Andrew Wachtel is the President of the American University of Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan, and Bertha and Max Dressler Professor in the Humanities, Northwestern University. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a memeber of the Council on Foreign Relations. Wachtel's most recent published books are The Balkans in World History (Oxford UP, 2008), Russian Literature (with Ilya Vinitsky, Polity Press, 2008), and Remaining Relevant after Communism: the Role of the Writer in Eastern Europe (U of Chicago Press, 2006). Wachtel is currently working on a project related to processes of national consolidation in Kyrgyzstan.