Project updates
Look back at milestones achieved as part of the Afterlives project.
Highlights throughout the project
These updates run from most recent at the top.
March 2025
Magnus Marsden wrote an essay on the Karakul fur trade for the reader accompanying the 'Musafiri: of Travellers and Guests' exhibition organised by the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) in Berlin. The exhibition is rooted in efforts to make possible a world where travellers arrive and are received as guests. It follows worlds as they have been braided by intrepid travellers and unwillingly displaced individuals and communities in history, to the intensifying migratory movements of today. Magnus' essay was published in German and English and explores the combined mobile trajectories of Muslim and Jewish exiles from Central Asia in the years following the Russian revolution. It was also selected to be featured in HKW's online magazine.
See more about the exhibition and view online magazine.
December 2024
The Afterlives project received an extension from the AHRC to continue research for another 12 months. Magnus Marsden has spent his research time in the final months of the project conducting archival research into the trade in Karakul furs. Having explored documents in the India Office Records (British Library), the Hudson's Bay Company (Manitoba Archives) and the National Archives (Kew) he sifted through the professional journals of the fur trade in order to glean insights into the dynamics of the trade in Karakul skins and the role of actors from Central Asia and Afghanistan in it between the 1920s and the 1970s. Magnus has read in particular consecutive issues across this period of the British Fur Trade and Fur Review journals in the British Library and consulted the Women's Wear Daily available at UCL Library. Magnus has also held meetings with people from Afghanistan involved in the fur trade in the 1980s who currently live in London, including people from villages in which the sheep were raised and a former executive of the Pashtany Tijorati Bank that financed traders involved in the export of Karakul skins between the 1950s and 1980s.
On Tuesday 10 December, Magnus Marsden was invited to the Farsi Action Foundation office in Uxbridge to discuss his research on the Karakul fur trade. He was fortunate to meet several people from northern Afghanistan in London who were active in the Karakul trade in the 1980s and 1990s.
Vera Skvirskaja conducted fieldwork in several locations in Uzbekistan, focusing on the former Jewish neighborhoods in Tashkent, Samarkand, and Bukhara, as well as the reconstruction and maintenance of Jewish cemeteries. The centrally located former Jewish mahalla in Tashkent has become a popular destination for affluent foreigners and, more recently, Chinese property investors, rapidly altering the visual character of the neighborhood. In Samarkand, the new owners of former Jewish properties have reconstructed old buildings (some classified by UNESCO as cultural heritage) to make them livable and/or adapt them to different cultural aesthetics and commercial demands. The Jewish cemeteries have undergone significant gentrification, financed by the global Bukharan Jewish diaspora and, in the case of the city of Bukhara, supported by the regional administration. This gentrification has, however, not only improved the cemeteries' infrastructure and taken care of abandoned graves but has also generated new tensions regarding entitlements, reconstruction templates and the distribution of resources.
Magnus Marsden visited Leipzig and Berlin, 1 - 4th December 2024. In Leipzig he consulted documents relating to the Karakul fur trade in the State archives and visited sites of historical importance to the trade. In Berlin, he held a meeting with staff at the Haus der Kulturen Der Welt who have commissioned him to write a book chapter exploring the relevance of his work for the Afterlives project to the forthcoming exhibition 'Musafiri: of Travellers and Guests'.
November 2024
On 18 November, Magnus Marsden gave a talk to students at Varndean College in Brighton about the project and it's insights into understanding Afghanistan's place in the modern world.
Magnus Marsden presented a seminar at the Sussex Asia Centre on 15 November entitled "After the Silk Road: the Karakul Fur Trade and the World".
Moska Najib traveled to Copenhagen to curate the exhibition at the Royal Danish Library, South Campus. The exhibition was sponsored by the Asian Dynamic Initiative at the University of Copenhagen. At the opening, it was welcomed by Dr. Trine Brox, Head of Research at the Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies. Vera Skvirskaja introduced the 'Afterlives' project to an audience that included members of the Danish Afghan community. The opening also featured a talk between Moska and Professor Mette Sandbye from the Department of Arts and Cultural Studies, who specializes in photography and memory in contemporary art and society more broadly. Professor Sandbye highlighted the groundbreaking nature of the Afterlives project in that it has brought a professional photographer on board for the ethnographic research project and acknowledged the importance of visual storytelling from the start. The exhibition remained on display until mid-January 2025.
