turkish investors.

How I Survived the Revolution in Bishkek

Since the afternoon of 7 April 2010 I have been without internet access. But, the local internet cafe is now open and Blogger is unblocked. At 1:30 in the afternoon on the 7th I was sent home from work in order to protect my safety. A rather large crowd of riot police had already gathered in front of both the parliment and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs next to the university. As I walked home I saw a large crowd of people marching with flags along with the trucks that were later rammed into the gates of the White House on Chui. I did not see anything else until the next morning, but I heard the mob of looters ransack the Vefa Center. We had just gotten a new Beta Store to replace Ramstor a week ago. Now the entire mall is in ruins.

The next day Oksana, Askarbek and I walked down to see the White House. There was a large crowd of people wandering in and out of the building. From the upper stories of the building people were throwing out a large number of documents. There was an impromptu memorial at the gate for the people who had died the previous day. We left when the leader of Ata Meken started giving a speech to an ever increasing crowd of people.

A large number of stores and kiosks were looted and burned during the night of the 7th. The police force simply disappeared that night. The looting continued the next night. It was not until Friday the 9th that I saw any police in Bishkek.

Today everything seems quite normal. I took Askarbek to the park to play. The little bazaar behind us is doing a brisk business. I purchased hamburgers for lunch. Except for the ruins of Vefa things have pretty much returned to normal in Yug-2.

Internal Colonialism and Stalin's Deportations

I have recently been reading a lot of older journal articles on internal colonialism. It seems that the original idea as elaborated by Robert Blauner certainly applies to the deported peoples of the USSR. But, despite the close fit of the concept it appears that nobody has ever applied the theory except in passing. Of course people studying the USSR have done almost no comparative or theoretical work what so ever. So this lack of scholarship is not all that surprising. I am aiming to remedy this particular blank spot in the near future. I just finished writing a section on how the 1941 deportations turned the Russian-Germans into an internal colony in the USSR for the book I am working on. In the next couple of days I also intend to start writing an article length piece on the subject of Stalin's deportations as an example of internal colonialism.

A Cold Narooz

Sunday was Narooz also known as Persian New Year or Vernal Equinox and it was cold. The day before it snowed all day. It is supposed to be Spring. But, we have had two heavy snow falls recently. Finally, today when I have to go back to work the weather is nice.

Unblocked Again, but who knows for how long

Blogger is again unblocked at work. Earlier it was blocked everywhere in the city. I thought the block was going to be permanent. But, evidently I can post today.

Vefa Center

It appears that where the old Ramstor used to stand there will be a third Beta Store. They are also building a new play area for kids. If it is free of charge then I am sure I will be taking Askarbek there frequently. If not then he will just have to keep going to the free places.

The Office

It appears that Blogger works fine in Bishkek outside of work. But, there seems to be no way to access it from work. So that means I will be posting infrequently from now on. This week is spring break, but I had to spend all day yesterday interviewing potential students for next year. Today I am not going into the office. I should get at least one day off.

Recent News

Since I last had access to Blogger I have been quite busy doing other things. In addition to teaching, grading and writing a never ending number of letters of reference for students; I have finished revising a journal article. I have also started working seriously on my next book project. I hope to make good progress on this last item during this week.

Spring Break

We are now officially on Spring Break. For some reason Blogger works at Vefa Center, but seems to be permanently blocked at work. At least it is not blocked in all of Bishkek.

It is nice to be appreciated even if your efforts are totally ineffective

I got the comment below on an older post today. Unfortunately, there is nothing effective I can do about the Turkmen government's travel ban and other unjust actions against AUCA students. All I can do is express my strongest opposition to these policies on this blog.

Thank you, Otto, for the worries about Turkmen AUCA students. I am one of your students, I took Comparative Politics from you and Emir last year. But now I am stuck here with the rest.. Anyways, I am glad that you have several posts, regarding our travel ban. Thank..

It is wicked cold now

While December and January were for the most part quite warm, February has been really cold. It has gotten so cold that Oksana went out and got me some long underwear. The extra layer helps a little bit, but it is still freezing.

Monday mornings seem to be unblocked

Blogger is unblocked now. It was blocked most of last week. However, a pattern may be emerging. For the last two Mondays I have been able to gain access to Blogger.

The Banality of Zionism

Today I taught Politics of the Middle East. This is the second time I have taught the class. The first time it was quite thrilling to be able to criticize Israel without being viciously attacked as happens to anybody in the US who openly holds a political position hostile to Zionism. But, here my views are considered part of the mainstream international opinion. Of course most people think that Israeli apartheid and dropping white phospherous on children are morally wrong. It is only in the US and obviously Israel that anybody else thinks differently. So now I am finding teaching the class less interesting. Most people outside the US not only view Israel's actions against the Palestinians as evil, but banal as well. Arendt was right on this much.

