The coach-athlete relationship and social support are stressors that impact athletes’ well-being, however, most research in this area focusses on the relationship between these variables and burnout. Researchers have shown differences in stressors experienced between sport types (individual and team) where evidence suggests individual sport athletes report higher mental health concerns compared to those in team sports. This study aimed to understand the relationships between the coach-athlete relationship, social support, and psychological well-being among collegiate athletes, and the impact of sport type on these variables. A total of 153 National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I student-athletes completed coach-athlete relationship, social support, and well-being measures online. Results indicate the coach-athlete relationship and social support were both positively correlated with well-being, but there were no significant differences between sport type on any outcome variables. Findings from this study may influence future coaching practices and support networks, thus positively impacting student athletes’ well-being.

University of Lincoln, College of Social Science Research

Eadie E. Simons, University of Lincoln, School of Sport and Exercise Science

Matthew D. Bird, University of Lincoln, School of Sport and Exercise Science

Suicide is political: both individual acts of suicide, and suicide rates, are partly influenced by political and social contexts, policies, and discourses. While it is important to understand individual psychology in relation to suicide, it is equally vital to examine how policy regimes impact on the lives and deaths of citizens. For example, activists and scholars have suggested that recent austerity policies in the UK have led to increased suicide within marginalised groups (recipients of welfare benefits). The political nature of suicide is sometimes recognised in academic studies, however, most research concerning suicide tends to frame the practice as exclusively about mental ill-health, and as such is conducted from psychological or psychiatric perspectives. There is an increasing and pressing acknowledgement that different forms of knowledge about suicide are needed, along with more interdisciplinary ways of approaching its study. Despite this acknowledgement, research exploring suicide from within sociology and political studies is still limited, and there remains a lack of qualitative and interdisciplinary knowledge in this field.

Central Asian Survey has remained as the premier world-leading peer-reviewed journal for Central Asian studies for four decades. To mark the 40th anniversary of the journal, this volume is intended to be a reader of selected essays from the journal over the last four decades.

This book is not just a mere collection, but also a critical reflection on the field over that time. Each of the nine sections in the book feature a critical appraisal of the selected excerpts by young scholars who analyse the reproduced excerpts and the contribution they make to advancing our understanding of the field. The nine sections encapsulate prominent themes in Central Asian studies: history, identity and nationalism, Islam, governing and the state, informal institutions, contentious politics, gender, everyday life, and regional and global perspectives. The book is not just intended to reflect on the role of Central Asian Survey in the development of Central Asian studies, but also the aim is for the volume to be used as a teaching resource where the different sections in the collection could correlate to specific teaching weeks in courses on the region. The different contributions cover many case studies from across a range of countries that have featured in the journal over the years, and thus is not just restricted to the Central Asian republics but also includes Mongolia, Azerbaijan, and Xinjiang.

This book will serve as a great resource for researchers and students of Central Asian history, politics, culture, society, and international relations.

University of Lincoln, College of Social Science Research

Rico Isaacs, University of Lincoln, School of Social and Political Sciences

The Politics of Disorder Research Group at the University of Lincoln in collaboration with the Department of History, Faculty of Arts, University of Groningen present:

Virtual Roundtable – ‘Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine: regional perspectives from the Baltic Republics, Central Asia and China’

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues to cause anxiety and concern both for the tragic humanitarian crisis it is causing and for the implications it has for international law, sovereignty, and security. In this roundtable we bring together three experts to discuss the implications of Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine from three regional perspectives: the Baltics, Central Asia and China. The aim is to understand how responses from these regions are tied to their international relations with Russia and Ukraine, as well as the internal tension in these regions. The aim is to gain a deeper insight into how the unfolding war is understood across the broader Eurasian continent.

This roundtable will be a virtual event which takes place on Friday 11 March from 1pm GMT.

The link can be accessed here:

https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_OTk1ZDVlMzEtZWYxYi00YjA1LTliM2UtYmE5ZWVhY2Q4YTM2%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22952e47c4-05de-4282-83af-5f4b46b1628f%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%223feb802a-2204-4fe8-bb9d-fcba9f2808ce%22%7d

and here:

https://pod.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/events/

Speakers:

Dr. Māris Andžāns, Center for Geopolitical Studies, Riga, Latvia

Māris Andžāns, Dr.sc.pol., is the Director of the Center for Geopolitical Studies Riga. He is also Assistant Professor and leads Diplomacy and Russia & Eurasia MA study programs at Riga Stradins University.

Previously, he has worked for the Latvian Institute of International Affairs. He was also a Visiting Fulbright Scholar at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

He has authored around 100 publications, primarily on security and defense issues of the Baltic states, but also Central Asia, as well as transport and digital policies.

