Research — Moira O'Shea, PhD

Ala-Too Square, Bishkek. 2019. © Moira O’Shea

Amidst Horse Games and Monuments: Nation-Making, Material Culture, and Belonging in Contemporary Kyrgyzstan

As in many post-Soviet cities, the decades following the collapse of the Soviet Union have inscribed numerous changes on the urban landscape of Bishkek. New buildings have gone up, monuments have been built or moved, new holidays have been celebrated, and new rituals have been initiated. In these objects and events, the nation is embodied in material and visual objects. Taken from the ‘top-down’, these objects or rites may be seen as reflections of the state. Studied from the ‘bottom-up’, they are objects ripe for contention and reinterpretation. My dissertation explores the multi-directional processes that connect these levels, asking how a relatively new nation is engaging in cultural modes of nation-making in the 21st century. Leveraging archival and ethnographic data collected over 18 months of fieldwork, I explore processes of cultural nationalism across two sites: the building of national monuments in the capital city and the transformation of an ancient horse game—kok boru—into an international sport. Through these sites I illustrate the creative processes, imaginations, and narratives that accompany cultural forms of nationalism and ideas of modernity and tradition in post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan.

The Nation in Bronze and Granite: Creating national monuments in post-Soviet Bishkek

Scholars of nationalism have long looked to material forms of symbolic power to understand the politics and cultures of nations, and national monuments specifically have been studied as reflections of ideological programmes of political regimes. However, these approaches have paid insufficient attention to processes of creation. Given the importance of material symbols as sites through which the nation is understood, I argue that analysing the dynamics of creation expands our understanding of symbolic nation making. Using the case of Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, and focusing on moments of creation and the actors involved in them, I build a conceptual framework for understanding the construction of national symbols on the ground based on three interconnected and co-constituting dynamics: spatial, temporal and aesthetic/semiotic. Using this framework, I demonstrate how meaning and materiality are related to one another both as component and consequent in the creation of national monuments and how it is their very imperfection as material representations that provides the context for the nation to emerge as a category of discourse.

Ak-Kula Hippodrome, Bishkek. 2019. © Moira O’Shea

“We took the national game and turned it into a sport”: Playing kok boru and re-inventing tradition in post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan

This article examines how a traditional horse game—kok boru—has transformed into a national sport for international consumption in post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan. Drawing on Hobsbawm’s concept of ‘invented tradition,’ I explore how this game is being transformed for use in a globalizing context and the limits to this transformation. The concept of ‘invented tradition’ has provided theoretical purchase on the need for and use of tradition in modern societies and new states in particular; however, the extent to which tradition may be malleable remains unaddressed. Utilizing ethnographic and interview-based research, I demonstrate that the dual use of kok boru as an object of ancient tradition and a means to promote the country on the international stage sheds light on the way in which distinction and legibility are in tension as aspects of the game are either conserved or modified. In illuminating this tension, I offer a nuanced account of how traditions are re-invented for national and international consumption.

Opportunity and Memorial (In)Congruence: Contesting Confederate Monuments in New Orleans

At times monuments have been contested, supported, or seemingly forgotten, sometimes very suddenly. This begs the question: how and when do objects of public art become objects of contestation about history and memory? I argue that monuments may be understood as sites of ambiguous boundaries, where associated narratives are contested through claims of memorial incongruence. This study highlights the importance of opportunity for contestation to arise, bringing these conflicting narratives into stark relief. Monuments are fruitful spaces of inquiry precisely because of their ambiguity— they are neither fully of the past nor fully of the present; they act as symbolic boundaries for narratives of history, memory, and identity.