Contemporary Kazakh Proverb Research: Digital, Cognitive, Literary, and Ecological Approaches is a collected volume of research on proverbs by Kazakh authors edited by Gulnar Omarbekova (Kazakhstan) and Erik Aasland (USA) and published by Peter Lang (New York) in 2023. This…

In 2016, Joo-Yup Lee, a historian from the University of Toronto, published Qazaqlïq, or Ambitious Brigandage, and the Formation of the Qazaqs: State and Identity in Post-Mongol Central Eurasia (Brill, 2016). The book dealt with the formation of the Kazakhs (Qazaqs) as a nation and as those who pursued qazaqlïq, or the qazaq way of life. In fact, qazaqlïq, a political fluidity or vagabondage, was also practiced by the founders of the Shibanid Uzbeks and the Ukrainian Cossacks. The book was translated into Russian and published in Almaty, Kazakhstan, in June 2022. In this essay, Joo-Yup Lee tells of his recent trip to Kazakhstan, where he participated in a book presentation and discussion, met old friends, and made new ones.