Dr Diana T. Kudaibergen
@dianakudaibergen.bsky.social
1.1K followers 310 following 400 posts
Political Sociologist, Decolonial Writer, Central Asian to the core. Lecturing at @UCLSSEES. Most of the times you can find me writing or rummaging around the steppe, deserts and valleys. Fellow at Homerton College, previously at Cambridge Sociology
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dianakudaibergen.bsky.social
Yours truly also had another podcast released today, with Agnieszka Pilulicka and her Turan Tales.

This episode is about my latest book, What Does it Mean to be Kazakhstani.

The more podcasts the merrier 🙌
dianakudaibergen.bsky.social
This week is rich in terms of podcasts!
Tune in here for the new episode of YurtJurt w the one & only Asem Zhapisheva!!!

She’s the most inspiring political voices of the new generation in Kazakhstan. I think this is one of the best podcasts in our series. Tune in! It’s so rich!
Reposted by Dr Diana T. Kudaibergen
kevinrothrock.me
A Russian state university has awarded a govt contract to a firm to develop a system for evaluating students' adoption of "traditional values." In July, the same institution contracted Moscow's Higher School of Economics to design tools for tracking students' views on this subject.
В РФ создадут приложение для оценки принятия студентами традиционных ценностей
Методологию и научный инструментарий разработает НИУ «ВШЭ», писали «Ведомости»
www.vedomosti.ru
Reposted by Dr Diana T. Kudaibergen
zois.bsky.social
📽️ Dieses Wochenende in Berlin! Das SİNEMA TRANSTOPIA zeigt ausgewählte Kurzfilme aus Usbekistan, Kasachstan, Kirgisistan, Tadschikistan & der uigurischen Region Chinas und öffnet den Blick auf das vielschichtige #Zentralasien. Das ZOiS ist Unterstützer des Festivals.

Zum Programm👇
Central Asia: At the Crossroads
Central Asia: At the Crossroads richtet den Fokus auf Kurzfilme aus Usbekistan, Kasachstan, Kirgisistan, Tadschikistan und der uigurischen Region Chinas – Werke jenseits Europas, die trotz tiefgreifender gesellschaftlicher und politischer Umbrüche auf der internationalen Bühne weitgehend unsichtbar...
sinematranstopia.com
dianakudaibergen.bsky.social
New episode of YurtJurt podcast on decoloniality! with Intizor! A multi-disciplinary Uyghur artist!

Tune in here: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/y...
dianakudaibergen.bsky.social
New episode of YurtJurt podcast just dropped!

Listen to me talking to Aysulu Toyshibek & hopefully you’d get the sound of the Issy Kol shore where we recorded this superb conversation (and many more conversations to come).

Subscribe to YurtJurt!

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/y...
dianakudaibergen.bsky.social
I only wish my writing would be as floating, free, creative, talented, deep, innovative and experimental as his...

But it is not even about "I", "me", and so on. Samrat is much deeper than just personalities. He's beyond this world.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEDC...
SAMRATTAMA — myñ mūñ / bitpeitin bit (live)
YouTube video by SAMRATTAMA
www.youtube.com
dianakudaibergen.bsky.social
I cannot wait to finish two manuscripts that have been torturing me for the past 9-10 years to start writing something cool and floating.

So I dive deep into the contemporary Central Asian music scene. accidentally found this old song by Samrattama (one love)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpkQ...
sobakasoma - VOPLL
YouTube video by SAMRATTAMA
www.youtube.com
dianakudaibergen.bsky.social
Aziza Kadyri artist talk!!!! In London!
dianakudaibergen.bsky.social
I highly recommend Samrattama (we are working on a couple of podcasts about him right now!), Dude on the guitar (one love, one love in my earphones and in my heart), Jeltoqsan, Yenlik.

I also love spoken project Balkhash snitsya (Dreaming of Balkhash).

Best contemporary music from Kazakhstan
hulegu.bsky.social
someone gave me a whole list of recommendations for contemporary Kazakh music so you know where to find me
dianakudaibergen.bsky.social
spent two weeks with the most amazing people. I'll keep their wisdom and their love in my heart. And every little bit of time I was thinking how much I already miss home [Central Asia] while I was still at home. It is a strange and painful feeling.

Now listening to Samrattama, I'm in pain :'(
dianakudaibergen.bsky.social
It’s super cool that so much is happening in Central Asia this month. Too bad I can’t be in two places at once. But I’ll get there 🤣
dianakudaibergen.bsky.social
New episode of Yurt Jurt podcast about decolonial thought in North and Central Asia just dropped! Here I talk with Prof Madina Tlostanova about decolonial future, her new book and the term “postsoviet”.

available for free on Spotify, Apple Podcast & other major platforms!
dianakudaibergen.bsky.social
Meanwhile, I’ll report on the latest performances and superb decolonial feminist art I wrote about recently. Stay tuned please.
dianakudaibergen.bsky.social
All that said, one of my former bosses (in academia) tried to convince me never to write abt art ever again. Little did they know that I can’t live without art and that art and artists are my biggest inspiration.

My new protest art book will be on your shelves very soon (fingers crossed).
dianakudaibergen.bsky.social
Of another museum next week), but I know my work with the artists changed my outlook on methodology, theory-process and academia in general.

With Askhat I also realise that there’s little to no point in art if it’s not political.
dianakudaibergen.bsky.social
And today, speaking to Askhat, I realised art became my life.

I don’t know how many more books or texts I’ll write (one Of them will be distributed in a brochure at the opening of one major art institution this weekend and another text of mine will be in a catalogue of a major opening exhibition
dianakudaibergen.bsky.social
Then one small paper, then a series of three papers. Then one book that I’m finally finishing now.

then it was two book projects (one on decolonial art).

Last month sitting at the bar with artists, curators and poets I understood my “art project” is now my career.
dianakudaibergen.bsky.social
And this week alone I’m scared of how many new ideas/thoughts and books will visit my inspiration.

It all started with a curiosity of an MPhil student in 2010 peaking into photos of a recent cont art exhibition. I started interviewing artists in 2011.

It was supposed to be one small dissertation
dianakudaibergen.bsky.social
Went to see Askhat Akhmediyarov today to discuss a few things in the book I’m finalising now on protest art to check his old quotes.

Left his home after an 1.5h interview he told me to record thinking that I urgently need to write a new book.

The power of political art 🫡
dianakudaibergen.bsky.social
It’s been a very spiritual summer. I think it was preparing me for smt grandeur and the forthcoming week with the coolest performances, my shaman friends & artists looks very promising as a last bit of the “spiritual awakening” (I’m Rukhani Kenguru ahahah).

So grateful to my aruakhs. And my steppe
Reposted by Dr Diana T. Kudaibergen
judithbeyer.bsky.social
JOB: come work with me @uni-konstanz.de ! We have a junior professorship to fill from 1 April 2026 (6 years, non-tenured, as funding comes from the Centre for Cultural Inquiry).
The denomination is very timely: Environmental #Anthropology!
Details ⬇️
stellen.uni-konstanz.de/jobposting/2...

#academia
Junior Professorship (non-tenure) in Environmental Anthropology
Deadline: 01.10.2025
stellen.uni-konstanz.de
dianakudaibergen.bsky.social
I agree with that last statement! Cannot
Understand why grid-lined paper is still so popular in KZ. Tried to buy a lined notebook for my field diaries recently in Almaty and was swamped with grid-lined ugly pages 🤨