Online book launch - Selected Works of Chokan Valikhanov
Cambridge University Press and the Embassy of Kazakhstan in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
are pleased to invite you to the online launch of
Selected Works of Chokan Valikhanov
Pioneering Ethnographer and Historian of the Great Steppe
Translated by Dr Arch Tait and Edited by Nick Fielding
To be broadcast live from the Royal Geographical Society
On Tuesday, 15 December
11.00-12.45 am (GMT)
5.00-6.45 pm (Nur-Sultan time)
Cambridge University Press, in partnership with the Embassy of Kazakhstan in the United Kingdom and with the support of the Akimat of the Kostanay Region and the Chokan Valikhanov Institute of History and Ethnology are delighted to present the first ever English-language collection of selected works by Chokan Valikhanov, one of Kazakhstan’s most prominent scholars of the 19th century.
In his short lifetime of only 29 years, Valikhanov contributed immensely to oriental studies, while also increasing awareness of Kazakh cultural heritage both for his compatriots and for those from further afield.
Despite his remarkable insights, Valikhanov is not well known in the English-speaking world. This is the first collection of his writings translated into English since four essays were published in 1865. This volume presents Valikhanov’s most important scholarly works, which are devoted to exploring aspects of the geography, history, ethnology and economics of Central Asia, while also offering his original views on the societies of the region. These fill an important gap in the literary history of Central Asia and hopefully will stimulate further interest in this remarkable man.
Speakers
Jane Mann
Managing Director, Cambridge Partnership for Education
Part of the University of Cambridge
Erlan Idrissov
Ambassador of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Ziyabek Kabuldinov
Director
Chokan Valikhanov Institute of History and Ethnology
Arch Tait
Translator
Nick Fielding
Journalist, writer, editor
Master of the Ceremony
Annie Michailidou
Head of Global Engagement, Cambridge Partnership for Education
Part of the University of Cambridge
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Panellists’ brief bios
Jane Mann is an experienced publisher, author, editor and trainer, and is Managing Director of Cambridge Partnership for Education, part of the University of Cambridge. She has worked in educational publishing for over two decades, leading many international education reform projects in publishing and capacity development. Jane has implemented and managed publishing programmes to support international and national curricula, working with ministries of education, government agencies, non-governmental organisations, donor agencies and educational organisations to design effective materials and infrastructures. She contributed to the Cambridge Approach to Textbooks, and has worked with government clients on process redesign, stakeholder engagement and best practice in resources. Jane has also worked outside the education sector, advising and consulting on regulatory frameworks, trade publishing strategy, communications and process redesign. Jane is a member of the Centre for the Study of Global Human Movement (University of Cambridge) and is also a member of the BESA Executive Council. In 2020, Jane was awarded the Order of Dostyk (Order of Friendship) in recognition of Cambridge’s contribution to developing education in Kazakhstan and promoting Kazakh culture to the world.
Erlan Idrissov is Ambassador of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Born on the 28 April 1959 in the Karaganda Region of Kazakhstan, Ambassador Idrissov graduated from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations in 1981 and the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the USSR in 1992. Representing Kazakhstan as Ambassador to the United Kingdom since 2017, Ambassador Idrissov has twice been Kazakhstan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and served for five years as the country’s Ambassador to the United States in 2007-2012. Ambassador Idrissov authored numerous articles on Kazakhstan's foreign policy and multilateral diplomacy. He speaks English, French, Urdu and Hindi.
Professor Ziyabek Kabuldinov is Director of the Chokan Valikhanov Institute of History and Ethnology. He is a Doctor of Historical Sciences. He graduated from the Omsk State University majoring in History, and the Kazakh Institute of Law and International Relations majoring in Jurisprudence. In 2003-2004 Professor Kabuldinov served as the head of the Department of Ancient and Medieval History of the S. Toraighyrov Pavlodar State University. In 2004-2011, he worked at the L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University. He served as the head of the Department of History, the Adviser to the Rector, the Vice-Rector for Education, the Head of the Department of World History and Archeology, the Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and the Vice-Rector for Administrative and Economic Work. From 2011 to 2017, Professor Kabuldinov was the chief researcher, Professor of the Department of History of Kazakhstan and the Director of the Eurasia Research Center of the L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University. Professor Kabuldinov is the author of 5 monographs, 7 teaching aids and more than 450 academic publications.
Dr Arch Tait learned Russian at Latymer Upper School, London; Trinity Hall, Cambridge; and Moscow State University. He has a PhD in Russian literature from Cambridge and began translating in earnest in 1986. From 1993 he was the UK editor of the Glas New Russian Writing translation series, whose editor-in-chief was Natasha Perova. To date he has translated 40 fiction and non-fiction books from Russian into English. His translation of Anna Politkovskaya’s Putin’s Russia (Harvill Press) was awarded the inaugural PEN Literature in Translation prize in 2010.
Nick Fielding is an author and traveller. He was Senior Reporter on the The Sunday Times, where he covered the aftermath and implications of the 9/11 attacks, reporting from Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Far East. Prior to that he was Chief Investigative Reporter of the Mail on Sunday, where he worked on many international stories, and a reporter for The Independent. He is the author of books on the workings of Britain’s domestic intelligence service, MI5, and on the detailed planning for the 9/11 attacks in 2001. For six years Nick edited Asian Textiles, a magazine which covers the history and ethnography of textiles. He has travelled extensively, often by foot or on horseback, over long distances in Central Asia, Mongolia and Siberia. In November 2015 he published South to the Great Steppe: the travels of Thomas and Lucy Atkinson in Eastern Kazakhstan 1847-52, about the Victorian-era explorers, Thomas and Lucy Atkinson. He also writes a blog about the Atkinsons called Siberian Steppes https://siberiansteppes.com. He regularly rides on horseback through the remote Djungar Alatau Mountains in the Zhetysu region of Kazakhstan. In September 2020, his book Travellers in the Great Steppe: from the Papal Envoys to the Russian Revolution (Signal Books) was published. He lives in Oxfordshire.
Annie Michailidou is Head of Global Engagement at Cambridge Partnership for Education, part of the University of Cambridge. She specialises in identifying international development opportunities to improve education equity and quality. By raising standards and giving learners the knowledge, understanding and practical skills to succeed in the modern world, she seeks to deliver economic and social transformation through bespoke education programmes world-wide. She has significant experience overseeing business intelligence projects that examine economic trends, education reforms, political risk and regulatory developments internationally. She has worked in over 30 countries across Europe, the Middle East and Africa and has travelled and developed networks in over 120 countries, liaising extensively at Head of State/Government, ministerial and C-level. Annie is an experienced public speaker and media commentator on CNBC and Bloomberg, among other international and local media outlets. She was recognised as a “Top Woman of the Year” by Management Magazine, Africa. As a passionate advocate of the power of education to secure enhanced prosperity and cultural change, Annie is active in initiatives to empower women and young people in emerging markets. Her expertise in cross-cultural understanding has been fostered through voluntary tutoring, mentoring and coaching with international, local charities and non-governmental organisations.