Excess Deaths among Deported Peoples in the USSR

Russian-Germans: 228,761 (1942-1952)

"Punished Peoples": 213,302 (1944-1952)
Ethnic Breakdown of "Punished Peoples"
Karachais: 13,141

Kalmyks: 12,564

Chechens: 125,477

Ingush: 20,284

Balkars: 7,594
Crimean Tatars: 34,242

Total: 442,064

Source: D.M. Ediev, Demograficheskie poteri deportirovannykh narodov SSSR (Stavropol': STGAU "AGRUS",2003), table 104, p. 294.

Quoted in Daily 49er (California State University Long Beach)

This comes at an interesting time since the abstract quoted is from an article I assigned to my Politics of the Middle East class last week. At any rate, Gerard Morel-Cruz, a graduate student of English and a writer for the paper quotes the abstract to my article "Socialist Racism: Ethnic Cleansing and Racial Exclusion in the USSR and Israel" in this last Sunday's online edition of the paper. So I guess at least one graduate student in the US has read something I have written. If I can only move that number up to a hundred.

Armored Frog

I only know a very little bit of Kyrgyz. Like almost everybody else of European descent in Kyrgyzstan I communicate in either Russian or English. Although my spoken Russian is far from perfect, it is the language I use when talking to Oksana and Askarbek. At this point neither of them know much more English than I know Kyrgyz. But, every so often I pick up a new word in Kyrgyz that I can actually pronounce. Yesterday I learned the word for turtle. It is tashbaka which literally means armored frog. I like that.

Sugar Stockpile

Oksana said there was a shortage of sugar in Kyrgyzstan and that prices were set to climb signficantly. So yesterday she purchased 20 kg of sugar at Osh Bazaar. I think we have enough sugar now to last us a while.

This time Blogger was only blocked for four days

Amazingly Blogger works today despite being blocked for the last four days. So with any luck I will be able to put up a couple of posts today. I am not sure how long it will remain unblocked.

Between a Journal Article and a Book

It seems to me that the average academic journal at 5-8 thousand words is too short and the average academic book at 80-100 thousand words is too long for some of the types of writing I would like to do. Right now I have just cut a journal article down from nearly 11 thousand words to under 8 thousand. But, if there were a publishing venue I could easily see writing pieces that are 20-30 thousand words. However, there seem to be no publishing outlets for academic works between the 8 thousand word maximum of a journal article and the 80 thousand words of a short monograph. Am I the only person who laments the absence of an intermediate length academic publication between these two extremes?

Today's Work

Today I only had one class to teach. The rest of the day I have been using to do other academic things. I marked up a few drafts sent to me by seniors writing their honor theses. I also have been revising the format, particularly the citation format of a journal article so I can submit it to a particular journal. I got about half way through the article converting the footnotes to in text citations. I must say revising citation formats is probably the least interesting part of writing.

Letters of Rec

I have had a lot of students ask me for reference letters for MA programs in the last couple of years. Looking through academic blogs I see that we are supposed to try and discourage students from attending graduate studies due to the very poor job market. But, to be honest I just write the letters and do not give any advice.

Ethnicity, Race and Nationalism Class

Currently my Ethnicity, Race and Nationalism class has the best discussions of any class I am teaching. This class is going much better than the last time I taught it. I think the fact that it has about half as many students this semester as it did a year and a half ago is a big reason for the improved discussions.

Hope Against Experience

I have applied for a promotion on the basis that I have had six scholarly pieces including two peer reviewed journal articles published since I started working at AUCA. I have also taught thirteen different courses since 2007. On my last student evaluations I got perfect scores for two classes, Russian Politics and Political Violence and Terrorism in Central Asia. Of course I have never seen any indication that research and teaching are in any way related to academic hiring and promotion. But, with a huge amount of luck and divine intervention I might possibly get the promotion.

Link on "German" Woman Deported to Tajikistan by Stalin

Here is a link to a very interesting article on a woman deported from Lithuania to Tajikistan by the Stalin regime because it viewed her as an ethnic German. Her mother was German and German is her native language. However, her father was a Lithuanian Jew and her mother formally converted to Judaism to marry him. She was born in Lithuania in 1938 and deported to Tajikistan in 1944. At any rate the story is a very good example of the proliferation of multiple identities in Central Europe during the 20th century. The woman in the story considers herself to be in various ways German, Jewish and Lithuanian.

