Brent Hierman

Why Area Studies Matters (opinion) If we are to save area studies programs, it will fall to universities to recognize their value, Amanda Lanzillo writes.

In @insidehighered.com I explore how area studies have positively reshaped the humanities & social sciences in the US since the 1950s. Their loss would impoverish knowledge production across our universities, and our universities must step up to defend them.

www.insidehighered.com/opinion/view...

DOGE Targeted Him on Social Media. Then the Taliban Took His Family. Afghan scholar Mohammad Halimi, who fled the Taliban in 2021, had worked to help U.S. diplomats understand his homeland. Then DOGE put his family’s lives at risk by exposing his sensitive work for a U...

3/ Halimi initially wonders if Musk’s accusation is an April Fool’s joke. After all, the decades of work he had done consulting for U.S. diplomats wasn’t in service of the Taliban; it was the opposite.

Little did he know his nightmare was just beginning.

UNESCO may reduce boundaries of Shakhrisabz historic site in World Heritage List UNESCO conditionally approved Uzbekistan’s plan to revise the boundaries of Shakhrisabz heritage site. Four Timurid-era monuments may become the heritage site, while the remaining area will be a buffe...

This possible reduction of protected area of Shahrisabz comes years after the authorities bulldozed the mediaeval old town in the name of progress. More on destruction of architectural heritage in #Uzbekistan in my new book Silk Mirage, out in November www.gazeta.uz/en/2025/07/2...

“Bullets Were Falling Like Rain” This report is based on 50 interviews with victims of and witnesses to the May 13 killings. It details the Uzbek government’s indiscriminate use of lethal force against unarmed people, describes gover...

20 years ago today, Uzbekistan government forces killed hundreds of unarmed protesters in #Andijan, a town in eastern #Uzbekistan, following an attack by armed men. Over 500 people fled into neighboring Kyrgyzstan.

www.hrw.org/report/2005/...

I see that now. Still short sighted, but glad that for the moment alternative means (such as FLAS) still exist

Call for Papers!
@ASN_Org is interested in ensuring that topics related to Central Eurasia are well represented at its annual convention. Panels cover a tremendously wide variety of topics at this interdisciplinary convention.
asnconvention.com.

How historic voter turnout upended illiberal rule in Poland Polish voters turned out in record numbers this Sunday to renounce the illiberal government of the Law and Justice Party (PiS). After eight years of

“Democracy in Poland was the clear winner on October 15. Whether Poland can now rebuild and fortify its democratic institutions remains to be seen.”
@annagbusse.bsky.social on the Polish election, in @goodauth.bsky.social

Polisky

goodauthority.org/news/how-his...