October 2024
On 23 October, Magnus Marsden presented a talk to the Forum for Uzbek and Silk Road studies organised by Westminster International University Tashkent. The title of his talk was "This crazy but completely fascinating business: The Karakul Trade in London and Beyond, 1924-1970".
August 2024
During the course of visiting New York in August, Magnus Marsden shared project results with the following associations: Hekmat Foushanji (Afghan American Trading Company), Jack Abrahams (Afghan Jewish community), Abdullah Khwajah (Turkestanian American Association, New Jersey), and the Committee of the Guru Nanak Darbar Gurdwara (Afghan Sikhs, Long Island). In addition to discussing the project's research, opportunities for further collaborations were also explored.
On 8 August, Magnus Marsden discussed the project's findings with Uzbekistan's Ambassador to the UK, Ravshan Usmanov.
July 2024
On 28 July, Magnus Marsden organised and attended an event at the Sri Guru Singh Sabha Gurdwara in Surrey, Vancouver (Canada), to share the findings of the project with the Afghan Sikh community in Canada. Magnus gave a talk about the project and presented members of the community with a booklet of Moska Najib's exhibition displayed at SOAS, University of London.
On 20 July, Magnus Marsden attended the 25th anniversary of the Great Bala Pritam Gurmat Samagam in Hayes, London. During the event he gave a speech on the distinctive contributions of Afghan Sikhs, received an award from the community and presented Dr Khurana with a certificate of recognition for his scholarly activities on behalf of the School of Global Studies, University of Sussex. Other invited guests included Seema Malhotra MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Home Office.
Paul Anderson has conducted life history interviews with Armenians from Aleppo focusing on relations with Muslims and economic activities before during and since the civil war. These have been conducted in Yerevan (January, May, August 2024) and in Kuwait (May 2024). He has also administered questionnaires and conducted remote interviews with Muslim Aleppines in Aleppo, Gaziantep and Istanbul on their experiences and perceptions of neighbourhoods which were home to Jews and Armenians. Finally, he has been consulting Arabic chronicles and memoirs of Jewish-majority areas in Aleppo to better understand their historical development and the ways in which they have been rendered as heritage subjects.
Magnus Marsden has been contextualising his ethnographic work through time in the archives. In the UK, he has consulted records relating to the activities of Jews, Sikhs and Hindus from Afghanistan at the British Library, the National Archives, and the London Archives. Most recently, he travelled to Winnipeg in Canada in order to visit the Manitoba Archives, the holding place of the Hudson's Bay Company Archives. The Hudson's Bay Company was the principal agent in the sale of Afghan Kararkul fur in the twentieth century, a trade in which both Jews and Muslims from Afghanistan and Central Asia played a pivotal role.
After the photo exhibition ‘Belonging Flexibly’ in London, Vera Skvirskaja conducted some brief fieldwork in Vienna, focusing on the publishing activities and plans of Bukharan Jewish activists, meeting members of the Bukharan Jewish community who featured in the photo exhibition and/or facilitated the shooting session, as well as attending a Bukhran Jewish women’s study group. Vera noted there is a desire to popularise the knowledge about the Bukharan Jewish in Vienna (and Europe) - both their historical background, migration pathways and especially as their membership in the wider, national Jewish community of Austria - to the general public. This year (in November), the Bukharans will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the establishment of their community in Austria. Looking back, they are particularly proud of becoming a presence in Austrian public and political life. Recently, the Bukharan Jewish community has taken part in providing first assistance to the Jewish refugees from the war-affected Ukraine and facilitated their smooth introduction to Austrian society. Vera has followed up on the links between the Bukharan and Ukrainian Jewish communities in Vienna to map new transnational connections of this global diaspora.
