Culturally and economically decapitated by the Bolsheviks more than a century ago, Tajiks today have been left with the poorest of all the former Soviet republics. Richard Foltz, author of A History of the Tajiks: Iranians of the East, discusses how neither generations of nationalist intellectuals nor the iron-fisted rule of current president Emomali Rahmon have succeeded in instilling a cohesive sense of national identity among the Tajik population.

Speaker:

Richard Foltz is a cultural historian of the broader Iranian world whose interests span from the Kurds in the west to the Tajiks in the east. He holds a Ph.D. in History and Middle East Studies from Harvard University and has taught at Brown, Columbia, and the University of Florida. He is currently a Full Professor in the Department of Religions and Cultures at Concordia University in Montréal, Canada. His books and articles have been translated into more than a dozen languages.