Thinking Through the Silk Roads, Cross-Cultural Exchanges and Mobilities Connected Community

This Connected Community proposes an innovative framework for the study of cultural productions, visual arts and performances, cultural heritage, and geocultural politics, emergent in the broad context of old and new Silk Roads. It will draw on the expertise of a strong team with regional and linguistic expertise covering South/Southeast Europe, Central and Southeast Asia, all with established collaborations across the academic networks and beyond.

The community aspires to produce new knowledge about the geocultural politics shaping identities, cultural and heritage policies and cultural diplomacy across South and Southeast Europe, Eurasia, and Southeast Asia today by bringing together findings and insights from theatre performance studies, history of art, critical heritage studies, cultural studies and international relations/geopolitics. Another aim is to identify the complex patterns of contestation, collaboration, and solidarities surrounding the engagement of non-Western powers such as Russia, India and Turkey with China in Southeast Europe/Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia by examining the complex and dynamic forces that entwine there to create new Silk Road imaginaries.