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Department of Central Eurasian Studies (Indiana University)
Encyclopedia
The Department of Central Eurasian Studies, often abbreviated as CEUS, is a specialized academic department in the College of Arts and Sciences at the Bloomington campus of Indiana University
, in Bloomington
, Indiana
. Since its original formation in 1943 as a language-training program for the U.S. military, the department has become the sole independent degree-granting academic unit staffed with its own faculty dedicated to Central Eurasia
in the country. Due to the department and the presence of several additional centers - the Inner Asian & Uralic National Resource Center, the Denis Sinor Research Institute for Inner Asian Studies, and the Center for Languages of the Central Asian Region - Indiana University currently hosts the premier program of Central Asian studies
in the United States
.
CEUS is home to many notable scholars of Central Asian studies, including Christopher Beckwith
, Yuri Bregel
, Devin Deweese
, Denis Sinor
, and Elliot Sperling
. The department teaches many less commonly taught languages
, including Azerbaijani
, Kazakh
, Pashto, Tajik
, Turkmen
, Uyghur
, and Uzbek
.
into World War II
, an Army Specialized Training Program was created to provide training in several Eurasian languages, including Russian
, Turkish
, Finnish
, and Hungarian
. As such, the Department was founded in 1943 as an "Army Specialized Training Program for Central Eurasian languages". It was formally organized as the Program in Uralic and Altaic Studies in 1956. In 1965 it became the Department of Uralic and Altaic Studies. Since 1993 it has been known under its current name.
Professor Denis Sinor arrived from Cambridge University in the academic year of 1962-63. On his initiative, in 1965, the Program in Uralic and Altaic Studies was recognized as a graduate department. Professor Sinor was appointed the first Chairman of the Department and he held this position until 1981.
The Department of Central Eurasian Studies offers both a Master of Arts
and a PhD
track of study, including a PhD minor. The department's area studies program emphasizes language proficiency and familiarity with indigenous cultures. The degree program requires students to select a language of specialization local to the region and a specific region of specialization within Central Eurasia. Though currently offering only advanced degrees, CEUS plans to start offering an undergraduate minor next year.
program, and is funded by funded by a Title VI grant from the U.S. Department of Education, through which it receives approximately $230,000 a year. It scope includes the civilizations of Central Asia, Mongolia, and Tibet, together with neighboring areas and peoples that in certain periods formed cultural, political, or ethnolinguistic unities with these regions. It is the only national resource center focusing on Inner Asia.The center awards FLAS
fellowships and engages in outreach and educational activities in the local area and throughout the country.
Library collections.
Indiana University
Indiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...
, in Bloomington
Bloomington, Indiana
Bloomington is a city in and the county seat of Monroe County in the southern region of the U.S. state of Indiana. The population was 80,405 at the 2010 census....
, Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
. Since its original formation in 1943 as a language-training program for the U.S. military, the department has become the sole independent degree-granting academic unit staffed with its own faculty dedicated to Central Eurasia
Central Eurasia
Central Eurasia is a geographic term, which may refer to:* Central Asia, i.e., the five Central Asian Republics as well as the lower Volga Region in Russia, southern Siberia, Iran, Afghanistan, parts of China and Northern Pakistan, Kashmir and sometimes Mongolia and Tibet* The Caucasus region,...
in the country. Due to the department and the presence of several additional centers - the Inner Asian & Uralic National Resource Center, the Denis Sinor Research Institute for Inner Asian Studies, and the Center for Languages of the Central Asian Region - Indiana University currently hosts the premier program of Central Asian studies
Central Asian studies
Central Asian studies is the discipline of studying the culture, history, and languages of Central Asia. The roots of Central Asian studies as a social science discipline goes to 19th century Anglo-Russian Great Game...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
CEUS is home to many notable scholars of Central Asian studies, including Christopher Beckwith
Christopher Beckwith
Christopher I. Beckwith is a professor of Central Eurasian Studies at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana.He received his Ph.D. degree from Indiana University in Uralic and Altaic Studies ....
, Yuri Bregel
Yuri Bregel
Yuri Bregel is a prominent academic in the field of Central Asian studies. He is one of the world's leading historians of Islamic Central Asia, and has published a number of import works on the subject.-Biography:...
, Devin Deweese
Devin Deweese
Devin Deweese is a professor of Islamic and Central Eurasian Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington.He received his PhD in 1985 at Indiana University, and since then has continued to do research on Central Asian Islam, particularly Sufism and its political and social dimensions...
, Denis Sinor
Denis Sinor
Denis Sinor was a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Central Asian Studies at the Department of Central Eurasian Studies at Indiana University and a tenured lecturer at Cambridge University between 1948 and 1962, and was one of the world's leading scholars for the history of Central Asia. Sinor...