On 11 July, the 'Afterlives' project held a conference at SOAS, University of London. The aim of the conference was to share and debate the project’s findings with participating communities, relevant government officials and heritage experts, the general public and relevant scholars. The first panel was chaired by Qaisra Khan (Curator at The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art). The speakers were Magnus Marsden (University of Sussex), Vera Skvirskaja (Copenhagen University), Paul Anderson (University of Cambridge), and Sudaba Zahidi (AISS). The second panel was chaired by Dawood Azami (Multi-Media Editor, BBC World Service). The speakers were Moska Najib (Afterlives project photographer), Thomas Loy (Oriental Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences and Afterlives Advisory Board member), Faisal Devji (University of Oxford) and Shah Mahmoud Hanifi (James Madison University and Afterlives Advisory Board Member). The event was attended by representatives of various community associations in the UK, past and present government officials of the UK and Afghanistan, leading experts in the field of Islamic heritage presentation, members of the public, postgraduate students, and leading academics.
Then in the evening the 'Afterlives' project launched a photography exhibition by the project photographer Moska Najib. The exhibition - titled Belonging Flexibly: Non-Muslim Migrants from Muslim Asia - is on display until September at the Brunei Gallery, SOAS. During the launch, Moska Najib introduced the photographs. In addition, representatives of a wide range of community organisations established by Sikhs and Hindus from Afghanistan resident in the UK shared the impressions of the photographs and the relevance of them and the project more generally to their communities in and beyond London.
June 2024
On 23 June Magnus Mardsen attended the 6th International Conference organised by the Nehkaame Sewa Trust, Guru Hargobind Singh Trust, along with all Afghan related organisations and Sadh Sangat at the Guru Nanak Sikh Academy, Hayes London. Magnus was presented with an award for his research on the Afghan Sikh and Hindu community by the conference organisers.
19 - 21 June, project team members Magnus Marsden, Vera Skvirskaja and Paul Anderson, alongside researcher Shahla Muram presented Papers at a panel entitled 'Mobile Societies, Coexistence and the Unbounding of Central Asia'.
4 June, Magnus Marsden has an article published in The Conversation called 'Khorasan: why many Afghanistan citizens are pushing back against the term’s association with terrorism'.
Magnus Marsden and Vera Skvirskaja have an article they co-wrote published online on the Hromada Network. The article is called ' ‘Non-traditional’ Immigrants in the Political Economy of Ukraine: Ukrainian Afghans'.
May 2024
On 5 May, Professor Magnus Marsden gave a talk in London on the contributions of Ustad Asif Mahmoud to music in Afghanistan and the diaspora. The talk was given on the occasion of a concert by Asif Mahmoud's son, Yousuf.
April 2024
The Copenhagen Journal of Asian Studies publishes its special Afterlives edition, featuring contributions from the research team. Download the journal.
18 April, Magnus Marsden's article on the connection between built neighbourhoods and heritage is published by The Edinburgh Press. The article is titled 'The Demolition of Jeddah and the Relocation of a Neighbourhood in Turkey'.
March 2024
On the 27 March, Magnus Marsden and Vera Skvirskaja joined colleague Paul Anderson in Cambridge for the Cambridge Festival, where they took part in a panel discussing the Afterlives of Urban Muslim Asia. The event was held at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, as part of the Cambridge Festival of Ideas. Find out more.
An article on was published on 'How central Asian Jews and Muslims worked together in London’s 20th-century fur and carpet trade' on the 26 March by Magnus Marsden. Read this article in The Conversation.
On 4 March, Magnus Marsden delivered a seminar at the Cambridge Central Asian Forum seminar series. His talk was entitled 'Beyond the Jewish Triangle: A Comparative and Connective Analysis of Muslim and Jewish Central Asian Emigres in the Twentieth Century'.
February 2024
Magnus Marsden gave an online talk on Afghan mobility and refugees at a conference entitled 'The Contemporary Developments in Afghanistan: Implications on Central Asia'. The conference was held on Tuesday, February 20, and was organised by the Institute of Advanced International Studies, at the University of World Economy and Diplomacy, Tashkent.
January 2024
Paul Anderson conducted a two-week period of fieldwork among Syrian Armenians in Yerevan, Armenia, and conducted 10 life history interviews focusing especially on relations to Islam and Muslims, and economic activities before, during and since the Syrian civil war.
