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“Central Asia in World History” is a two-week school teacher institute for twenty-five participants on the role of Central Asia as a crossroads of trade and intercultural exchange. The impact of Central Asia on the trajectory of world history is “profound and undeniable,” yet complicated in that the region has functioned as a crossroads “connecting the great civilizations on the Eurasian periphery.” Over the course of two weeks, teachers of world history, Asian Studies, and geography study aspects of Central Asian history and culture from the legacy of the Silk Road and the Pax-Mongolica to the Anglo-Russian competition for dominance in the region and its post-Soviet geopolitical status. Participants also learn through immersion in traditional food and music of the region. Sessions draw on the director’s scholarship in early modern socio-economic history and guest scholars with expertise in the Ottoman empire and modern Middle East (Carter Findley, Ohio State University); religion and politics in Soviet Central Asia (Adeeb Khalid, Carleton College); political culture, state formation, and Islam in medieval Central Asia (Nurten Kilic-Schubel, Kenyon College); Mongol conquest (Timothy May, North Georgia College and State University); nineteenth- and twentieth-century Russian colonial expansion and nomadic culture (Daniel Prior, Miami University); and Central Asian historiography and the Islamic world (Ron Sela, Indiana University). Film screenings and events such as a concert by the Silk Road Ensemble and a demonstration of musical instruments--the setar (Persian lute) and erhu (two-stringed “Chinese violin”)--augment the participants’ appreciation of Central Asian culture.