American University of Central Asia - AUCA - Faculty & Staff

Faculty & Staff

Svetlana Jacquesson, Ph.D.

Ph.D., Assistant Professor

Non-departmental General Education Faculty

Division of Arts, Humanities and Communication

 

Email: [javascript protected email address]

Phone: +996 (312) 915000 ext. 495

Room: 235

Ph.D., Director

Master of Arts in Central Asian Studies Department

Division of Arts, Humanities and Communication

 

Email: [javascript protected email address]

Phone: +996 (312) 915000 ext. 495

Room: 235

 

Dr. Svetlana Jacquesson is the Chair of the Master of Arts in Central Asian Studies (MACAS) Program at the American University of Central Asia. She holds a Ph.D. in Ethnology from the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO) and the School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences (EHESS) (2000, France), a DEA (Diplome d’etudes approfondies) at the Department of inner and Minor Asia (INALCO-EHESS) (1995, France), and a Master of Arts in Ethnology from INALCO (first class honors) (1994, France). 

Dr. Jacquesson joined AUCA in 2012 as the Director of the Central Asian Studies Institute (CASI) and served until 2018. She was the Head of the MACAS Program from 2013-2018 and a scholar in residence at CASI and MACAS in 2022-2023. Dr. Jacquesson was a key researcher of the “Sinophone Borderlands - Interaction at the Edges” Project at the Asian Studies Department of Palacky University (2019-2021, Czech Republic), participated in a faculty exchange at the Department of Central Eurasian Studies at Indiana University (2018, USA), a senior research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology (2006-2009, Germany), and a research fellow at the French Institute for Central Asian Studies (2000-2003, Uzbekistan). 

  • Cultural Anthropology
  • Cultural History
  • (De)colonization
  • Kyrgyzstan and Central Asia

PhD

  • 2000, La chasse au vol en Asie centrale: savoirs et pratiques. Paris: INALCO-EHESS. 

Monograph:

  • Pastoréalismes: anthropologie historique des processus d’intégration chez les Kirghiz du Tian Shan. Wiesbaden, Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag, 2010. 

Edited volumes: 

  • 2016. History Making in Central and Northern Eurasia. Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag
  • 2012. Local History as an Identity Discipline. Special issue of Central Asian Survey 31/3. With Ildiko Beller-Hann. 
  • 2003. Les montagnards d’Asie centrale. Tachkent; Aix-en-Provence: Edisud (Cahiers d’Asie centrale 11-12). http://asiecentrale.revues.org/index519.html 
  • 2002. Karakalpaks et autres gens de l’Aral : entre rivages et déserts. Tachkent ; Aix-enProvence: Edisud (Cahiers d’Asie centrale 10). http://asiecentrale.revues.org/index516.html

Chapters in books:

    • 2023 (forthcoming). Co-constructing Epic Heritage across Borders. In National Epics, edited by David Wallacw. Cambridge University Press. 
    • 2023 (forthcoming). Clans as Heritage Communities in Kyrgyzstan. In Central Asian Worlds, edited by Madeleine Reeves and Jeanne Féau de la Croix. Routledge. 
    • 2022. The nationalisation of traditions. In Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Central Asia, edited by Rico isaacs and Erica Marat, 13 p., London: Routledge. 
    • 2018. 'New History' as a Translocal Field. In Mobilities, Boundaries, and Travelling Ideas: Rethinking Translocality Beyond Central Asia and the Caucasus, edited by Manja Stephan-Emmrich and Philipp Schröder, pp. 205-228. Cambridge: Open Book Publishers. 
    • 2016a. Introduction. In History Making in Central and Northern Eurasia, edited by Svetlana Jacquesson, pp. 7-20. Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag. 
    • 2016b. Genealogies as a craft: the search for “truth” and authority in contemporary Kyrgyzstan. In History Making in Central and Northern Eurasia, edited by Svetlana Jacquesson, pp. 100-121. Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag. 
    • 2013. Performance and Poetics in Kyrgyz Memorial Feasts: the Discursive Construction of Identity Categories. In Explorations in the Social History of Modern (19th – early 20th century), edited by Paolo Sartori, pp.181-206. Leiden: Brill. 
  • 2013. From Herd Breeding to Land Farming: Social Uses of Descent and Kinship in a Kyrgyz Village. In Politics, Identity and Education in Central Asia: Post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan, edited by P. Akçali and C. Engin-Demir, pp. 98-117. London and New York: Routledge. 
  • 2010. Power Play among the Kyrgyz: State versus Descent. In Representing Power in Modern Inner Asia: conventions, alternatives and oppositions, edited by Isabelle Charleux et al, pp. 221-244. Western Washington University (Bellingham): Centre for East Asian Studies. 
  • 2005. Kakie zhe vse taki dostoinstva kumisa In Nasledie material’noj i duhovnoj kul’tury Kyrgyzstana, edited by Amantur Japarov, pp. 77-86. Bishkek: Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences; UNESCO. 
  • 2000. L’uomo e i volatili: una silhouette nella steppa. In I cavalieri delle steppe: memoria delle terre del Kazakhstan, edited by G. Ligabue and G. Popescu, pp. 298 – 304. Milano: Electa. 

