Fellows Research

Up until Kyrgyzstan’s political crisis and intense interethnic conflict in 2010, there were reasons to be optimistic about the future of ethnic Uzbeks in the ex-Soviet Central Asian republic. Concentrated in Kyrgyzstan’s southern cities of Osh and Jalalabat, Uzbeks have felt they experience ethnic discrimination by Kyrgyz rule, yet community leaders have labored through the 1990s and 2000s to build institutions that serve the Uzbek communities within the framework of Kyrgyzstani citizenship.

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What Next for Uzbeks in Kyrgyzstan? ( 226 KB pdf)

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The purpose of this research project was to explore the cultural constructs of masculinity and sexual health among emerging adult men (ages 18-29) in the cities of Uzhhorod, L’viv, and Ternopil, Ukraine and to assess male involvement in sexual and reproductive health (SRH) initiatives in western Ukraine.

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Masculinity, Men's Health & Male Involvement in Sexual and Reproductive Health Promotion in Western Ukraine (278 KB pdf)

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Following conflict, the rebuilding of social capital is an essential part of recovery and reconciliation. Yet in village Bosnia, where Catholics fought against Muslims, the healing process has barely progressed. My qualitative research goal is to explore the extent of post-conflict change and the nature of subsequent social capital rebuilding among women in three rural communities in middle Bosnia. Using an ethnographic approach, I am examining bonding and bridging activities in the lives of rural women who have experienced dislocation and relocation during the 1991-95 Balkan war.

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Women Rebuilding Social Capital in Rural Bosnia (326 KB pdf)

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During the interwar period, Soviet Jewish scholar-activists engaged in a state-subsidized attempt to quantitatively and qualitatively document the former Jewish market town (Yiddish: shtetl; Russian: evreiskoe mestechko) as a historically unique form of community destined for radical transformation. Concentrated in the provinces of the Ukrainian and Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republics, the shtetl was viewed by Bolshevik critics as a socioeconomic relic of the old regime, a hybrid urban-rural site of unregulated commercial trade.

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The Soviet Shtetl: Ideology, Scholarship, Memory (Research Brief)

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Societies undergoing drastic transformations are often inundated with group violence, xenophobia, and ethnocentrism, particularly when the transformation is accompanied by drastic shifts in groups’ status within the societal hierarchy. Yet, social psychological research has remained virtually silent about how intergroup relations are affected by societal change and shifts in group status (see Moghaddam, 1999, 2000; Moscovici, 1972; Tajfel, 1972).

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Toward a Psychological Understanding of Consequences of Shifts in Group Status for Intergroup Relations (969 KB pdf)

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What did it mean to be Muslim in Europe as empires collapsed and nation-states emerged? How did Islamic institutions adapt and transform their legal, property, and cultural institutions to meet—or to challenge—the demands of the secularizing states? How did Muslims in Europe respond to and incorporate new political, religious, and cultural movements emerging in the Middle East?

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Islam and the European Nation-State: Muslims Between Mosque and State in Yugoslavia, 1908-1949 (337 KB pdf)

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My research examined the social consequences of four decades of Soviet nuclear testing that left a legacy of radioactive contamination in Kazakhstan. I conducted fieldwork in a village located 5km from the official border of the nuclear test site where I examined how people confront and make sense of their health problems and environmental damage. In addition, I also conducted research at a local NGO that specializes in ecological and social issues related to radioactive pollution in Central Kazakhstan.

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Radioactive Knowledge: State Control of Scientific Information in Post-Soviet Kazakhstan (312 KB pdf)

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This project investigates cemeteries as sites of national identity in the former Yugoslavia from the Communist takeover of power in October 1944 through the Yugoslav wars of secession in a variety of multiethnic communities.

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Nationalization of Cemeteries in Yugoslavia:1945-1995 (356 KB pdf)

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How do international agreements influence environmental protection in Russia? Why does Russia actively participate in some transnational environmental initiatives and not others? How does Russia’s transnational engagement change rhetoric around environmental problems and solutions? This research begins to examine the influence on environmental policy of two very different models of transnational environmental governance: a traditional state-to-state agreement, the Kyoto Protocol and a market-based system, the Forest Stewardship Council’s forest certification.

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National Interest and Transnational Environmental Governance in Russia (294 KB pdf)

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The urgency of diversifying Azerbaijan’s oil-fired economy is undisputed and has been the subject of numerous plans and initiatives by the government as well as bilateral and multi-lateral development agencies. The current emphasis is on continuing the nation’s successful reform, institution building, and infrastructure efforts as key to creating a more welcoming business climate for domestic and foreign investment.

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Accelerating Non-Oil Diversification for Azerbaijan- A Policy Dilemma (432 KB pdf)

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