December 2023
The project held a one day workshop in collaboration with ADI in Copenhagen. The focus of the workshop was on the concept of 'afterlives' and its relevance to intersecting fields of regional and transregional scholarship. The workshop enabled members of team to bring their work into conversation with scholars in Denmark and Sweden who are specialists in the study of Palestine, Syria, and the Caucasus.
November 2023
On the occasion of the 554th birthday of Guru Nanak, Magnus Marsden addressed the Afghan Sikh Khosti community on Monday 27 November in the Guru Nanak Society of London Trust Gurdwara in Tooting, South London. He discussed the project and also talked about the relevance of the teachings of Guru Nanak for the world today.
On the 22 November, Vera Skvirskaja gave a two-hour lecture followed by a Q&A on ‘Post-Soviet coexistence and Bukharan Jews, Uzbekistan’ at Københavns Folkeuniversitet, Folk-University (People’s University), Copenhagen.
21 November, Magnus Marsden ran a three-hour focused seminar on research outline writing to students from Afghanistan studying at MA and PhD level across the campus. The seminar included students from Global, Education, Law, and Business Schools.
In November Paul Anderson conducted an initial two-week period of fieldwork among Syrian Armenians who have moved to Yerevan, Armenia from Aleppo and from other places in Syria over the last 30 years, and especially since the Syrian civil war. He has been exploring questions of mobility, heritage and identity among Syrian Armenian traders and artisans, and the nature of connections and attachments they have been able to maintain, including with/to Aleppo and Syria.
On Saturday November 16, Magnus Marsden addressed a conference organised by the Afghan Sikh and Hindu communities of London. The conference focussed on the importance of recognising the contribution of the young professionals of these communities, especially in the field of public health. His talk focused on the significance of medicine to the history of Afghan Hindus and Sikhs and modes of integrating young people within the community.
On 4 November, Magnus Marsden delivered the keynote lecture at the "Bringing Afghanistan to Scale Conference" held at Merton College, University of Oxford. The lecture explored the trading networks of Afghan Jews between 1950 and the present day.
September 2023
At the end of September, Magnus Marsden presented a paper titled 'Intellectual Exchange in Muslim Asia' at a symposium held at Christ's College Cambridge to celebrate the career of Professor Susan Bayly and mark the publication of the book "An Anthropology of Intellectual Exchange: Interactions, Transactions and Ethics in Asia" (Berghahn 2023).
Alumni of Whittingehame Boys School, Hove, which shut in 1967, met to celebrate and reminisce at a reunion event in Brighton. Magnus Marsden and Paul Anderson joined the former students, along with local Brighton journalist Yael Breuer, to meet with and interview alumni. You can read more about the event at ‘Jewish Eton’ bonds are still strong 60 years on - The Jewish Chronicle (thejc.com). Magnus also appeared on The Latest TV, with Ms. Breuer, to discuss the former school - https://vimeo.com/880198306
9 September, an article by Magnus Marsden on the transformations of Afghanistan's commercial networks is published in the 9/11 legacies project - Islamist Radicalism in the Balkans (911legacies.com).
4 September, Magnus Marsden presented his research findings online at a conference 'Sustainable Development in Central Asia' organised by the University of World Economy and Diplomacy, Tashkent.
July 2023
Marsden Marsden travelled to Cambridge to present a paper on Afghan Jews. The paper, titled "Adjusting scales: Jewish trading networks in and beyond Afghanistan, 1950-present-day," was published in the December edition of History and Anthropology, 1-20
June 2023
Vera Skvirskaja conducted fieldwork jointly with Moska Nadjib - the project’s photographer - in Vienna, Austria. The main purpose of the trip was to document visually the vibrant social and professional life of the Bukharan Jewish community in the city.
Vera Skvirskaja published an article in The Bukharian Times, titled ‘Samarkand’s Secret Recipe: Jewish Shashlik'.
May 2023
The researchers and Advisory Board met in Cambridge to discuss the progress of the project and future developments.
On 2 May, Magnus Marsden attended an event held at the Guru Nanak Darbar in Southall to mark the publication of a book on the history of Afghan Sikhs by Dr Tej Khurana.