Academic Journal Article Cites My Blog

The International Black Sea University in Tbilisi Georgia publishes a journal called IBSU Scientific Journal. Recently this journal published an article by Valeri Modebadze with the title, "Historical Background of Meskhetian Turks' Problem and Major Obstacles to the Repatriation Process." One of the citations in the article is to this blog. I have reproduced the bibliographic information for the blog post below.

Pohl, J. Otto, More Thoughts on Meskhetian Turks, (accessed 24 November 2008). Available from World Wide Web: http://jpohl.blogspot.com/2005/10/more-thoughts-on-meskhetian-turks.html.

Blogger Available Again

After nearly two weeks of being blocked I can again access blogger. There seems to be no rhyme or reason as to when blogger is available here. So there will be a few posts today, but then it may be a couple of weeks before I can post again.

Things I am Currently Teaching

This last two weeks I have been teaching Reconstruction in American History, the Mandate Period in Politics of the Middle East, the relationship between ethnicity and nationalism in Ethnicity, Race and Nationalism and the relationship between social class structure and democracy in Democratization.

Important Advice for Future Ph.D. Candidates

These instructions on how to write a Ph.D. dissertation are very funny. They also contain a lot of actual good advice like not spending extra years of your life trying to make the dissertation perfect. I did my Ph.D. in two years, but a lot of people seem to waste close to a decade completing the degree.

hat tip: Frogs and Ravens

How do I get Students to do the reading?

It is the second week of the semester and already I am having trouble getting students to do the reading. I do not want to assign weekly quizes because I feel that infantilizes the students. I would much rather treat them as adults. I also do not want to require them to write weekly summaries or responses to the reading because frankly with over 80 students it would be a lot of work to grade. On the other hand verbal cajoling to do the reading has so far been ineffective. Does anybody have any suggestions?

Snow

Saturday it was really warm here. But, yesterday and this morning we got quite a bit of snow. So it looks like winter has returned.

January has been really warm here

The weather this winter has been quite warm. In contrast two years ago I thought I was going to get frostbite most mornings. I much prefer the mild winter to the freezing one.

First Week Done

I just finished teaching my first week of classes of the semester. I also sent off to the publisher my first journal article of the semester. If teaching and research were the only things I had to do it would be a pretty easy life. Unfortunately, I have a bunch of stuff that is neither I have to do next week.

Mid-Week

I have now made it half way through the first work week of the year. Things have not been too hectic. I expect to be better into the flow of everything next week. Too many new things tend to pop up in the first week of the semester.

First Day of Classes

Monday Askarbek had his first day of pre-school. He brought home a picture of a snowman and a water color of a chicken. He also evidently received some English language instruction. He said he liked the class. That seemed to make his mother happy. If Askarbek is happy and his mother is happy then I am happy.

American History

It looks like I will be teaching American History from 1865 to Present as well this semester. I just finished revising the syllabus. Other than the fact that it is at eight in the morning it will be a pretty easy course to teach.

My Longest Student Evaluation Comment

Most of my student evaluation comments are pretty short. Like "GTO - Great Teacher Otto!" But, the one below goes into quite a bit of helpful detail.

"Otto Pohl is one of my favorite instructors!!!His classes are always interesting and I take out a lot of new things. He always ready to answer any question and his answers are clear. He is very polite and tries to invlove all students into class discussions. I would strongly suggest to other students to take his classes!"

GTO

I got this comment on a couple of my recent class evaluations.

"GTO - Great Teacher Otto!"

Spring 2010 Syllabi Are Now Up

As can be seen below my syllabi for next semester are now posted. Democratization remains basically unchanged from it previous incarnations. Nationalism, Race and Ethnicity is a 300 level rather than a 400 level class this semester. To reflect this change  I have  reduced the amount of reading and altered the writing assignments for the class. Politics of the Middle East has been upgraded from a 200 level to a 300 level class. I have thus added a significant amount of reading for the class.

Syllabus for Democratization

Democratization
ICP 329.5

3 credits

International and Comparative Politics

American University of Central Asia

Spring Semester 2010

J. Otto Pohl, Ph.D.

Meeting Time: Monday 2:10 room 309 and Thursday 2:10 room 229

Course Description: This course will cover the process of democratization in an historical and comparative manner. It will start by examining the history and social origins of democratic rule. After reviewing the general history and theory of democracy the course will cover the transition from authoritarian to more representative political systems in various countries during the last couple of decades. In particular the course will deal with the process of democratization in Eurasia and the Middle East. The course will analyze both those factors that facilitate greater democratization and those which impede it.

