Dr. Mélanie Sadoza?

Academic Positions

Academic Education

Research Interests

• Border Regions (in particular Tajikistan-Afghanistan borderlands)
• Relations between Afghanistan and Tajikistan
• History and Current Affairs in Central Asia and Afghanistan
• Geography and Ethnography of the Pamir Region
• Central Asian Politics
• Regional Connectivity between Central Asia and other Regions
• History of the Soviet Occupation of Afghanistan
• Iranian Languages (Persian, Shughni)
• Digital Discourse Analysis
• Oral History
• Ethnographic Methods

Peer Reviewed Articles

• "Central Asia's Coverage in the Border Studies Literature: A Systematic Review of Fundamental Contributions to the Field, Central Asian Affairs11:3-4 (2025), 296-332.
• "L’image pour déconstruire l’imaginaire à la frontière entre le Tadjikistan et l’Afghanistan" [Image to deconstruct imaginaries at the border between Tajikistan and Afghanistan], EchoGéo 63 (2023).
• (with Sophie Hohmann) "Le danger aux frontières ? Que disent les terrains entre l'Asie centrale et l'Afghanistan ? [Danger along borders? What does fieldwork between Central Asia and Afghanistan tells us?" , Esprit (2023), XI-XXI.
• (with Suzy Blondin) “More Remote Yet More Connected? Physical Accessibility and New International Contacts in Tajikistan’s Pamirs Since 1991”, Problems of Post Communism 70:3 (2022), 290-304.
• “The Tajikistani-Afghan Border in Gorno-Badakhshan: Resources of a War- Torn Neighborhood”, Journal of Borderlands Studies 38:3 (2021), 461-485.
• “Interview with Zalma?, Conducted in Paris, 1 February 2021 (FR)”, Journal of Power Institutions in Post-Soviet Societies [Online], 33 (2021).

Chapters in Edited Volumes

• “Enquêter en milieu frontalier isolé. Le terrain ethnographique dans le Haut- Badakhchan au Tadjikistan” [Investigation in a remote borderland environment. Ethnographic fieldwork in Tajikistan’s Gorno-Badakhshan] in Christelle Calmels, Léonard Colomba-Petteng, Emmanuel Dreyfus et Adrien Estève (Eds.) L’enquête en terrain “sensible”. Bricolages méthodologiques et enjeux des recherches sur l’international [Investigating on “sensitive” fieldwork. Methodological tinkering and challenges in international research] (Paris: Presses Universitaires du Septentrion, 2024)
• “Being Afghani, French and not Soviet along the border between Tajikistan and Afghanistan” in Jasmin Dall’Agnola et Aijan Sharshenova (Eds.), Researching Central Asia: Navigating Positionality in the Field (Berlin: Springer, 2023)
• “Le Traité de gouvernement” [The Treaty of governement] in Delphine Allès et al. (Eds.), Approches extra-occidentales de la paix et de la sécurité: une anthologie commentée [Extra-Western Approaches to Peace and Security: An Annoted Anthology], (Paris: CNRS Editions, 2023)

Non refereed scientific articles (selected)

• “Opportunities and Frustrations of a Closed Border Regime between Tajikistan and Afghanistan in Badakhshan: Back to Remoteness?”, BorderObs (2023)
• La frontière entre le Tadjikistan et l'Afghanistan depuis l'été 2021 (2) : Le quotidien à la frontière et la situation des réfugiés au Tadjikistan [The border between Tajikistan and Afghanistan since the summer of 2021 (2): Everyday life at the border and the situation of refugees in Tajikistan], Les Nouvelles d'Afghanistan (2023)
• (with Suzy Blondin) "In Tajikistan’s Pamir Mountains, Environmental Hazards Complicate Human Mobility and Connections with Afghanistan”, The Academic(2023)
• “Asie centrale-Afghanistan : des frontières sous haute surveillance” [Central Asia-Afghanistan: borders under high surveillance], The Conversation (2022)
• “Taliban at the Border: A New Regime Neighboring Tajikistan”, Central Asia Program, CAP Paper no. 267 (2021)
• “Die Auswirkungen der Machtübernahme der Taliban in den Grenzgebieten des Pamirs” [The impact of the Taliban takeover in the Pamirs borderlands], Zentralasien-Analysen 150: December (2021), 2-6
• “Konflikt na granice: kakie budut posledstvi? dl? vnutrennej i vne?nej politiki Kyrgyzstana i Tad?ikistana?” [Conflict on the border : what will be the consequences for Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan’s domestic and foreign policies ?], CABAR Asia [Online] (2021)

