St Petersburg International Conference of Afghan Studies

The Forum Rationale: A Note by the Conference’s Conceptualiser The conference also commemorates the 150 th anniversary of the Afghan Studies and teaching the Pashto language in Russia initiated by Academician B. A. Dorn at St Petersburg Imperial University. Moreover, the years 2015–2017 also see other anniversaries of the prominent Russian scholars ofAfghanistan, viz., in 2017—175 years of the appointment of B. A. Dorn as Director of the Asiatic Museum of the Russian Imperial Academy of Sciences, in 2016 — the 200 th birthday of Prof V. V. Grigoriev, in 2017 — the 80 th anniversary of the death of Lt General A. E. Snesarev, in 2015— the 85 th birthday and the 20 th anniversary of death of ProfA. L. Griunberg, in 2017 — the 90 th birthday of Prof V. V. Kushev. In light of that a plenary session will be devoted to the discussion of the establishment and development of the Russian Afghan Studies and anniversaries mentioned above. The conference seeks to provide an interdisciplinary forum for the discussion of the following aspects of Afghan Studies: 1. Historiography and Sources on Afghanistan and the Liminal Areas of the Afghan Linguistic and Cultural Oecumene . 2. Written Traditions, Literature and Folklore of Afghanistan and the Liminal Areas of the Afghan Linguistic and Cultural Oecumene . 3. The General and the Specific in the Regions ofAfghanistan and in the Liminal Areas of the Afghan Linguistic and Cultural Oecumene . 4. The Languages ofAfghanistan and the Liminal Areas of theAfghan Linguistic and Cultural Oecumene . 5. Political Patterns in Afghanistan and in the Liminal Areas of the Afghan Linguistic and Cultural Oecumene . 6. Religions, Archaeology and Material Culture of Afghanistan and the Liminal Areas of the Afghan Linguistic and Cultural Oecumene . More aspects of the Afghan Studies are also considered important for the discussion at this academic moot, however participants chose not to submit paper proposals focusing on them. Nevertheless, the following might be discussed at a future similar gathering: 1. TheAfghan State and its Interaction with Parallel State and Non-StateActors; Embryonic State Institutions and Traditions in the Liminal Areas of the Afghan Linguistic and Cultural Oecumene ; 2. Systemically Important Elements of the Afghan Political and Social Sphere; 3. Warfare in Afghanistan and the Liminal Areas of the Afghan Linguistic and Cultural Oecumene . While these focuses have been chosen for their wide application across all centuries and regions of Afghanistan and its environs and their impact on all disciplines devoted to this area, participants were invited to propose their own panels and subjects dealing with academic aspects of Afghan Studies. To our delight that invitation prompted the addition of Archaeology and Material Culture to the list of conference panels.