CESS Conference in Kyrgyzstan, August 4-7, 2008
Date: August 4-7, 2008

The Central Eurasian Studies Society (CESS) announces that its first
regional conference will be held the summer of 2008 in Kyrgyzstan.
Conference registration is open to the public. For more information,
see the information on CESS's website:
http://www.cess.muohio.edu/regional_conf_08.html. Due to space
limitations, we may have to close registration when capacity is
reached, and thus, non-presenting attendees are urged to pre-register
to ensure that their place is reserved.

Those wishing to present a paper at the conference are welcome to
submit a proposal in accordance with the guidelines below.

Conference dates: August 4-7, 2008
Conference location: Royal Beach Hotel, Choq Tal village, Issyk-Kul,
Kyrgyzstan, hosted by the Aigine Research Center and The University of
Central Asia.

The program will feature approximately 16 panels in sessions running
from Tuesday morning till Thursday noon. There will also be a
supplementary program including films and other cultural events, a
welcoming reception on Monday, August 4 and a conference conclusion
and lunch on Thursday, August 7.

The working languages of the conference are Russian and English.
Translation will be provided for a key lecture and closing speech.

Call for Paper and Panel Proposals

Panel and paper topics relating to all aspects of humanities and
social science scholarship on Central Eurasia are welcome. The
geographic domain of Central Eurasia extends from the Black Sea and
Iranian Plateau to Mongolia and Siberia, including the Caucasus,
Crimea, Middle Volga, Afghanistan, Tibet, and Central and Inner Asia.
Practitioners and scholars in all humanities and social science
disciplines with an interest in Central Eurasia are encouraged to
participate.

Submissions of pre-organized panels are strongly encouraged and will
be given some preference in the selection process. Individual papers
are also welcome and will be assigned by the program committee to an
appropriate panel with a chair and a discussant. CESS members wishing
to organize panels are encouraged to use the Central Eurasian Scholars
Network to make contact with interested colleagues.

Please note that due to a high level of interest in CESS conferences,
and the fact that the total number of participants in first regional
conference of CESS will be limited due to space constraints, we
anticipate that the selection of papers will be extremely competitive.
We encourage all who hope to attend to consider working with
colleagues to arrange a pre-organized panel, as this will improve your
chances of acceptance.

Submission of Proposals

The Conference Committee only accepts ELECTRONIC SUBMISSIONS -- please
fill out the web form for a panel or individual paper proposal at:
http://www.cess.muohio.edu/regional_conf_08.html. Those who don't have
access to the website may contact us at and we
will e-mail the submission forms in MS Word format.

The following information is required for submissions; we suggest that
you prepare the text before accessing the website so you can simply
paste the information into the form (but do not send it without the
form!):

FOR PAPER PRESENTERS: 1) Name, 2) Current institutional affiliation,
3) Title/position, 4) E-mail, 5) Postal address, 6) Telephone, 7) Fax,
8) Title of Paper, 9) Abstract of Paper (a summary of the paper of
200-300 words in Russian or English; abstracts longer than 300 words
may be rejected) 10) Any audio-visual equipment requests (specify --
e.g., overhead projector, slide project, video player), 11) A brief,
one-page CV or biographical statement which contains the information
which the panel chair may require for introductions, and includes the
presenter's educational background (highest degree, year awarded,
awarding institution,
and field of study).

FOR PANELS: Proposals may be submitted for regular panels (with
presentation of scholarly papers) and roundtable panels (featuring
discussion of a current topic in the field).

Regular panels MUST have three or four paper presenters, a chair, and
a discussant. In addition to the information for each of the paper
presenters on the panel (as indicated above), the following are also
required: a) a title for the proposed panel, and b) name, affiliation,
and contact information of the panel chair and discussant.

Roundtable panels MUST have between three and six presenters and a
chair (no discussant is required). As roundtables are oriented towards
a more informal discussion, no paper proposal is expected from
roundtable panelists, but please provide information for each of the
presenters on the panel (as indicated above, with the exception of an
abstract), as well as a) a title for the proposed roundtable, and b)
name, affiliation, and contact information of the panel chair.

Panels should be formed to work in one language (either Russian or
English).

Only complete panels with a full set of panelists, a chair, and a
discussant (for regular panels) will be considered for acceptance. If
a panel or roundtable as proposed does not include a full complement
of panelists, the panel may be wait-listed until it is complete.
Pre-organized panels should be thematically coherent and may be
organized/sponsored by a scholarly organization (optional).

