top of page
OUR GOALS
To record an oral history of the Amu Darya River, documenting the changing human ecology and cultural history of the region.
To record interviews with the people mitigating the worst effects of the Aral Sea Crisis – highlighting the solutions needed to navigate the challenges of this changing landscape.
WHY OUR RESEARCH MATTERS
Lack of media understanding:
Despite being one of the worst manmade environmental disasters in history, global media awareness surrounding the Aral Sea Crisis is extremely limited.
Lack of academic understanding:
Outside of Uzbekistan, well-researched and extensive historiography of the Aral Sea Crisis is still a new field.
Constrained geographical focus:
Studies of the crisis have largely focused on the Aral Sea itself, and not on the upstream stories the crisis.
Lack of stakeholder engagement:
Studies of the Aral Sea Crisis tend to leave out the personal experiences of the people who have lived through the crisis along the Amu Darya river.
Timing:
In as little as 10 years from now, it will be impossible to record the first-hand memory of the entire Aral Sea Crisis. Today, some communities will remember the Soviet canal expansion of the 1960s all the way through to the reforms under President Mirziyoyev.
bottom of page