Requirements: The course will consist of assigned readings, lectures, discussion, short writing assignments, an oral report and a research paper. For each of the three thematic sections students will have to write a reflection paper of between 800 and 1000 words. The first reflection paper should be on the general problems of developing and maintaining democracy. The second one should on unique problems faced in the former Soviet Union to democratizing. Finally, the third one should be on the problems faced in developing democratic systems in the Middle East. Students will also have to complete a 2500 to 3000 word research paper comparing and contrasting the process of democratization in two different countries. The paper is due the last week of class. In the three weeks prior to this deadline each student will be required to give a short oral presentation on the subject of their paper followed by a short question and answer session. Late papers will lose one letter grade for each day they are late. Students must come to class on time. Being more than fifteen minutes late will count as an absence. Students will lose one letter grade after four unexcused absences and fail the course after seven. Written proof of an emergency from a doctor or other appropriate authority is required for an absence to be excused. No mobile phones are to be visible during class. They are to be out of sight and turned off. I will eject any student from class that has a visible cell phone or whose cell phone rings during class. This will count as an unexcused absence. Finally, I have a significant hearing loss and may have to ask people to repeat their questions or statements from time to time. You can minimize this by speaking loudly and clearly. This syllabus is tentative and subject to change.

Readings: All of the required readings are included in the course packet.

Plagiarism Policy:  I have a zero tolerance policy regarding plagiarism. If I catch any student plagiarizing once I will fail them for the assignment. If I catch them a second time I will fail them from the class. Plagiarism includes any verbatim copying from a source without using quotation marks or setting the text up as an indented single spaced block quotation. If I find that more than five words in a row in your paper show up in the same order in a Google search and you do not have the words in quotation marks or set up as a block quotation I will fail you. Putting a footnote, endnote or other citation after the copied words without the quotation marks or block quotation form is still plagiarism, you are claiming to have paraphrased verbatim text, and you will still receive an F. Taking text from a source without citing it and rearranging the words so that it does not show up in a verbatim Google search is also plagiarism. I will also do Google searches to see if you have taken text and merely rearranged the words. You must either paraphrase the sentence by putting it completely in your own words and citing it with the proper footnote, endnote or in text citation or quote the actual text verbatim complete with the proper citation. Completely paraphrasing sentences in your own words, but neglecting to cite the source of the information is also plagiarism. All information that would not be known to the average person on the street with no university education must be cited. When in doubt always cite a legitimate source. Wikipedia is not a legitimate source. Books published by university presses and academic journal articles found on JSTOR are legitimate sources. Other sources may or may not be legitimate. If you have questions about whether a particular source is legitimate you can ask me. Using Wikipedia or other illegitimate sources will result in a reduction of one letter grade for each citation in a paper.

Grading:


Three short papers – 45% (15% each)
Written research paper – 20% (Due last week of class
Oral report on research – 10%
Class participation – 25%

Grading Scale:


100-96 = A
95-91 = A-
90-86 = B+
85-81 = B
80-76 = B-
75-71 = C+
70-66 = C
65-61 = C-
60-56 = D+
55-51 = D
50-46 = D-
45 and lower = F

Class Schedule:


Week One: Introduction to the course and review of the syllabus.

General History and Theory of Democracy

Week Two: Read “Where and How Did Democracy Develop?: A Brief History” (chapter one), pp. 7-25 and Read “Democracy and Social Classes” (chapter one) in Tom Bottomore, pp. 12-27.

Week Three: Read “The Twisted Path” (chapter two) in Fareed Zakaria, pp. 59-87.

Week Four: Read “The Democratic Route to Modern Society” (chapter seven) in Barrington Moore, Jr., 413-432.

Week Five: Read “Globalization and Ethnic Hatred” (introduction) in Amy Chua, pp. 1-17. The first reflection paper is due on Thursday of this week.

Eurasia


Week Six: Read “Unintended Consequences: Economic Crisis and Social Awakening” (chapter four) in Robert Strayer, pp. 132-171.

Week Seven: Read “Strategies for Ethnic Accord in Post-Soviet States” (chapter thirteen) in Valery Tishkov, pp. 272-293.

Week Eight: Read “Epilogue: Memory” in Anne Applebaum, pp. 505-514 and conclusion of Lynne Viola, pp. 183-193. The second reflection paper is due on Thursday of this week.

The Middle East


Week Nine: Read Marina Ottaway “The Missing Constituency for Democratic Reform” (chapter eight), pp. 151-169.

Week Ten: Read “The Third Republic: Turkey since 1980” (chapter fifteen) in Erik J. Zurcher, pp. 292-342.