The deadline for proposals is February 15, 2008. Please do not submit
your proposal until it is complete. In the case of panels, this means
having complete information on all panelists. Once your paper or panel
proposal information is complete, please fill out the appropriate
webform, available at: http://www.cess.muohio.edu/regional_conf_08.html

SPONSORED PANELS: CESS encourages other institutions supporting the
study of Central Eurasia, such as regional scholarly associations, to
organize "sponsored panels" at the CESS conference -- i.e., panels
organized by the sponsoring institution, involving their members and
receiving their imprimatur.

The following organizations have already offered their participation,
but other organizations are also welcome to contact CESS about
organizing their own panels:

Aigine RC has limited funds to support two panels on the biological
and cultural diversity of Central Asia for participants from
Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Turkey. The support will be
provided for travel and accommodation expenses. Participants must
obtain their own funding from personal resources, their own
institutions, or grant-giving organizations to cover the conference
fees. Central Asian participants studying abroad at the time of the
conference are not eligible to apply. The contact person is Zemfira
Inogamova

University of Central Asia will sponsor two panels: 1) "Issues and
Challenges of Teaching about Central Asia to Central Asians", 2)
"Socio-economic Development in the Mountain Regions of Central Asia".
Scholars from any countries are eligible to apply. The contact person
is Dr. Elmira Kochumkulova (University of Central Asia, Bishkek,
).

IFEAC (Institut Francais d'Etudes sur l'Asie centrale) will sponsor
participation of three scholars from Uzbekistan. The contact person is
Bayram Balci, IFEAC, Tashkent, Uzbekistan, )

Commitment to Participate:

By submitting a proposal, you are indicating your serious intention to
participate in the conference -- including your commitment to take the
necessary steps to obtain any required visa or funding -- unless
prevented by circumstances out of your control. You will be asked to
confirm your commitment in April after your proposal is accepted. Note
that, because withdrawal after the program has been put together is
very disruptive and harms the quality of panels, and prevents us from
including people in the program who would indeed be able to attend,
CESS rules stipulate that those who withdraw after May 1 without a
good reason are barred from participating in the conference the
following year, and those who fail to appear at the conference without
timely notice to the Conference Committee will be considered
"no-shows" and will be barred from participating for the next two
years. The deadline for such notification is seven days prior to the
conference (July 28), and after this date, no registration fees can be
refunded.

E-Mail Contact:

Since all communication with prospective participants are via e-mail,
and we will require your confirmation of participation in April after
proposals are accepted and again in June when all of your visa and
travel arrangements should be in place, it is vitally important that
you make sure we always have an e-mail address that will reach you. If
we LOSE CONTACT with you after your proposal is accepted, you will be
dropped from the program, will be counted as a "no-show", and will not
be able to participate in the conference.

Program Limitations:

No participant may present more than one paper at the conference,
including roundtable presentations. Without special justification, the
program committee will not schedule any individual to appear on more
than two panels as a presenter or discussant.

Schedule of Key Dates:

Deadline for submission of panel/paper proposals: Friday, February 15, 2008.

Note: Submissions after this date may be accepted only in the case of
special justifying circumstances and at the discretion of the program
committee.

Notification of acceptance: by April 12.

The Conference Committee will provide, upon request, mailed or faxed
invitation letters to support an application for a visa or travel
funds; these will be sent in the second half of June. Note: Obtaining
a Kyrgyz visa can take a long time, and we urge participants to begin
the process immediately upon notification of their proposal's acceptance.

Deadline for notification of audio-visual requests: June 30.

Papers should be submitted to chairs/discussants: by Friday, July 4.

Paper presenters will be informed via e-mail in the middle of May of
the e-mail addresses of their panel's chair and discussant, to whom
they should send their papers by the deadline.

Conference: August 4-7, 2008

Arrival to Choq Tal is on the afternoon/evening on Monday, August 4.
Registration opens in the afternoon followed by a reception in the
evening. Panels begin Tuesday morning, August 5, and continue through
Wednesday and Thursday, August 6 and 7. There will be a concluding
party and the conference lunch on Thursday, August 7 at 1 pm.