, and Elliot Sperling
Elliot Sperling
Elliot Sperling is Associate Professor of Central Eurasian Studies and an expert on the history of Tibet and Tibetan-Chinese relations at Indiana University.He earned his B.A. at Queens College , and his Ph.D...
. The department teaches many less commonly taught languages
Less Commonly Taught Languages
Less Commonly Taught Languages is a designation used in the United States for languages other than the three most commonly taught foreign languages in US public schools: Spanish, French, and German...
, including Azerbaijani
Azerbaijani language
Azerbaijani or Azeri or Torki is a language belonging to the Turkic language family, spoken in southwestern Asia by the Azerbaijani people, primarily in Azerbaijan and northwestern Iran...
, Kazakh
Kazakh language
Kazakh is a Turkic language which belongs to the Kipchak branch of the Turkic languages, closely related to Nogai and Karakalpak....
, Pashto, Tajik
Tajik language
Tajik, Tajik Persian, or Tajiki, is a variety of modern Persian spoken in Central Asia. Historically Tajiks called their language zabani farsī , meaning Persian language in English; the term zabani tajikī, or Tajik language, was introduced in the 20th century by the Soviets...
, Turkmen
Turkmen language
Turkmen is the national language of Turkmenistan...
, Uyghur
Uyghur language
Uyghur , formerly known as Eastern Turk, is a Turkic language with 8 to 11 million speakers, spoken primarily by the Uyghur people in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of Western China. Significant communities of Uyghur-speakers are located in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and various other...
, and Uzbek
Uzbek language
Uzbek is a Turkic language and the official language of Uzbekistan. It has about 25.5 million native speakers, and it is spoken by the Uzbeks in Uzbekistan and elsewhere in Central Asia...
.
History of the Department
In 1942, after the entry of the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
into World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, an Army Specialized Training Program was created to provide training in several Eurasian languages, including Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
, Turkish
Turkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
, Finnish
Finnish language
Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
, and Hungarian
Hungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
. As such, the Department was founded in 1943 as an "Army Specialized Training Program for Central Eurasian languages". It was formally organized as the Program in Uralic and Altaic Studies in 1956. In 1965 it became the Department of Uralic and Altaic Studies. Since 1993 it has been known under its current name.
Professor Denis Sinor arrived from Cambridge University in the academic year of 1962-63. On his initiative, in 1965, the Program in Uralic and Altaic Studies was recognized as a graduate department. Professor Sinor was appointed the first Chairman of the Department and he held this position until 1981.
Degrees and scope of coverage
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
and a PhD
PHD
PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
track of study, including a PhD minor. The department's area studies program emphasizes language proficiency and familiarity with indigenous cultures. The degree program requires students to select a language of specialization local to the region and a specific region of specialization within Central Eurasia. Though currently offering only advanced degrees, CEUS plans to start offering an undergraduate minor next year.
Languages covered
- Mongolian and Turkic languagesTurkic languagesThe Turkic languages constitute a language family of at least thirty five languages, spoken by Turkic peoples across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean to Siberia and Western China, and are considered to be part of the proposed Altaic language family.Turkic languages are spoken...
: AzerbaijaniAzerbaijani languageAzerbaijani or Azeri or Torki is a language belonging to the Turkic language family, spoken in southwestern Asia by the Azerbaijani people, primarily in Azerbaijan and northwestern Iran...
, KazakhKazakh languageKazakh is a Turkic language which belongs to the Kipchak branch of the Turkic languages, closely related to Nogai and Karakalpak....
, modern TurkishTurkish languageTurkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
and Ottoman TurkishOttoman Turkish languageThe Ottoman Turkish language or Ottoman language is the variety of the Turkish language that was used for administrative and literary purposes in the Ottoman Empire. It borrows extensively from Arabic and Persian, and was written in a variant of the Perso-Arabic script...
, UyghurUyghur languageUyghur , formerly known as Eastern Turk, is a Turkic language with 8 to 11 million speakers, spoken primarily by the Uyghur people in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of Western China. Significant communities of Uyghur-speakers are located in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and various other...
, and UzbekUzbek languageUzbek is a Turkic language and the official language of Uzbekistan. It has about 25.5 million native speakers, and it is spoken by the Uzbeks in Uzbekistan and elsewhere in Central Asia...
/ChagataiChagatai languageThe Chagatai language is an extinct Turkic language which was once widely spoken in Central Asia, and remained the shared literary language there until the early twentieth century...
. - Iranian languagesIranian languagesThe Iranian languages form a subfamily of the Indo-Iranian languages which in turn is a subgroup of Indo-European language family. They have been and are spoken by Iranian peoples....
, focusing on KurdishKurdish languageKurdish is a dialect continuum spoken by the Kurds in western Asia. It is part of the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian group of Indo-European languages....
