Saglar Bougdaeva

About

Saglar (Saga) Bougdaeva is a scholar and translator specialising in Eurasian studies, with a particular interest in the oral traditions and cultural heritage of the nomadic peoples of the Great Eurasian Steppe. Born and raised in the Republic of Kalmykia, a Mongolic-speaking region in southwestern Russia, she grew up connected to the history and traditions of the Kalmyk people. Bougdaeva studied Mongolian, Tibetan, and Mandarin linguistics at Saint Petersburg State University before earning a PhD in Sociology from Yale University. Her interdisciplinary background informs her work on the relationships between language, cultural transmission, and the historical experiences of nomadic societies. Her English translation of Jangar: The Heroic Epic of the Kalmyk Nomads was published by the University of California Press in 2023. It was the first English translation of this important Kalmyk epic, making an influential oral literary tradition accessible to a wider international audience. The collection presents eleven narrative cycles featuring the legendary hero Jangar and his warriors, preserving the poetic imagination and cultural values of a tradition transmitted across generations. Through her scholarship and translation, Bougdaeva contributes to the preservation and international recognition of the literary heritage of the Eurasian steppe.