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What impact does the peaceful overthrow of an authoritarian or semi-authoritarian regime have on political stability and democratic development? Using Georgia as a case study, this project examines the impact of the “electoral revolution” model, employed in the 2003 Rose Revolution, on opposition party tactics.

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Political Opposition Tactics in Post-Rose Revolution Georgia (500 KB pdf)

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In North America, it is common to think of abortion as a matter of moral deliberation. But who are the actors who put the issue on the agenda? In contemporary Russia, abortion becomes contentious in the context of post-socialist religious revival and publicized concern about a “demographic crisis” with low birth rates and decreased life expectancy. Through ethnographic field research among Russian Orthodox activists in Kazan’ and Nizhnii Novgorod, complemented by archival research on Soviet discourses on abortion, I investigated how the church seeks to shape public opinion on reproduction.

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Russian Orthodox Anti-Abortion Activism and the Soviet Past (469 KB pdf)

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Far from being an exotic, isolated Central Asian country, post-independence Tajikistan presents a dynamic society at the complex confluence of local, regional and international forces of change. The present research is an ethnographic attempt to explore and study how these forces of change affect the everyday practice of languages in various registers of communication and interaction from street conversations to foreign digital media consumption and to the intelligentsia’s plans for the future of Tajiki script.

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Language and Globalization in Post-Independence Tajikistan (293 KB pdf)

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My research focused on the Afghanistan factor in Tajikistan. In particular, I have analyzed the actual and perceived threats that emanate from Afghanistan and how this plays a role in Tajikistan’s foreign relations – especially in regards to Russia and the United States. I have surveyed the available secondary sources on this issue and supplemented this with interviews and informal discussions in Dushanbe as well as in the city of Qurghonteppa in the far south.

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Perceptions of the Afghanistan Threat in Tajikistan (458 KB pdf)

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Despite an existing strict regulatory structure for controlling air pollution in Ukraine, public health impacts of particulate matter emissions from coal-burning power plants remain a major concern. Focusing on a case study of the Burshtyn Thermal Electro-Station (TES) in the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, this project attempts to quantify the human health risk associated with the coal combustion emissions resulting from the generation of electricity.

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Air Pollution Risk Assessment in Ukraine: Challenges and Opportunities (567 KB pdf)

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My research evaluates whether there have been significant changes in the quantity or, more importantly, the quality of anti-corruption efforts in the Kyrgyz Republic following the April Revolution of 2010. I examine cross-sector reforms, as well as those in the areas of economics, education, energy, health, judiciary, and media. Generally speaking, the number of anti-corruption efforts increased, although not in those sectors that depend on financial support from international development organizations. Substantive improvements in quality were limited to the energy and media sectors.

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Anti-Corruption Reforms in the Kyrgyz Republic (358 KB pdf)

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The 2011-2012 Yegor Gaidar Fellowship Program in Economics closed with two days of events in Moscow, Russia where the Gaidar Fellows presented their research results along with their U.S. collaborators.  The Yegor Gaidar Fellowship Program in Economics supports collaborative research between U.S. and Russian economists on topics of importance to both countries.

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Free and independent media are a vital component of any democratic society. This research project focuses on the state of Bulgarian political journalism during the post-Communist transition. It reports the results of (1) a systematic content analysis of political news coverage during each national election since the end of Communist rule (from 1989 to 2011) and (2) semi-structured interviews with Bulgarian journalists regarding their professional norms and practices when reporting political news.

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The Relationship between Media and Politics in Post-Communist Bulgaria (387 KB pdf)

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This project explores the gendered ways in which political youth organizations voice their criticism of and support for the Putin-centered regime that began ruling Russia at the turn of the twenty-first century. My interviews and research explore the ways that youth activists on both sides of the Kremlin (pro- and anti-regime), as well as political actors within the regime itself, have chosen to wield traditional concepts of femininity and masculinity as tools in their political organizing efforts.

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The Use of Gender Norms in Russian Politics (555 KB pdf)

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