HU-UMA Workshop

 Post-imperial Political Ecosystems:

 The Rise and Fall of American and Soviet
 Hegemonies in the Twentieth Century Middle East

poster

Date: March 16-17, 2026

Venue: Room 403, Slavic-Eurasian Research Center (SRC), Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan

Format: Hybrid (onsite and online via Zoom ) 

Language: English
in Japanese --->       Access Map --->    Past Symposia --->    


Online Registration



 Program

 
  March 16 (Monday)  Day 1
10:15-10:30 (GMT+9) Opening Remarks by David Mednicoff and Norihiro Naganawa
 
10:30-12:00 (GMT+9) The Start of the Long Twentieth Century
Papers:

1. Jonathan Wyrtzen (Yale University)   [online]

Contrapuntal Approaches to the Greater Middle East in an Age of Empire

2. Norihiro Naganawa (SRC)  

Another Universalism? Multi-Ethnic Muslim Encounters in the Volga-Caspian Frontier at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century

Chair:

Yoko Aoshima (SRC)

 
14:00-15:30 (GMT+9) Kazakhstan in Transition and Motion
Papers:

1. Regine Spector (University of Massachusetts-Amherst)

Crypto Mining Regulation Amidst Colonial Infrastructures and Global Currencies: The Politics of State-Building in Kazakhstan

2. Chieko Hirota (SRC)

Weaving People, Times, and Ideas: A View from Kazakh Embroidered Cloth

Chair:

Viktoriia Antonenko (SRC)

 
15:45-17:15 (GMT+9) National Boundaries as an Imperial Legacy
Papers:

1. Taro Tsurumi (University of Tokyo)   [online]

The Question of Palestine a Century Ago: An Unintended Consequence of the Imperial Presence

2. Sultan al-Amer (Harvard University)

The Global History of Border-Making and State-Development in the Arabian Peninsula

Chair: Yoichi Isahaya (SRC)
 
 March 17 (Tuesday)  Day 2
10:30-12:00 (GMT+9) Iran between External and Internal Challenges
Papers:

1. Janko Šćepanović (Shanghai International Studies University)   [online]

The Israel-Iran Conflict and Russia’s Influence in the Middle East: What Will Come After the War in Ukraine

2. Tomoyo Chisaka (Hokkaido University)

The Conflict Within: The Politics of Parliamentary Election Management in Iran

Chair: David Mednicoff (University of Massachusetts-Amherst/Harvard University)
14:00-15:30 (GMT+9) Cold War Entanglements
Papers:

1. Samuel J. Hirst (Bilkent University)   [online]

Turkey in the Global Cold War: A Snapshot from 1960

2. Yudai Ri (SRC)

The Double-Layered Structure of Soviet Maritime Policy During the Cold War: The Caspian Sea, the Turkish Straits, and Syria

Chair: Katsuya Okabe (SRC)
15:45-17:15 (GMT+9) Where Are We Heading For?
Papers:

1. David Mednicoff (University of Massachusetts-Amherst/Harvard University)

Three American Postures in the Post-colonial Middle East and their Relation to Non-nationalist Visions of Governance in the Region

2. Keiko Sakai (Chiba University)

Debris of the Global Power in the Middle East: Accumulating Memory, Misperception, and Patronization as the Soil for Future Conflicts

Chair: Norihiro Naganawa (SRC)


  Organized by:
   Platform for Explorations in Survival Strategies at the Slavic-Eurasian Research Center, Hokkaido University  
   2024 - 2025 Hokkaido University and University of Massachusetts-Amherst Joint Research Seed Fund   
   JSPS Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) “Russia and the Middle East in the Long Twentieth Century”   

 

  
  Organizing Committee:
   Norihiro Naganawa, David Mednicoff, Ihor Datsenko   
   Contact:Norihiro Naganawa      luch[at]slav.hokudai.ac.jp ([at] reads as @)  

 

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