Paul Anderson came to Sussex to launch his book "Exchange Ideologies: Commerce, Language and Patriarchy in Pre-conflict Aleppo" (Cornell University Press). The book was published in April 2023.
Zentralasien-Analysen publish 'City and Transnationality in Central Asia. New and Old Cosmopolitanism as a Medium of Regional and Global People's Diplomacy', by Vera Skvirskaja and Magnus Marsden.
March 2023
Magnus Marsden's post on Afghanistan's religious diversity was published on the Cambridge University blog: ‘More than just a national treasure’: Afghanistan’s non-Muslim communities in the diaspora - Fifteen Eighty Four | Cambridge University Press ‘More than just a national treasure’: Afghanistan’s non-Muslim communities in the diaspora (cambridgeblog.org)
29 March, Vera Skvirskaja delivered a two-hour lecture at the Folkeuniversitet, Emdrup, Copenhagen on the present-day Bukhara, post-Soviet migration patterns and Bukharan Jew in the region - https://fuau.dk/emdrup/program/arkaeologi-og-historie/centralasien-i-fortid-og-nutid-2312-447
26 March, Magnus Marsden addressed a Nowruz gathering organised by the Afghan Dosti Association in Edgeware London.
February 2023
On 5 February, Magnus Marsden held a meeting with the leadership of the Union of Bukharian Jews in Tel Aviv to celebrate the organisation's 50th anniversary.
On 8 February, Magnus Marsden attended the launch of the Institute of Advanced International Studies (AIS) at the University of World Economic Diplomacy, University of Tashkent. A Memorandum of Understanding between AIS and the School of Global Studies (University of Susex) was also signed during the course of the event, which was attended by the leadership of UWED and the Deputy Foreign Minister of Uzbekistan.
In the months of February and January, https://www.afghanim.co.il published an article by Magnus Marsden. This is the first of two articles written and published on the website of Afghanistan's Jewry. The article was requested by the website organisers whom Magnus met during research in Israel. The article was translated into Hebrew and is widely read by Afghan Jews living in Israel and in the diaspora. The article arises from meetings which Magnus held with Jews from Afghanistan in Israel and New York, which sparked questions and interest amongst the community about the project.
November 2022
Magnus Marsden visited the Afghan Islamic Cultural Centre in Neasden, London, on 28 November 2022, and discussed the project's Sims and goals with Imams and mosque officials.
Paul Anderson presented some of his early ethnographic findings on 23 November at the Cambridge Anthropology-Theology Network.
The 'Afterlives' team met in Southall, London on 22 November to discuss and share their initial research findings with community organisations, including the Afghan EKTA cultural association and Gurdwara Guru Nanak Darbar.
On 17 November, Magnus Marsden attended an online event on 'Beyond the Silk Roads: Trade, Mobility and Goepolotics across Eurasia' organised by colleagues from the University of World Economy and Diplomacy.
Magnus Marsden joined colleagues at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Canada on the 2 November to discuss his research.
October 2022
On 14 October, Magnus Marsden spoke on the occasion of the opening of the offices of Farsi Action Foundation in Uxbridge.
On the 9 October, Magnus Marsden spoke at a panel to mark the book launch of the memoirs of the former Mayor of Kabul, Adbul Karim Misaq (1935-2016).
September 2022
Marsden addressed a gathering at the Asamai Hindu temple in Southall, London on the 20 September, marking the death of Queen Elizabeth.
"Ukraine's asylum and immigration policy has been 'relaxed' in practice, and the Afghan diaspora has been able to establish itself and contribute to both the country's economy and the development of Afghanistan. We could learn something from this in Denmark", writes Associate Professor Vera Skvirskaja and Professor Magnus Marsden in this opinion piece.
February 2022
Magnus Marsden gave a talk on 20 February at an event organised by the Farsi Action Foundation on the occasion of the International Mother Language Day. The event was held at the University of West London, Ealing.
The 'Afterlives' project team - Magnus Marsden (Sussex), Paul Anderson (Cambridge), Vera Skvirskaja (Copenhagen) and Dr. Moradian (AISS) launched the project with an online meeting on Friday 4 February.
Magnus Marsden published an article exploring the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine for Afghan communities - including families of Sikh and Hindu background - in the country.