The Summer Academy takes place in Khorog, the capital of the Autonomous Region of Mountain Badakhshan in Tajikistan. Overlooking the Panj river and the border between Tajikistan and Afghanistan at an altitude of 2.200 m, Khorog is an ideal place to explore cultural heritage as expressions of past and present experiences of mountain societies living along the crossroads of Central Eurasia. While mountain societies were often considered peripheral, this Summer Academy offers the opportunity to experience connectivities and cultural connectedness in and across Pamir Mountains of Central Asia. The material and immaterial legacies around us will offer multiple vantage points for discussing theories, methods, and approaches to cultural heritage in particular from the perspective of cultural infrastructure that shapes discourses, practices and politics on different scales, from the local to the translocal.

• Where: University of Central Asia, Khorog, Tajikistan
• When: 17 – 30 August 2026
• Duration: 14 days (2 days of transfer Dushanbe-Khorog, 10 days Khorog, 2 days return transfer to Dushanbe)
• Language: English
• Level: Graduate students (MA and PhD), exceptions for advanced BA (see below)
• Credits: Certificate of Participation
• Costs and scholarships: Course fee 200 EUR including tuition, study materials and excursions. Full scholarships (course fee waivers, travel and accommodation grants) are available for participants enrolled in an institution of higher learning in Tajikistan or other Central Asian countries. Other participants can apply for a number of scholarships including travel and accommodation grants. Other expenses such as insurance, visa, meals and individual activities during the weekend are not included.

Summer Academy Faculty

The Summer Academy is led by Jeanine Dağyeli (University of Vienna, Dept. of Near Eastern Studies & Austrian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Iranian Studies), Ariane Sadjed and Florian Schwarz (both Austrian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Iranian Studies) in collaboration with faculties from Social Sciences and Humanities of University of Central Asia in Khorog, Tajikistan. It is financially supported by a grant from the Austrian Cluster of Excellence Eurasian Transformations.

Application

If you want to apply for the Summer Academy Cultural Heritage at the Mountain Crossroads of Central Asia, please send your application including a CV and a letter of motivation to iran.office@oeaw.ac.at by May 15, 2026.

Contact

I you have any further questions regarding the Summer Academy, please feel free to contact the organisers directly:

Jeanine Dağyeli: jeanine.dagyeli@univie.ac.at
Ariane Sadjed: ariane.sadjed@oeaw.ac.at
Florian Schwarz: Florian.Schwarz@oeaw.ac.at

For further information, see here.