Kazakh Language and Prospects for Its Role in Kazakh Groupness

By: Dr. William Fierman

William Fierman is the director of the Inner Asian and Uralic National Resources Center as well as the Center for the Languages of the Central Asian Region; he is an associate professor of Uralic and Altaic studies at Indiana University. Prior to this, he taught political science courses at the University of Tennessee for eleven years. He has served as a consultant for the evaluation of Radio Liberty Central Asian Services, and Soros Foundation - Kyrgyzstan, and Soros Foundation - Kazakhstan. Dr. Fierman is the author of the book,Language Planning and National Development: The Uzbek Experience (1991), and numerous academic articles and chapters, including "Changing Urban Demography and the Prospects of Nationalism in Kazakhstan," Canadian Review of Studies in Nationalism (2000), "Language and Identity in Kazakhstan: Formulations in Policy Documents," Communist and Post-Communist Studies (1998), and "Political Development in Uzbekistan: Democratization?," Conflict, Cleavage, and Change in Central Asia and the Caucasus (1997).  He is the recipient of several research grants and fellowships, including two IREX grants and a Fulbright-Hays Fellowship. Dr. Fierman received his PhD in political science from Harvard University.