Week Eleven: Read “Iran: Revolutionary Islam in Power” (chapter three) in John L. Esposito and John O. Voll, pp. 52-77. The third reflection paper is due on Thursday of this week

Student Research


Week Twelve: Student oral presentations.

Week Thirteen: Student oral presentations continued.

Week Fourteen: Student oral presentations continued.

Week Fifteen: Written version of the research paper due and concluding remarks.

Update on Askarbek's Schooling

It turns out Friday was just registration for pre-school. The actual classes start Monday. In the mean time I have been trying to teach Askarbek some English.

Syllabus for Nationalism, Race and Ethnicity

Nationalism, Race and Ethnicity
ICP 385

3 Credits

International and Comparative Politics

American University of Central Asia

Spring Semester 2010

J. Otto Pohl, Ph.D

Meeting Time: Monday at 3:35 room 309 and Thursday 3:35 room 229

Course Description: This course will cover the relationship between the overlapping and interrelated concepts of ethnicity, nationalism and race. It will focus on the dynamics involved in transforming ethnic categories into national or racial ones. Throughout the course we will examine the cultural basis of ethnicity, the political claims upon territory by nationalists, and the essential and primordial definitions of racial groups created and enforced by the state. Among the topics that will be covered in this examination are the creation and survival of national diasporas, ethnic cleansing and genocide, and the construction of modern nation-states.

Requirements: This course will consist of assigned readings, lectures, discussions, three short reflection papers, a research paper and an oral report. The reflection papers should be between 600 and 800 words. The research paper should be between 1500 and 2000 words. Late papers will lose one letter grade for each day they are late. Students must come to class on time. Being more than fifteen minutes late will count as an absence. Students will lose one letter grade after four unexcused absences and fail the course after seven. Written proof of an emergency from a doctor or other appropriate authority is required for an absence to be excused. No mobile phones are to be visible during class. They are to be out of sight and turned off. I will eject any student from class that has a visible cell phone or whose cell phone rings during class. This will count as an unexcused absence. Finally, I have a significant hearing loss and may have to ask people to repeat their questions or statements from time to time. You can minimize this by speaking loudly and clearly. This syllabus is tentative and subject to change.

Readings: All of the required readings can be found on JSTOR. Finding these articles using the bibliographic information provided below is part of the assigned work for this class.

Plagiarism Policy: I have a zero tolerance policy regarding plagiarism. If I catch any student plagiarizing once I will fail them for the assignment. If I catch them a second time I will fail them from the class. Plagiarism includes any verbatim copying from a source without using quotation marks or setting the text up as an indented single spaced block quotation. If I find that more than five words in a row in your paper show up in the same order in a Google search and you do not have the words in quotation marks or set up as a block quotation I will fail you. Putting a footnote, endnote or other citation after the copied words without the quotation marks or block quotation form is still plagiarism, you are claiming to have paraphrased verbatim text, and you will still receive an F. Taking text from a source without citing it and rearranging the words so that it does not show up in a verbatim Google search is also plagiarism. I will also do Google searches to see if you have taken text and merely rearranged the words. You must either paraphrase the sentence by putting it completely in your own words and citing it with the proper footnote, endnote or in text citation or quote the actual text verbatim complete with the proper citation. Completely paraphrasing sentences in your own words, but neglecting to cite the source of the information is also plagiarism. All information that would not be known to the average person on the street with no university education must be cited. When in doubt always cite a legitimate source. Wikipedia is not a legitimate source. Books published by university presses and academic journal articles found on JSTOR are legitimate sources. Other sources may or may not be legitimate. If you have questions about whether a particular source is legitimate you can ask me. Using Wikipedia or other illegitimate sources will result in a reduction of one letter grade for each citation in a paper.

Grading:

Class participation – 20%
Three reflection papers – 45% (15% each)
Oral report on research paper – 10%
Written version of research paper – 25%

Grading Scale:
 100-96 = A
95-91 = A-
90-86 = B+
85-81 = B
80-76 = B-
75-71 = C+
70-66 = C
65-61 = C-
60-56 = D+
55-51 = D
50-46 = D-
45 and lower = F

Class Schedule:

Week One: Introduction to Course and Review of Syllabus

Weeks Two and Three: Ethnicity and Nationalism

Calhoun, Craig, “Nationalism and Ethnicity,” Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 19 (1993), pp. 211-239.

Connor, Walker, “Nation-Building or Nation-Destroying?,” World Politics, Vol. 24, No. 3 (April 1972), pp. 319-355.