Policy Briefs

• "Cross-border relations between Central Asia and Afghanistan in the Taliban era: Security and connectivity implications for the region", Policy Brief n°89, OSCE Academy Policy Briefs (2023) 

Summer Semester 2025

• 80742MS Central Asia's Current Affairs
• 21684 Law and Borders: The construction and meaning of borders for international migration
• 80790ms When Border Studies Meet Social Sciences and the Humanities

Winter Semester 2024/25

• 80760MS Borders in Political Discourse
• 80761MS Politics and International Relations of Central Asia and Afghanistan: Competing Approaches
• 80791MS Researching (in) Remote Areas: Preparing, Conducting, and Reflecting on Ethnographic Methods

Summer Semester 2024

• 80740MS Border Tensions in Europe
• 80741MS Central Asia inside and out: politics, society and international relations
• 80790MS When Border Studies Meet Social Sciences and the Humanities

Interviews
Arte, BBC, France Culture, France 24, Le Figaro, Majlis Podcast, Novastan, Société de géographie

Trainings
Centre for Asylum Seekers (Dole, France), Institute of Higher National Defence Studies (France)

Briefings
European Union, Austrian Defence Ministry, U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, U.S. Department of State

Committee work and academic functions

Academic responsibilities
2024-present: Cambridge Massoud Conference (CMC), Member of the academic board
2022-present: European Society for Central Asian Studies (ESCAS), Board member
2018-2023: Centre for European and Eurasian Research (CREE, INALCO), Board member
2018-2022: Center for European and Eurasian Research (CREE, INALCO), PhD students' representative
 

Fellowships
2021-present: Central Asia Programme, Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies (IERES), George Washington University
Associate scholar
2020-2022: Sigur Center for Asian Studies, George Washington University
Visiting scholar
2019: French Institute for Central Asian Studies (IFEAC), Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan)
Visiting scholar
2022-present: Central Eurasian Studies Society (CESS)
Member

Lectures and conferences

(selection)

Conferences and meetings
2024 "Central Asian Trans/Regional" Workshop, University of Regensburg

2024 "Disruptive Borderlands" Conference, Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER)
Eur-Asian BorderLab Symposium, University of Tallinn

2023 Central Eurasian Studies Society (CESS) Annual Conference, University of Pittsburgh
9th Seminar of the UniGR-Center for Border Studies, Saarland University
Central Asia Security Workshop, George Washington University

2022 Central Eurasian Studies Society (CESS) Summer Conference, Tashkent

2021 Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) Annual Conference, New-Orleans

2020 "Borderlands" Conference, 17th Conference of the Graduate Organisation for the Study of Europe and Central Asia (GOSECA), University of Pittsburgh

Research seminars and workshops
2023 Workshop: "Ethnic Minorities in Border Regions", ZOiS, Berlin

INALCO/Oxford joint seminar "Global International Relations and Area Studies: epistemological and methodological dialogues"

2021 "Ground Truth: Local Views About the Taliban's Return", George Washington University [Online], www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpYRc3i2HNw

2018 "La frontière, une ressource territoriale ?" [The border, a territorial resource?], Institut des Frontières et Discontinuités, Artois University, Arras (France)

Summer schools
2019 International Social Science Summer School in Ukraine, "War and Society:
Making and Experiencing War (and Peace) in 19th-21st century Eastern/Central Europe and Eurasia", Kherson (Ukraine)
 

Co-operations and projects

(with romance Birke): DIMAS Early Career Research Seminar (ECRS)