'History writing and nation-building in Central Asia’ is aimed at developing research and publishing skills among OSCE Academy alumni and is part of the broader ongoing cooperation between the OSCE Academy in Bishkek and the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI). The project team consists of a project leader from NUPI, Helge Blakkisrud, and one alumnus from each of the five Central Asian countries. The five alumni were selected summer 2014 and are: Nurlan Kabdylkhak '09 (Kazakhstan), Nuraida Abdykapar kyzy '13 (Kyrgyzstan), Khushbakht Hojiev '06 (Tajikistan), Nazar Mammedov '09 (Turkmenistan) and Farkhod Aminjonov '09 (Uzbekistan). As part of the first phase of the project, the researchers are finalizing their individual articles for submission to international academic journals. The team presented their papers at a panel on the Association for the Study of Nationalities (ASN) conference in New York in April 2015. The individual articles were presented at a seminar at the OSCE Academy in May 2016. In the second phase of the project, from summer 2016, the researchers will be working on book chapters to a book which will be edited by Helge Blakkisrud.