Digitising the Past, Nourishing the Present: Cultural Heritage Documentation and Performance in Central Asia

With the advent of new tools and technologies, cultural heritage is now widely shared through digital platforms, shaping how traditions are seen, valued, and promoted. Communities are using digital tools creatively, from short videos and remixes to gaming and DJ culture. 

At the same time, cultural heritage in Central Asia continues to be actively performed, reinterpreted, and negotiated in the contemporary social, political, artistic, and cultural landscape, especially as infrastructure is uneven and geopolitical situations evolve, and seasonal rituals and practices face challenges due to environmental and climate change.

This conference aims to explore the links between heritage, technology, and performance in Central Asia. It will bring together scholars, artists, cultural practitioners, archivists, technologists, and policymakers to discuss how heritage is documented, digitised, and lived today. The focus is on ethical, community-based approaches and on the relationship between historical digital records and living cultural practices today.

The conference will address methods of digital documentation, the role of performance in sustaining heritage, ethical issues related to representation and ownership, and opportunities for regional and international collaboration in safeguarding sustainable heritage.

Proposed themes and discussions may include (but are not limited to):

• Digital archives, repositories, and cultural memory;
• Performance as heritage transmission and knowledge practice;
• Audio-visual documentation of music, dance, and oral traditions;
• Photography as an ethnographic method, artistic practice, and heritage evidence;
• Community-based and participatory documentation methods;
• Heritage, technology, and youth engagement;
• Manuscript culture, textual transmission, and the materiality of knowledge;
• Digital heritage and cultural policy in Central Asia;
• Intangible heritage, UNESCO frameworks, and local realities;
• Artistic reinterpretations and contemporary performances of tradition;
• Ethics of digitisation: access, authorship, and cultural rights.

Interdisciplinary, practice-based, and critically reflective contributions are especially encouraged.

Submission Guidelines

• Abstract length: 250–300 words, including title, author or authors, institutional affiliation, and email;
• Short bio: 100–150 words for each presenter;
• Languages: English (primary), Russian, and Tajik are also considered;

Submit your abstracts to: CHHU@ucentralasia.org 

• Format: the conference will be held in hybrid mode; presenters may participate either in person or online;
• Venue: 61/2 Nisor Muhammad Street, Dushanbe, Tajikistan;
• Travel: the conference does not provide funding or travel support for participants who wish to present in person.
• Presenters are expected to cover their own travel and accommodation expenses.

The abstract submission deadline is 25 March 2026. Acceptance notifications will be sent by 5 April 2026.

Selected papers may be considered for inclusion in an edited volume or a special journal issue following the conference.