WELCOME TO USTA MENTORSHIP

The USTA Mentorship Programme connects Central Asian scholars with international peers around the world for academic exchange and career development with a goal of promoting Central Asian academic voices globally. The programme aims to overcome historical legacies of colonialism in the region by creating a thriving culture of learning, academic cooperation, and communities of support.

Our Methods

Each year we match about a dozen young scholars from the region who are enrolled in graduate and post-graduate programmes with senior academics around the world. The mentorship programme focuses on training publishing skills, soft academic skills, and intercultural academic exchange.

How do we help our mentees?

Published Article

Turning a draft into a published article in an international journal.

Networking & Community

Establishing writing communities and networking opportunities through access to larger academic circles and disciplines.

Workshops

Creating workshops with leading experts through advanced research methods to improve academic skills.

USTA Mentorship 2025-2026

Fourth round of the project

The new round of the USTA Mentorship Project has officially begun. This year, we received 30 applications and selected 10 mentees to join the programme.

For this round, we are trying a new approach. All selected mentees are working on topics related to Everyday Economies in Central Asia. This thematic focus allows us to build a more coherent intellectual community and to design a programme tailored to shared conceptual and methodological concerns.

During the first few months, we will concentrate on the conceptual and theoretical foundations of everyday economies through a series of webinars and reading marathons. Mentor–mentee matching will take place in March 2026, after which each mentee will work one-on-one with a mentor to develop their paper. From March to October 2026, we will host additional webinars on academic writing, literature reviews, and publication strategies.

In September 2026, we will organise a workshop dedicated to draft papers, with invited external reviewers.

By the end of the programme, in December 2026, we aim to have ten final papers on everyday economies in Central Asia.

Timeline from September 2025 to December 2026

01 September – October 2025

Selection Process and Working with the Concept

September – October 2025 — Announcement, selection of mentees
November 2025 — Webinar 'Everyday Economies: Basic Concepts'
December 2025 — Webinar 'Informality through Concepts of Everyday Economies'
December 25 - January 26 — Reading Marathon

02 January – March 2026

Enhancing Writing Skills and Empowering Voices in the Initial Drafts

During this period, we continue working on basic concepts and epistemological and methodological decisions that we make while doing research on everyday economies.

January 2026 —Webinar 'How to Write an Abstract'
January 2026 — Webinar on 'Epistemological Decisions'.
January – February 2026 — Reading Marathon
February 2026 — Workshop with Mentees: Draft Revisions
March 2026 —Webinar on 'How to do a Literature Review'
March 2026 — Mentor and Mentee Matching

03 March – September 2026

Enhancing Writing and Publishing Skills

During this period we organise writing marathons, writing workshop and webinars on 'Journal Publishing'. We aim that during this period mentees will re-work their drafts and will be ready for draft submissions and presentations.

• April 2026 — Journal Publishing
• April – May 2026 - Writing Marathon (April 15 – May 15)
• June — Writing Workshop (TBD)

• July – August — Independent Writing Time

• September 2026 — Drafts Submission
• September 2026 — Workshop Presentations: Draft Discussions with External Reviewers

04 October – December 2025

Getting Ready for Final Papers and Submissions

October–November — Writing Marathon
November — Workshop: Journal Editor Session
December — Final Submission!