US -aid? US delivered 75 tons of U.S.-manufactured food, "proudly produced" in Texas "'Our mutual goal is simple: to save lives, improve health, and make a real difference for Tajik families and communities,'” said Ambassador Micaller" tj.usembassy.gov/united-state...

A new academic year, a new chapter! Happy to share I have joined Leiden University's Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology

Over the past 2 decades, China has become Laos’s top investor, main creditor, and 2nd-largest trade partner. In a new report, @profjulietlu.bsky.social and I unpack Chinese investment across four land-intensive sectors: agriculture & plantations, mining, infrastructure & SEZs. tinyurl.com/kw5vteem

The new issue of Global China Pulse is now live! What does it mean to do fieldwork on Global China? This issue explores the methodological, ethical, and political challenges researchers face when studying China’s global presence from the ground up. Download here: globalchinapulse.net/download/glo...

"Where did she come from? Whose side is she on?" Relating and Differentiating: Navigating Worlds and Negotiating Positionality in Research on Chinese Agribusinesses in Rural Tajikistan My contribution to the SI "Researching Global China" in Global China Pulse: globalchinapulse.net/relating-and...

Commentary with @adoolotkeldieva.bsky.social on how Chinese mining companies in Kyrgyzstan have worked to adapt to a state court system in which compliance as such is an impossibility. @gvagrad.bsky.social carnegieendowment.org/posts/2025/0...

Follow us on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/seco...

How do you do ethnography in places of suspended sovereignty? Richard Nyelade draws on his fieldwork in Taiwan to explore how researchers navigate legal ambiguity, geopolitical tension, and fragile alliances, proposing 'ethnographic diplomacy' as a mode shaped by silence, suspicion, and performance.

Publication alert! Happy to share my recently published article in Regulation & Governance:

"This is ... about the remaking of (domestic and international)law." An excellent essay www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

European firms increasingly look to Central Asia for sourcing agricultural commodities, and markets play a role in setting standards #shiftinggeographiesofproduction. Yet can we talk of fair trade where/if farmers are subject to production plans, as (still) happens in parts of the region?

Fairtrade now also introduced in.... Turkmenistan shorturl.at/4fSKl

Rode lijn acties om genocide in Gaza te stoppen. Na 1,5 jaar vroeg kabinet om ‘onderzoek’. EU-onderzoek: Israël volledig over de schreef. Toch trekt kabinet geen enkele consequentie. Diep teleurstellend hoe coalitie meewerkt aan straffeloosheid van Netanyahu’s misdaden.

Another great initiative!

Join us this Thursday (5 June) at the International Institute of Social Studies: Shifting geopolitical fault lines and global food security www.iss.nl/en/events/sh...

AI & Academia. Aw.

I was delighted to speak at the seminar on water challenges in Central Asia at @clingendael.bsky.social on 17 April. What are (some of) the everyday water challenges encountered at the microlevel? Were you interested but unable to attend? Watch the recording: www.youtube.com/watch?v=mV6g...

The Central Asia gang in the Hague ☀️ @irnahofman.bsky.social @plovism.bsky.social

Looking forward to discuss water challenges in Central Asia at @clingendael.bsky.social coming Thursday. Join us in person or online!

📍 Are you preparing for #fieldwork in a conflict, post-war, or closed political setting? ⬇️ Get hands-on training on ethical & practical aspects, covering: ⚠️ Risk assessment & mitigation 🔎 Common #ResearchMethods 📈 Managing your #data 💻 12–16 May 👩‍💻 Vera Axyonova #ecprms #methodsky #polisky

Great funding opportunity!

Sometimes it is better to focus on the things you can control

It was a real pleasure talking with Seth Schindler and Jessica DiCarlo on Tajikistan's cotton fields as geopolitical sites:

Vacancy: LSE Fellow in the Anthropology of China (fixed term, 2 years), deadline for applications is 31 March jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...