Eriksen, Thomas Hylland, “Ethnicity Versus Nationalism,” Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 28, No. 2 (August 1991), pp. 263-278.

Smith, Anthony D., “Culture, Community and Territory: The Politics of Ethnicity and Nationalism,” International Affairs, Vol. 72, No. 3 (July 1996), pp. 445-458.

Weeks Four and Five: Diasporas

Armstrong, John, “Mobilized and Proletarian Diasporas,” The American Political Science Review, Vol. 70, No. 2 (June 1976), pp. 393-408.

Clifford, James, “Diasporas,” Cultural Anthropology, Vol. 9, No. 3, (August 1994), pp. 302-338.

Cohen, Robin, “Diasporas and the Nation-State: From Victims to Challengers,” International Affairs, Vol. 72, No. 3 (July 1996), pp. 507-520.

Van Den Berghe, Pierre, L. “The African Diaspora in Mexico, Brazil and the United States,” Social Forces, Vol. 54, No. 3 (March 1976), pp. 530-545. The first reflection paper is due in class on Thursday.

Weeks Six and Seven: Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide

Bryant, Chad, “Either German or Czech: Fixing Nationality in Bohemia and Moravia, 1939-1946,” Slavic Review, Vol. 16, No. 4 (Winter 2002), pp. 683-70.

Hayden, Robert M., “Schindler’s Fate: Genocide, Ethnic Cleansing, and Population Transfers,” Slavic Review, Vol. 55, No. 4 (Winter 1996), pp. 727-748.

Mirkovic, Damir, “Ethnic Conflict and Genocide: Reflections on Ethnic Cleansing in the Former Yugoslavia,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 548 (November 1996), pp. 191-199.

Wood, William, “Geographic Aspects of Genocide: A Comparison of Bosnia and Rwanda,” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, Vol. 26, No. 1 (2001), pp. 57-75

Weeks Eight: Ethnic Cleansing in the USSR

Martin, Terry, “The Origins of Soviet Ethnic Cleansing,” The Journal of Modern History, Vol. 70, No. 4 (December 1998), pp. 813-861.

Morris, James, “The Polish Terror: Spy Mania and Ethnic Cleansing in the Great Terror,” Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 56, No. 5 (July 2004), pp. 751-766.

Williams, Brian Glyn, “The Hidden Ethnic Cleansing of Muslims in the Soviet Union: The Exile and Repatriation of the Crimean Tatars,” Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 37, No. 3 (July 2002), pp. 323-347.

Week Nine: Ethnicity and Race in the USSR

Hirsch, Francine, “Race without the Practice of Racial Politics,” Slavic Review, Vol. 61, No. 1 (Spring 2001), pp. 30-43.

Lemon, Alaina, “Without a ‘Concept?’ Race as Discurvsive Practice,” Slavic Review, Vol. 61, No. 1 (Spring 2001), pp. 54-61.

Weiner, Amir, “Nothing but Certainty,” Slavic Review, Vol. 61, No. 1 (Spring 2001), pp. 44-53.

Weitz, Eric D., “Racial Politics without the Concept of Race: Reevaluating Soviet Ethnic and National Purges,” Slavic Review, Vol. 61, No. 1 (Spring 2001), pp. 1-29.

Weitz, Eric D., “On Certainties and Ambivalencies: Reply to my Critics,” Slavic Review, Vol. 61, No. 1 (Spring 2001), pp. 62-65. The second reflection paper is due in class on Thursday.

Week Ten and Eleven: Soviet and Post-Soviet Nation Building

Blitstein, Peter, “Cultural Diversity and the Interwar Conjuncture: Soviet Nationality Policy in Its Comparative Context,” Slavic Review, Vol. 65, No. 2 (Summer 2006), pp. 273-293.

Handrahan, L.M., “Gendering Ethnicity in Kyrgyzstan: Forgotten Elements in Promoting Peace and Democracy,” Gender and Development, Vol. 9, No. 3 (November 2001), pp. 70-78.

Slezkine, Yuri, “The USSR as a Communal Apartment, or How a Socialist State Promoted Ethnic Particularism,” Slavic Review, Vol. 53, No. 2 (Summer 1994), pp. 414-452.

Suny, Ronald Grigor, “Constructing Primordialism: Old Histories for New Nations,” The Journal of Modern History, Vol. 73, No. 4 (December 2001), pp. 862-896. The third reflection paper is due in class on Thursday.

