Schooling the Sense of Belonging: Identity Politics and Educational Change in Post-Soviet Tatarstan

Responsible for the doctoral project: Dr. Dilyara Suleymanova (doctoral thesis 2013)
Funded by: Humer-Foundation for Academic Talent
Project duration: January 2009 – December 2011
Doctoral committee: Prof. Dr. Peter Finke, Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology/URPP Asia and Europe; Prof. Dr. Katharina Michaelowa, Department for Political Science/URPP Asia and Europe; Prof. Dr. Christian Giordano, Institute for Social Anthropology, University of Fribourg/Freiburg.
Research Field: Norms and Social Order(s)

Abstract

Since fall of the Soviet Union the Republic of Tatarstan, an autonomous republic within the Russian Federation with Turkic-speaking Muslim population of Tatars and Slavic-speaking Orthodox Russians, is implementing a  nation-building project. Language and education are among the most important fields where Tatarstan is implementing its nationhood project, constructing and projecting new post-Soviet identity. My PhD project seeks to examine politics and practices of education and language in Tatarstan and its relation to identity building (ethnic, civic, religious identities) within the context of Tatarstan’s post-Soviet nation-building efforts. The main site of investigation of this interrelationship are schools. Post-Soviet system of education in Tatarstan comprises of different types of schools (regular, ethno-national, religious schools) each being an interesting field for investigating attempts by state and non-state actors to project and promote certain identity representations. My main research questions in this respect will be: What is the relationship between education, language and identity? How certain values, ideologies and identities are inculcated through school politics? How projected discourses and identities are appropriated or resisted by schoolchildren and their parents?

Research Summary (PDF, 73 KB)