Are we in a second Cold War? @iliasalami.bsky.social, @jessicadicarlo.bsky.social, @steverolf.bsky.social and @sethschindler.bsky.social argue that the current conflict focuses on controlling global economic networks rather than ideology or territory. www.tni.org/en/article/t...

Great new initiative: The IIPPE Agrarian Change Working Group announces its first online conference held on 11-12 Jun, 2025. Deadline for submission, 17 March 2025. Details and updates on: iippe.org/agrarian-cha...

"Today, contract farming usually involves a choice between Chinese & Western capital, ...often depicted as being in competition... Instead, I found that Chinese & Western investors play complementary roles in Zimbabwe’s tobacco market." Interesting read: www.sixthtone.com/news/1016702

Reuters are seeking a correspondent to cover Central Asia careers.thomsonreuters.com/us/en/job/JR...

Today is publication day! I explain how agricultural inputs - which weren't even widely traded market goods 200 years ago - have become giant industries dominated by just a handful of transnational firms today. mitpress.mit.edu/978026255170... Many thanks to those who helped me along the way!

Yup. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/f...

2 weeks after opening an election observation mission in Tajikistan, the OSCE ODIHR announced that it had cancelled the mission & its plans to observe the country’s upcoming parliamentary elections, scheduled for March. www.osce.org/odihr/electi...

CfP for an exciting workshop! www.ifw-kiel.de/institute/ev...

Horrific call from the friend of a friend who works at USAID. All of their staff was put on leave. Then all of their bosses were put on leave. They were then instructed to scrub the website of certain words. Workers came in and took down all the photos on the wall. Then their bosses were fired

||NEW PROFILE|| The Great Stone China–Belarus Industrial Park has been advertised as a flagship BRI project. Yet, despite high expectations, its development has been facing significant challenges due to the pandemic, political unrest in Belarus, and geopolitical turbulence, writes Maryia Danilovich.

Delighted to be among the recipients of the Delta on the Move Foundation's small grant! Among other activities, I will use the grant to undertake fieldwork in Central Asia, and organise a workshop on China's role in agri-tech and smart agriculture (later this year). Stay tuned!

A Chinese language course has officially been launched at the Vocational and Technical College in Istiqlol, a northern city in Tajikistan. This course is organized by the Chinese Language Workshop of the Tajik-Sino Mining Company. asiaplustj.info/en/news/taji...

On Chinese construction sites in Ghana, language barriers often cause misunderstandings. However, using a new language, referred to locally as ‘Chinese English’, Chinese supervisors and local construction workers can communicate and even create opportunities for jokes, writes Costanza Franceschini.

Fabulous postdoc opportunities at Manchester www.jobs.manchester.ac.uk/internal/Job...

It was a real pleasure to lecture on "the rural everyday of geopolitics" to a wonderful group of PhD candidates at Wageningen University this week. Over the course of four days, we engaged in vibrant discussions about past & present dynamics & how to interpret & analyse them.

Good opportunity: post-doc vacancy with Alessandro Rippa at University of Oslo within the project “Knowledge in Crisis: The Dynamics of Environmental Expertise amidst Rural Change” #anthropology #job #postdoc #norway www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...

My highlight of 2024: "Seeds of empire or seeds of friendship? The politics of the diffusion of Chinese cotton seeds in Tajikistan" in the Journal of Agrarian Change: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

My book review of Isaac Scarborough's Moscow's heavy shadow, in which I place the book in the context of my own work and experiences in rural Tajikistan. The book is an important contribution: brill.com/view/journal...

On may way to Cambridge for an exciting workshop organised by the Second Cold War Observatory initiative @jessicadicarlo.bsky.social @ndloubere.bsky.social: Look forward to talking about Tajikistan's cotton fields, where Russian, Chinese, and EU interests meet/compete

Chinese, Russian, and European involvement in Tajikistan's cotton sector: the country's farm fields and factory floors have turned into geopolitical sites

The second one is for an issue of Global China Pulse on the challenges of conducting grounded research about Global China which is also expected to be published in mid-2025. For both issues, we hope to receive the pitches no later than the end of January. 2/

Follow this great initiative!