Journal articles (In peer-reviewed journals):

  • 2022. From Folk Epics to Epic Monuments: Studying and Publishing Epic Lore in the Soviet Union (1920s–1960s), Journal of Central Asian History, 1, pp. 100–129. 
  • 2021. On Folklore Archives and Heritage Claims: the Manas Epic in Kyrgyzstan. Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 64(4), pp. 425-454. 
  • 2020. Claiming Heritage: the Manas Epic between Kyrgyzstan and China. Central Asian Survey, 39(3), pp. 324-339. 
  • 2012. The Time of Dishonour: Land and Murder under Colonial Rule in the Tian Shan. Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 55/4-5, pp. 664-687. 
  • 2012. Introduction: Local History as an Identity Discipline. With Ildiko Beller-Hann. Central Asian Survey, 31/3, 239-249. 
  • 2012. From Clan Narratives to Clan Politics. Central Asian Survey, 31/3, pp. 277-292.
  • 2010. Reforming Pastoral Land Use: from Clan and Custom to Self-government and Tradition. Central Asian Survey 29/1, pp. 103-118. 

 

Journals with editing committees: 

  • 2008. The Sore Zones of Identity: Past and Present Debates on Funerals in Kyrgyzstan. Inner Asia 10, pp. 281-303. 
  • 2007. Le cheval dans le rituel funéraire kïrgïz: variations sur le thème du sacrifice. Journal asiatique 295 (2), pp. 383-414. 
  • 2004. With B. Petric, J.-F. Gossiaux, A. Bourgeot. L’émergence de nouveaux pouvoirs locaux sur les cendres d’un kolkhoz kirghiz. Cahiers d’Asie centrale 13-14, pp. 21- 44. http://asiecentrale.revues.org/index149.html 
  • 2004. With R. Chaix, F. Austerlitz, T. Khegay, M. F. Hammer, E. Heyer, L. Quintana-Murci, “The Genetic or Mythical Ancestry of Descent Groups: Lessons from the Ychromosome”, The American Journal of Human Genetics 75, pp. 1113-1116. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1182146/ 
  • 2003. Au cœur du Tian Chan: histoire et devenir de la transhumance au Kirghizstan. Cahiers d’Asie centrale 11-12, pp. 203-244. http://asiecentrale.revues.org/index700.html
  • 2003. Avant – propos. In: Les montagnards d’Asie centrale. Tachkent ; Aix-en-Provence: Edisud, 
  • 2003, pp. 9-14. http://asiecentrale.revues.org/index683.html 
  • 2002. Parcours ethnographiques dans l’histoire des deltas. Cahiers d’Asie centrale 10, pp. 51 – 92. http://asiecentrale.revues.org/index657.html 
  • 2002. With O. Mansurov. Bibliographie karakalpake: addenda à la Bibliography of Central Asia de Yuri Bregel. Cahiers d’Asie centrale 10; pp. 249 – 267. http://asiecentrale.revues.org/index674.html 

 

Invited Talks:

  • 26.9.2019. “Genealogical Fevers” and How to Make Sense of Them: the Case of Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia. Association of Central Eurasian Students and Inner Asian and Uralic National Resource Center. Bloomington, IN.
  • 5-6.08.2014. “In” or “On”: some anthropological insights into Central Asia as a research area. Knowledge Production and Knowledge Transfer in and on Central and Inner Asia. Seminar organized by the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS), Leiden, the Netherlands, with the support of the International Unit for Central and Inner Asian Studies (Ulaanbaatar) and Ulaanbaatar University. Ulaanbatar, Mongolia. 
  • 11.10.2013. Studying Central Asia: on the merits of “eavesdropping”. Central Asia Program, The Elliott School of International Affairs, The George Washington University, Washington, USA. 
  • Academic Orientation Program
  • English Composition for Liberal Arts I, II
  • First Year Seminar I, II
  • First Year Seminar I: Philosophy
  • First Year Seminar II: Philosophy
  • Independent Graduate Study I, II
  • MA Thesis Development I, II
  • Power and Knowledge - Introduction to Central Asia

American University of Central Asia
7/6 Aaly Tokombaev Street
Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic 720060

Tel.: +996 (312) 915000 + Еxt.
Fax: +996 (312) 915 028
AUCA Contacts