Aasland Research Plan (2020)

Erik Arthur Aasland Research Statement 2020 One of the most fascinating topics to investigate is how a society recrafts itself. Kazakhstan is in exactly such a position, gaining independence in 1993. My research focuses on how the appropriation of Kazakh proverbs plays a role in this process. For five years I carried out dissertation field research, investigating how Kazakh proverbs are used. Interested in understanding more than just the perspectives of academics, I decided to work with technical university students who from the fifth grade onward would have been directed to the sciences and not encouraged to read books on language or literature. This focus presented a challenge because this group had a lower incidence of proverb use in daily conversation. In response to this challenge, I developed a new research technique for my dissertation research: proverb reenactment. Students took a proverb familiar to them from a set of Kazakh proverbs on the topic of community and developed a skit with a classmate. The analysis of these performances was the primary data in my dissertation. In 2011, I returned to the United States to finish my dissertation. After completing my Ph.D., I remained in the U.S., teaching anthropology and intercultural communication. This geographic shift required a change in research methodology to continue with Kazakh proverb research. My breakthrough article was published in the fall of 2018 and used ethnographic interviews along with the analysis of social media and databases of mass media publications to explore two Kazakh proverbial calls to action. I considered the meaning and cultural background of two proverbs: one that was utilized in mass media and the other only in online chat forums. The professional association New Directions in Folklore hailed this as a promising new technique. My dissertation research caught the attention of a linguist colleague in Kazakhstan. Gulnara Omarbekova contacted me to suggest that we work together. Our first collaboration was on a grant proposal for Nazarbayev University where she teaches. We received a threeyear grant to research proverb use in Kazakhstan, taking the discourse ecologies approach advocated in the article. We carried out surveys with students and ethnographic interviews with scholars in five cities in Kazakhstan during May and June of 2019. This will lead to two, coauthored journal articles exploring proverb identification and discourse ecologies as a technique. My colleague and I have started a secondary project this year based on an invitation from Canadian colleagues. The new research evaluates changes to bridewealth among Kazakhs from the late Soviet period until today. I presented with this group at the American Anthropological Association/Canadian Society for Anthropology Conference in the Fall of 2019. Discussions are currently underway with a university press about an edited volume about bridewealth practices from around the world. Although the new project is considerably different from our proverb research, I am confident that the exploration of changes in cultural practices will help inform subsequent work on proverbs and their changing cultural impact. In addition to the two articles and book chapter I will also begin preparations for a visit to Kazakhstan in 2021 as part of the grant with Nazarbayev University. The third year of the project will include work on a website for student and the general public presenting the role of discourse ecologies in the contemporary use of Kazakh proverbs.