Dr. Andžāns has ten years of experience in the public administration of Latvia. He served in positions related to the coordination of EU and NATO issues, security of transport and communications, civil-military cooperation, aviation, electronic communications, and postal issues. Among other duties, he has served as the Chairman of the National Cyber Security Council of Latvia and the Dangerous Goods Movement Consultative Council of Latvia.

Dr Nargis Kassenova, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University

Nargis Kassenova is Senior Fellow and director of the Program on Central Asia at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies (Harvard University) and Associate Professor at the Department of International Relations and Regional Studies of KIMEP University (Almaty, Kazakhstan). She is the former founder and director of the KIMEP Central Asian Studies Center (CASC) and the China and Central Asia Studies Center (CCASC). Kassenova holds a PhD in International Cooperation Studies from the Graduate School of International Development, Nagoya University (Japan). Her research focuses on Central Asian politics and security, Eurasian geopolitics, China’s Belt and Road Initiative and governance in Central Asia, and history of state-making in Central Asia. Kassenova is a member of the Advisory Board of the Open Society Foundations (OSF) Eurasia Program, the Advisory Committee of the Human Rights Watch (HRW) Europe and Central Asia Division, the UN High-level Advisory Board on Economic and Social Affairs, the Advisory Group of the EU Central Asia Monitoring (EUCAM) program, and the Academic Council of the European Neighbourhood Council (ENC). She is on the editorial boards of Central Asian Survey, Central Asian Affairs, and REGION: Regional Studies of Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia journals.

Dr Ming-chin Monique Chu, University of Southampton

Dr Monique Chu is lecturer in Chinese Politics at the University of Southampton. Her research sits within the areas of international political economy and security of international relations. Her specific research interests include the concept and practice of sovereignty and the impact of globalization on security with reference to semiconductors. She’s the author of The East Asian Computer Chip War (Routledge, 2014). Her other scholarly research has been published in The China Quarterly and China Perspectives. In March 2018, she gave oral evidence on China’s capabilities in the field of emerging technologies in front of the House of Lords International Relations Committee. She has been interviewed by numerous news outlets such as the BBC on issues pertaining to Chinese foreign policies, semiconductors, Chinese politics, and Cross-Strait relations. She obtained MPhil and PhD degrees in international relations from the University of Cambridge.

In the last decade the term culture war has become hard to avoid. If it is not yet the buzzword of the first part of the twenty-first century, it soon will be. Culture wars seem to be around us everywhere. Each passing week brings some new mention of an outbreak in a public institution, civic space or political arena in some part of the globe. Culture wars are the phenomenon we cannot seem to shake. Battle lines are drawn, rhetorical tools are sharpened and social media awash with vitriol and moralising, and seemingly unbridgeable social gaps. If the immediate post-Cold War period did usher in an era of universal global liberalism, decades on it is now far in the distance, only visible in the rear-view mirror. Instead, around us lie social and political fault lines featuring competing visions of what should be the appropriate normative basis upon which societies should be constituted. They are debates that focus on belonging, on citizenship, on rights and identities.

Rico Isaacs, University of Lincoln, School of Social and Political Sciences

Jonathan Wheatley, Oxford Brookes University, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

Sarah Whitmore, Oxford Brookes University, Headington Campus

The Central Asia Program invites you to the book launch event

Wednesday, September 22, 2021

10:00 AM – 11:00 AM (EST)

The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Central Asia offers the first comprehensive, cross-disciplinary overview of key issues in Central Asian studies. The 30 chapters by leading and emerging scholars summarise major findings in the field and highlight long-term trends, recent observations and future developments in the region. The handbook features case studies of all five Central Asian republics and is organised thematically in seven sections: history, politics, geography, international relations, political economy, society and culture, and religion

An essential cross-disciplinary reference work, the handbook offers an accessible and easy to understand guide to the core issues permeating the region to enable readers to grasp the fundamental challenges, transformations and themes in contemporary Central Asia. It will be of interest to researchers, academics and students of the region and those working in the field of Area Studies, History, Anthropology, Politics and International Relations.

This essay establishes a framework for analysing culture wars in the post-communist space. Using Latvia’s debate over the ratification of the Istanbul Convention on violence against women, it outlines the central features of culture wars: moralisation, externalisation of agency, the instrumentalisation of culture and the struggle for power and resources. While existing scholarship conceptualises culture wars as a dichotomous battle between the sacred and the secular, or between liberal and illiberal, our thematic analysis of the Istanbul Convention debate in Latvia finds it was less about culture and more a complex struggle between political and religious actors competing for power and resources.

University of Lincoln, College of Social Science Research

Rico Isaacs, University of Lincoln, School of Social and Political Sciences

Liga Rudzite, Tallinn University of Technology