Book Talk Event
Dark Shadows: Inside the Secret World of Kazakhstan a conversation with Joanna Lillis
Wednesday 28th November 2018 17.00-18.30
University of Oxford, New College (Lecture Room 4)
Oxford, OX1 3BN
Overview
The Oxford Seminar for the Caucasus and Central Asia (TOSCCA) and the University of Oxford Brookes, would like to invite you to a talk with Joanna Lillis, who has been one of the main journalists reporting on Central Asia. Based on 13 years of on-the-ground reporting from Kazakhstan, her book Dark Shadows: Inside the Secret World of Kazakhstan, paints a vivid picture of Kazakhstan’s turbulent political history and reveals some of the incredible stories and events that have shaped the political life in Kazakhstan since independence. From the murderous escapades of Rakhat Aliyev, Nazarbayev’s deceased and disgraced former son-in-law, to the manhunt for Mukhtar Ablyazov, the France-based exiled oligarch and political bête noire of the regime, the book contains some extraordinary twists and turns of the Nazarbayev’s regime dynamics. At the same time, the book deals in great-depth with the history of Kazakhstan and its people after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Lillis’ insights offer a compelling analysis of Kazakhstan, torn between its Soviet legacies and the making of its state identity in present times. It also shows us the very human faces of its extraordinary people.
Joanna Lillis, Dark Shadows: Inside the Secret World of Kazakhstan published by I. B. Tauris
Participants
Edmund Herzig (Soudavar Professor of Persian Studies, University of Oxford)
Chair
Dr Saipira Furstenberg (Lecturer in Politics, University of Oxford Brookes)
Speakers
Joanna Lillis (Freelance Journalist)
Dr Alexander Morrison (Fellow & Tutor in History, University of Oxford)
Sofya du Boulay-Omarova (Marie Curie fellow, PhD candidate in Political Science, Oxford Brookes University)
