Sevket’s PhD 2011

  • An in-depth history of ideas, intellectual, & political history study of Soviet enculturation and acculturation in Muslim Central Asia. Title: Soviet era Socialisation Channels in Uzbekistan 1924 to 1991: Theory and Practice
  • My methodology was library-based, using English-language Cold War texts and literature that covered Marxist-Leninist primary sources.
  • My research explained:
    • (1) the core Soviet socialisation channels:
      • schools, colleges, trade schools, universities
      • sport and leisure institutions
      • public ceremony, mass mobilisation and ritual
      • Youth movements of Soviet Central Asia: the Pioneers and the Komsomol,
    • (2) the building of the collective ‘socialist people’ with a shared ideological consciousness – commonly and mistakenly known in the West as the ‘Soviet Man’,
    • (3) the effect of Gorbachev’s perestroika restructuring and glasnost openness policies on education and the preparation of young people for the adult world in Central Asia
    • (4) the significance of civic values and norms within an authoritarian education system – with the aim to create a common outlook amidst 100 plus different ethnic-cultural Soviet nations and peoples.
  • My PhD was entirely self-funded, and I balanced my research with paid employment. The case study was Uzbekistan, a Muslim-majority country with the largest population in Central Asia. And with an intellectual focus on social issues, theory and education. The time period was 1924-1991 CE, with a particular focus on the 1980s.
    • The theoretical framework used is R. M. Smith’s Stories of Peoplehood: The Politics and Morals of Political Membership (2010).