, PashtoPashto languagePashto , known as Afghani in Persian and Pathani in Punjabi , is the native language of the indigenous Pashtun people or Afghan people who are found primarily between an area south of the Amu Darya in Afghanistan and...
, Tajik, and Persian. - Uralic languages, primarily: EstonianEstonian languageEstonian is the official language of Estonia, spoken by about 1.1 million people in Estonia and tens of thousands in various émigré communities...
, FinnishFinnish languageFinnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
, and HungarianHungarian languageHungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
.
Geographical areas covered
The following areas, both political and cultural, are considered to fall within the scope of the department.- AzerbaijanAzerbaijanAzerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...
- Buryatia
- EstoniaEstoniaEstonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
- FinlandFinlandFinland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
- HungaryHungaryHungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
- MongoliaMongoliaMongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...
- KazakhstanKazakhstanKazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
- KyrgyzstanKyrgyzstanKyrgyzstan , officially the Kyrgyz Republic is one of the world's six independent Turkic states . Located in Central Asia, landlocked and mountainous, Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the southwest and China to the east...
- TajikistanTajikistanTajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders it to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and China to the east....
- TurkmenistanTurkmenistanTurkmenistan , formerly also known as Turkmenia is one of the Turkic states in Central Asia. Until 1991, it was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic . Turkmenistan is one of the six independent Turkic states...
- TurkeyTurkeyTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
- UzbekistanUzbekistanUzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....
- Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of ChinaXinjiangXinjiang is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. It is the largest Chinese administrative division and spans over 1.6 million km2...
- Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of ChinaInner MongoliaInner Mongolia is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, located in the northern region of the country. Inner Mongolia shares an international border with the countries of Mongolia and the Russian Federation...
- Tibet Autonomous Region of ChinaTibet Autonomous RegionThe Tibet Autonomous Region , Tibet or Xizang for short, also called the Xizang Autonomous Region is a province-level autonomous region of the People's Republic of China , created in 1965....
Inner Asian & Uralic National Resource Center
In 1962, Indiana University became home to the Uralic and Altaic Language and Area Center, which in 1981 was renamed the Inner Asian and Uralic National Resource Center (IAUNRC). It is part of the National Resource CenterNational Resource Center
The National Resource Center Program of the U.S. Department of Education provides funding grants to American universities to establish, strengthen, and operate language and area or international studies centers that will be national resources for teaching any modern foreign language.Also known as...
program, and is funded by funded by a Title VI grant from the U.S. Department of Education, through which it receives approximately $230,000 a year. It scope includes the civilizations of Central Asia, Mongolia, and Tibet, together with neighboring areas and peoples that in certain periods formed cultural, political, or ethnolinguistic unities with these regions. It is the only national resource center focusing on Inner Asia.The center awards FLAS
Foreign Language Area Studies
The Foreign Language and Area Studies fellowships are federally funded academic scholarships designed to provide support and funding to graduate and undergraduate students studying the languages and cultures of specific foreign countries, in particular those in the strategic interest of the United...
fellowships and engages in outreach and educational activities in the local area and throughout the country.
Denis Sinor Research Institute for Inner Asian Studies
Established in 1967 as the Asian Studies Research Institute (ASRI), its name was changed to the Research Institute for Inner Asian Studies (RIFIAS) in 1979, and then renamed the Denis Sinor Institute for Inner Asian Studies (SRIFIAS) in 2007. It is an independent, non-profit institution accountable to the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences of the Bloomington campus of Indiana University. The SRIFIAS has had five directors, all members of the faculty of the Department of Central Eurasian Studies at Indiana University: Denis Sinor (1967-1981), Stephen Halkovic (1982-1985), Yuri Bregel (1986-1997), Devin DeWeese (1997-2007), and Edward Lazzerini (since 2007). The mission of the SRIFIAS is to encourage and support scholarly research in all aspects of Inner Asian Studies. One of the central tasks of the SRIFIAS is to maintain and develop scholarly and technical resources necessary for research in Inner Asian studies.Institute of Hungarian Studies
The Institute of Hungarian Studies was established in 1991 to disseminate knowledge about Hungarian society and civilization; to support organizations and projects related to Hungarian Studies at Indiana University; and to house the Institute's impressive library of several thousand volumes of Hungarica. During the 2002/2003 academic year, the Institute was closed as a separate operation, while continuing to be administered by CEUS, which offers graduate degrees in Hungarian Studies. The significant collection of materials from the Institute’s Library and Archives was integrated into the Indiana University Herman B WellsHerman B Wells
Herman B Wells was the 11th president of Indiana University. He served the university in a variety of capacities, most notably as president and as chancellor. He was pivotal in the development of Indiana University into a world class institution of higher learning.- Early life :Herman B Wells was...
Library collections.