U of A Scholars at Risk Committee Hosts Baktybek Beshimov as 2020 Guest Lecturer

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Baktybek Beshimov

The Scholars at Risk Committee for the University of Arkansas will host the 2020 Professor Dick Bennett Scholars at Risk Lecture Series, "Post-Soviet Central Asia: New Authoritarianism and Academic Freedom," to be given by Baktybek Beshimov, a scholar-diplomat from Kyrgyzstan who was forced to flee the country after threats to his life by the government.

The lecture is part of International Education Week (Nov. 16-20), a national celebration recognizing the benefits of international education and global exchanges of students and scholars. Beshimov's virtual lecture will be hosted on Zoom at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 18. This event is free and open to the public.  

Beshimov is a faculty member of the Global Studies and International Relations program at Northeastern University. He has extensive experience  in international diplomacy, politics, education, and development. 

Beshimov played a crucial role in formulating development policy in Central Asia as national manager of the United Nations Ferghana Valley Development Program and the UNDP LIFE program in the 1990s. He was twice elected to the parliament of Kyrgyzstan, where he served as leader of the opposition faction and parliament representative to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

In diplomacy, Beshimov served as the ambassador of Kyrgyzstan to India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bangladesh, and was the representative of the Kyrgyzstan Parliament in the Organisation for Security and Economic Cooperation in Europe. 

He was awarded the prestigious Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellowship by the U.S. National Endowment for Democracy in 2010. From 2010-2015, he was a visiting professor at Harvard University's Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, MIT's Center for International Studies, and Suffolk University's Government Department. He also served as provost/vice president for academic affairs of the American University in Central Asia and President of Osh State University.

Beshimov is the author of four books, including Ferghana Valley: The Heart of Central Asia, and a frequent contributor to international media. His articles have been published in the Wall Street Journal, Transitions Online, and the Diplomat Magazine, Asia Times, Al Jazeera, and Open Democracy

Scholars at Risk is an international network of higher education institutions and individuals working to protect scholars and promote academic freedom. The U of A is an institutional member of the Scholars at Risk network.

The event is sponsored by the UA Scholars at Risk committee and co-sponsored by:

• Graduate School and International Education

• Professor Dick Bennett Scholars at Risk Lecture Series

• Graduate Student Congress

• Asian Studies Program

• King Fahd Center for Middle East Studies

• School of Law

• Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies program

• Department of History

• Department of Political Science

• International and Global Studies program