Professional Affiliation

Professor, Indiana University

Wilson Center Project

Family Lives and Public Careers in Soviet and Post-Soviet Uzbekistan: Dynamics of a Muslim Tradition in a Political Culture of Scientific Atheism

Project Summary

Explores the consequences of the Soviet state and its political culture of scientific atheism upon the beliefs and cultural practices of Muslim societies in Central Asia, noting the impact of Soviet political culture upon traditional Muslim family structure, identities, and loyalties which were targeted for revolutionary transformation and the role of Central Asian Muslim families in their members’ decisions to accept Soviet ideology and practices in the processes of socialist tranformation, or to resist them and how. Centers upon ehtrongraphic data from Uzbek families.