Registration:

Each conference presenter is required to have a current CESS
membership. To join CESS or check on the status of your membership, go
to http://www.cess.muohio.edu/

Payment of registration fees IS REQUIRED for everyone attending the
conference. The fee covers a welcoming reception on Monday, coffee
breaks during the conference lunch on Wednesday and transport
Bishkek-Royal Beach-Bishkek. The fees are as follows:

Registration fee: $45/$40 for CESS members
Registration fee for regional scholars: $25/$20 for CESS members

Note: citizens of Central Eurasian countries currently
studying/researching outside of the region as well as citizens of
non-Central Eurasian countries currently studying/researching in
Central Eurasia are considered regional scholars.

Payment of registration fees will be accepted on site.

Travel and Accommodations

It is expected the majority of participants will stay at the Royal
Beach Club Hotel, Choq Tal village. There will be block booking
through Aigine RC. Requests should be sent to Guljan Kudabaeva

Another accommodation possibility is to stay in Choq Tal village
located nearby the Royal Beach Club Hotel. Participants shall book
rooms in the village individually. Aigine RC cannot provide any
contact information for this option.

There will be two buses going to Issyk-Kul on the noon and afternoon
of August 4. Participants will have to sign up for the buses by
sending an e-mail to Guljan Kudabaeva after their
travel arrangements are set.

Information about the Royal Beach Club Hotel and Issyk-Kul,
transportation options, maps, and lodging information will be
available on the Aigine Research Center's CESS Conference Information
page: http://www.aigine.kg/Articles/ViewSection.aspx?ArticleID=253

Virtually all informational questions about the conference can be
answered by consulting the above-mentioned web pages. If you don't
have web access, or if you don't find the answer to your questions
there, you can contact the conference organizers by e-mail at

The hosts of future CESS conferences are as follows:
2008- Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.
2009- University of Toronto

Communications regarding local arrangements, including invitation
letters, should be addressed to:

Aigine Research Center
93 Toktogul Street
Bishkek 720040
Kyrgyzstan
Tel.: +996 (312) 666966, 667673
Fax: +996 (312) 667674
e-mail:

Communications about proposal submission, program matters,
registration matters, the mailing list, and data updates should be
sent to the FRC CESS committee:

XXth ICSPR

Welcome to the website of the XXth International Congress on Sexual Plant Reproduction, which will be held in Brasilia-DF , Brazil from August 4 to 8th, 2008. As in the past years, the aiming of this meeting is to discuss and update the research on sexual plant reproduction through the integration of research groups from all parts of the world, contributing in this way, to the progress of plant science. This congress is held under the auspicious of the International Association of Sexual Plant Reproduction Research – IASPRR ( http://www.iasprr.org/ ), which purpose is to stimulate scientific research in this and related subjects, and to promote the application of the results in agriculture and forestry.
During the XIXth ICSPR last July, in Budapest , Hungary , the general assembly cheerfully approved the Brazilian proposition to organize the congress in 2008. After Australia , Europe, Asia and North America, it is the first time that the IASPRR meeting will be held in a South American country. Besides the opportunity of closer interaction with Latin American research groups, it is a wonderful opportunity to visit a spectacular country, a tropical paradise of mythic proportions that includes Amazon rainforest, tropical beaches, Cerrado with endless rivers, amazing cities such as Brasilia , Rio de Janeiro , São Paulo and countless other surprising destinations.

We are pleased with the opportunity and we will give our best to organize a successful congress, with the participation of renowned international participation, and a very pleasant time. We sincerely hope you will be able to partake in the XXth ICSPR.

A Meeting of the three divisions of the International Union of Microbiological Scocieties 2008, hosted by the Turkish Microbiological Society, Society of Microbial Ecology and Society of Chemotherapy in Istanbul, 5-15 August 2008.
Website: www.iums2008.org

Scholarships (waiver of registration and/or accommodation) will be granted to young scientists from developing countries to attend the congress and submit their work. Deadline for application: 31 January 2008. Applications forms available on the website.

A Meeting of the three divisions of the International Union of Microbiological Societies 2008, hosted by the Turkish Microbiological Society, Society of Microbial Ecology and Society of Chemotherapy in Istanbul, 5-15 August 2008.
Website: www.iums2008.org
t
Scholarships (waiver of registration and/or accommodation) will be granted to young scientists from developing countries to attend the congress and submit their work. Deadline for application: 31 January 2008. Applications forms available on the website.