Knowledge centre Viae Caspiae

Measuring about 371,000 square kilometers and situated on the interface of Eastern Europe, the northern and southern Caucasus and Central Asia, the Caspian Sea is globally the largest fully-landlocked waterbody. Viae Caspiae wants to offer a framework for multidisciplinary and cross-faculty study of the Caspian Sea, its littoral region and basin, and its overall position in the wider regions and polities that surround it. It will not only be approached as a maritime space and -system in se but also in terms of the role an impact of the (vicinity of) the landlocked sea on the societies and cultures of the Caspian littoral.

By doing so, Viae Caspiae want to examine a sub-region of the wider area through the lens of one of its major physical-geographic features − the presence of a sea – rather than through a cluster of countries and polities. Its purpose is to go beyond the cliché of the Caspian being merely as an oil-producing region and passive subject of abstract geopolitics. Though not exhaustive, topics that are most of interest are: social history; cultural identities; current social-grassroots dynamics; ecology and environment; extractive industries and their social-societal impact; post-oil extraction scenarios and -perspectives and economic diversification.

Given its focus on an ‘inland sea’ paradigm and the interconnectedness between the Caspian and Aral Sea regions, the centre is also open to topics related to the Aral area.

Members

		Bruno De Cordier is Associate Professor and Deputy Head of Department at the Department of Conflict and Development Studies at the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences of Ghent University (Universiteit Gent). He teaches Humanitarian Policy there and has previously been an international relief worker for various relief organisations for almost ten years, the bulk in deployment in areas of the former Yugoslavia and the former Soviet Union and especially Central Asia. De Cordier also has a course in the social history of Central Asia and the world of the steppe, which extents ultimately to the Pontic-Caspian steppe in eastern Europe. He is particularly interested in the extents and ways in which past histories continue to be reflected in present realities and identities, and in ways is which history can inspire ways to deal with the turbulent present and -future. Some of De Cordier’s latest feats is the co-authoring and editing of the ‘The European handbook of Central Asian studies: history, politics, societies’ which was published in autumn 2021 with ibidem Verlag and of "Photographing Central Asia - from the periphery of the Russian empire to global presence", which was published in summer 2022 with De Gruyter.
		Nazerke Amangeldy is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Environment at Ghent University's Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, is currently employed as a doctoral researcher within the Precision Soil and Crop Engineering research group at Ghent University. Her work revolves around the NUTRIBUDGET project, focusing on variable rate bio-based fertilization, precision agriculture, and proximal soil sensing. She earned her B.Sc. in Agrochemistry from Auezov South Kazakhstan State University in 2019 and completed her M.Sc. in Soil Biogeochemistry and Global Change in 2022 through the IMSOGLO-joint Master’s program, jointly organized by Ghent University (Belgium), the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna (Austria), and the University of Göttingen (Germany). Her master's thesis research centered on the impact of crop residue incorporation and removal on greenhouse gas emissions in agricultural croplands near Vienna, Austria. Nazerke is dedicated to raising awareness about environmental issues in the Caspian region and believes that being part of the Eureast Platform is an effective and direct means to contribute to addressing these challenges. She is particularly passionate about contributing to environmental initiatives in her home country, Kazakhstan.
		Nick Krekelbergh is a teaching assistant and PhD researcher at the Department of Environment at the Faculty of Bioscience Engineering of Ghent University (Universiteit Gent). He is currently employed at the research groups of Soil Fertility & Nutrient Management and Soil Degradation & Conservation. As a teaching assistant, he’s been active in subjects such as Soil Science, Soil Erosion, Nutrient Management, Biogeochemical Cycles, Soil Degradation and Land Evaluation. His PhD research focuses on the detection, dynamics and distribution of microplastics in soil. He supervised several bachelor papers and master theses in this field of research, investigating the detection of microparticles and the migration of microplastics between different ecosystem compartments and towards the groundwater table. In 2002 he graduated in archaeology with a master's thesis on Bronze Age burial mound structures in the West Flemish landscape. Furthermore, Nick has over 15 years of experience in archaeological research, both in Flanders and the Netherlands. He has gained experience with archaeological excavations as well as with large-scale prospective landscape soil research. In 2019, he graduated as Master of Science in Geography. His master thesis research focused on soil erosion and soil mapping in agricultural basins in Nord-Pas-de-Calais (France). He has a specific interest in the region covered by the Eureast Platform, and the Caspian Basin in particular, from an environmental and physical geographical point of view.
		Karolina Kluczewska is a FWO postdoctoral researcher at the Ghent Institute for International and European Studies (GIES), and a research associate at the Institute of Middle East, Central Asia and Caucasus Studies at the University of St Andrews (UK). Her current research explores evolving understanding of welfare in Poland and Tajikistan. She received her PhD degree in International Relations from the University of St Andrews, where she defended her PhD thesis on development aid in Tajikistan. In recent years, she held research and teaching positions at the Centre for Global Cooperation Research, University of Marburg and University of Giessen (Germany), Tajik National University (Tajikistan), Tomsk State University (Russia) and University Sorbonne Paris Nord (France). Karolina also has practical experience in the development sector in Tajikistan, where she worked for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and Eurasia Foundation of Central Asia (EFCA)-Tajikistan. She is a member of an academic network ‘Local Ordering and Peace’ based at the University of Hamburg, which largely focuses on post-Soviet Eurasia.