Weeks Twelve, Thirteen, and Fourteen: Student Presentations

Week Fifteen: Written Version of Research Paper due on Thursday and Concluding Remarks

Educating Askarbek

Askarbek went to his first day of pre-school today. Yesterday Oksana got him a small black back pack with a Chinese knock off of Ultraman on it. So he looked really cool getting ready for his first day of pre-school. I have been at work all afternoon so I do not yet know how it went. But, I hope it went well. I have great expectations for the boy. He is extremely intelligent. We are hoping to send him to kindergarten in September after he turns six.

Syllabus for Politics of the Middle East

Politics of the Middle East

ICP

324

3 Credits

Spring Semester 2010

International and Comparative Politics

American University of Central Asia

J. Otto Pohl, Ph.D.

Meeting Time: Tuesday 2:10 in room 216 and Friday 2:10 in room 125

Course Description: This course will cover modern political developments in the Arab states, Israel/Palestine, Turkey and Iran since the First World War. In particular the course will focus on the Arab-Israeli conflict with an emphasis on the central role played by Palestinian resistance to Zionist ethnic cleansing and colonization. It will also cover the rise of various forms of nationalism in Egypt, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. The course will then contrast the political developments in these Arab states with those in Turkey in Iran. Finally, the class will conclude with a discussion of the current war in Iraq.

Requirements: The course will consist of assigned readings, lectures, discussion, two short writing assignments, an oral report and a research paper. There will be three short reflection papers of 600 to 800 words. The first reflection paper should be on the origins of the Palestinian refugee problem in 1948 and why it still remains a salient issue in the Middle East. The second reflection paper should be on the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip and Palestinian strategies of resistance. The third reflection paper should be on the ongoing war in Iraq and present an evaluation of the success of the US and British occupation strategies. Students will also have to complete a 1500 to 2000 word research paper on some aspect of Middle Eastern politics. The research paper is due the last week of class. In the three weeks prior to this deadline each student will be required to give a short oral presentation on the subject of their paper followed by a short question and answer session. Late papers will lose one letter grade for each day they are late. Students must come to class on time. Being more than fifteen minutes late will count as an absence. Students will lose one letter grade after four unexcused absences and fail the course after seven. Written proof of an emergency from a doctor or other appropriate authority is required for an absence to be excused. No mobile phones are to be visible during class. They are to be out of sight and turned off. I will eject any student from class that has a visible cell phone or whose cell phone rings during class. This will count as an unexcused absence. Finally, I have a significant hearing loss and may have to ask people to repeat their questions or statements from time to time. You can minimize this by speaking loudly and clearly. This syllabus is tentative and subject to change.

Readings: All the required readings are contained in the course packets.

Plagiarism Policy: I have a zero tolerance policy regarding plagiarism. If I catch any student plagiarizing once I will fail them for the assignment. If I catch them a second time I will fail them from the class. Plagiarism includes any verbatim copying from a source without using quotation marks or setting the text up as an indented single spaced block quotation. If I find that more than five words in a row in your paper show up in the same order in a Google search and you do not have the words in quotation marks or set up as a block quotation I will fail you. Putting a footnote, endnote or other citation after the copied words without the quotation marks or block quotation form is still plagiarism, you are claiming to have paraphrased verbatim text, and you will still receive an F. Taking text from a source without citing it and rearranging the words so that it does not show up in a verbatim Google search is also plagiarism. I will also do Google searches to see if you have taken text and merely rearranged the words. You must either paraphrase the sentence by putting it completely in your own words and citing it with the proper footnote, endnote or in text citation or quote the actual text verbatim complete with the proper citation. Completely paraphrasing sentences in your own words, but neglecting to cite the source of the information is also plagiarism. All information that would not be known to the average person on the street with no university education must be cited. When in doubt always cite a legitimate source. Wikipedia is not a legitimate source. Books published by university presses and academic journal articles found on JSTOR are legitimate sources. Other sources may or may not be legitimate. If you have questions about whether a particular source is legitimate you can ask me. Using Wikipedia or other illegitimate sources will result in a reduction of one letter grade for each citation in a paper.

Grading:

Class participation – 20%
Three reflection papers – 45% (15% each)
Oral report on research paper – 10%
Written version of research paper- 25%

Grading Scale

100-96 = A
95-91 = A-
90-86 = B+
85-81 = B
80-76 = B-
75-71 = C+
70-66 = C
65-61 = C-
60-56 = D+
55-51 = D
50-46 = D-
45 and lower = F

Class Schedule:

Week One: Introduction to Course and Review of Syllabus

Week Two: The Mandate Period

Hourani, Albert “The Climax of European Power (1914-1939)” in A History of the Arab Peoples (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 1991), pp. 315-332.

