Daniel G. Prior

Contact

• priordg@muohio.edu
• Office: Room 270 Upham Hall, Oxford Campus
• 513-529-7148
• Dr. Prior will be on research leave during the 2009-10 academic year.

Titles

• Assistant Professor of History
• Executive Director, Central Eurasian Studies Society

Education

• PhD 2002, Indiana University
• MA, Indiana University
• BA, Yale University

Teaching and Research Interests

• Inner Asian history
• Nomadic culture
• Oral heroic poetry

Recently taught courses

• HST 197 World History to 1500
• HST 254 Introduction to Russian and Eurasian Studies
• HST 324 Eurasian Nomads and History
• HST 400 Senior Capstone: History of Afghanistan
• HST 436/536 Havighurst Colloquium: Islam in Central Eurasia

Selected Publications

• "Travels of Mount Qāf: From Legend to 42º 0' N 79º 51'," Oriente Moderno, in press
• “Heroes, Chieftains, and the Roots of Kirghiz Nationalism,” Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism, 6/2, 2006
• The Semetey of Kenje Kara: A Kirghiz Epic Performance on Phonograph, with a Musical Score and a Compact Disc of the Phonogram; edited, translated and with an Introduction and Commentary (Turcologica no. 59; Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz), 2006
• "Patron, Party, Patrimony: Notes on the Cultural History of the Kirghiz Epic Tradition," Papers on Inner Asia no. 33 (Bloomington: Indiana University, Research Institute for Inner Asian Studies), 2000
• "Bok-Murun's Itinerary Ridden: Report on an Expedition through Kirghiz Epic Geography," Central Asiatic Journal 42/2, 1998

Selected Grants and Awards

• International and Area Studies Fellowship, American Council of Learned Societies / SSRC / NEH, “History of the Northern Kirghiz Chieftains,” 2010
• Individual Advanced Research Opportunities grant, IREX, "History of the Northern Kirghiz Chieftains," 2008
• First Annual Indo-Eurasian Paper Prize, International Association for Comparative Mythology, 2007
• Fellowship, National Endowment for the Humanities, "History of the Northern Kirghiz chieftains," 2006-07

Work in Progress

Dr. Prior’s research projects relate to the history of the northern Kirghiz chieftains (manaps) in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He is currently preparing (1) an edition, translation, and historical interpretation of an early twentieth-century manuscript that commemorates past exploits of manaps and their warrior-companions (including a horse-stealing raid) in the style of epic poetry; and (2) a prosopographical database of Kirghiz manaps and their households.