Andersen, Roy R., Seibert, Robert F., and Wagner, Jon G., “The Rise of the State System: 1914-1950” in Politics and Change in the Middle East: Sources of Conflict and Accommodation (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall Inc., 1982), pp. 74-93.

Week Three: The 1948 War and the Lasting Legacy of the Palestinian Refugees

Esber, Rosemarie M. “Rewriting the History of 1948: The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Question Revisited,” Holy Land Studies, vol. 4, no. 1 (2005), pp. 55-72.

Alshaibi, Sama, “Memory Work in the Palestinian Diaspora,” Frontiers, Vol. 27, No. 2 (2006), pp. 30-53.

Khalidi, Rashid, “Observations on the Right of Return,” Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 21, No. 2 (Winter 1992), pp. 29-40.

Week Four: Palestine Continued: Ethnic Cleansing in International Perspective

Falah, Ghazi, “The 1948 Israeli-Palestinian War and Its Aftermath: The Transformation and De-Signification of Palestine’s Cultural Landscape,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 86, No. 2 (June 1996), pp. 256-285.

Pohl, J. Otto, “Socialist Racism: Ethnic Cleansing and Racial Exclusion in the USSR and Israel,” Human Rights Review (April-June 2006), pp. 60-80. The first reflection paper is due in class on Friday.

Week Five: Israel and its Arab and Oriental Jewish Populations

Rouhana, Nadim and Ghanem, Asad, “The Crises of Minorities in Ethnic States: The Case of Palestinian Citizens in Israel,” International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 30, No. 3 (August 1998), pp. 321-346.

Shohat, Ella, “Sephardim in Israel: Zionism from the Standpoint of its Jewish Victims,” Social Text, No. 19/20 (Autumn 1988), pp. 1-35.

Yiftachel, Oren, “‘Ethnocracy’ and its Discontents: Minorities, Protests, and the Israeli Polity,” Critical Inquiry, Vol. 26, No. 4 (Summer 2000), pp. 725-756.

Week Six: Egypt under Nasser

Cleveland, William, “The Middle East in the Age of Nasser: The Egyptian Base” (Chapter 15) in A History of the Modern Middle East, (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1994), pp. 284-303.

Week Seven: Political Islam

Milton-Edwards, Beverly, “Past, Present and Future Politics: Political Islam” (Chapter 5) in Contemporary Politics in the Middle East (Malden, MA: Polity Press, 2006), pp. 134-158

Week Eight: Nationalism in the Arab East

Devlin, John, “The Baath Party: Rise and Metamorphosis,” The American Historical Review, Vol. 96, No. 5 (December 1991), pp. 1396-1407.

Salibi, Kamal, “The Lebanese Identity,” Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 6, No. 1 (1971), pp. 76-86.

Week Nine: The 1967 War and the Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip

Kimmerling, Baruch and Migdal, Joel, S., “Steering a Path under Occupation” (chapter nine), The Palestinian People: A History, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003), pp. 274-311.

Gallagher, Nancy, “Lessons from the Algerian War of Independence,” Middle East Report, No. 225 (Winter 2002), pp. 44-49.

Andoni, Lamis, “Searching for Answers: Gaza’s Suicide Bombers,” Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 26, No. 4 (Summer 1997), pp. 33-45. The second reflection paper is due in class on Friday.

Weeks Ten: Turkey and Iran

Cleveland, William, “Democracy and Authoritarianism: Turkey and Iran” (chapter fourteen) in A History of the Modern Middle East, Second Edition, (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2000), pp. 267-292.

Keddie, Nikki, “The Revolution” (chapter 9) in Modern Iran: Roots and Results of Revolution (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003).

Week Eleven: The War in Iraq

International Crisis Group, “Where is Iraq Heading? Lessons from Basra,” Middle East Report No. 67 (25 June 2007), pp. 1-19. The third reflection paper is due in class on Friday.

Weeks Twelve, Thirteen, and Fourteen: Student Oral Presentations

Week Fifteen: Concluding Remarks and Final Paper Due.

Vefa Center

I live close to Vefa Center, a three story shopping mall. Since New Year's Day, the large supermarket there, Ramstor has been closed. I am not sure when or if it will reopen. Yesterday, the book store closed. It will not be reopening. The advantages of living close to Vefa Center seem to be dwindling fast.

Back to Work

I came into the office today for the first time in several days. I finished up my journal article on the Crimean Tatars. Now I have to do some revisions on my syllabi.

2010

It is now 2010. So far this year I have not done much. I did a little bit of work on a journal article I hope to finish before classes start again on the eleventh, but that is it. I only have three classes to teach this semester so I hope I can make some progress on a new book project.