Fellows Research

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict continues to be one of the greatest obstacles to peace in the Caucasus region. Armenia and Azerbaijan both claim ownership of the territory. Despite the lengthy high-level official negotiation process that has yet to result in an agreement, initiatives at the grassroots or civil society level in the realm of education remain an underutilized resource in bringing peace to the Caucasus.

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Educating Peace: A Case Study of Peace Education Curricula in Armenia (528 KB pdf)

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While variation among the candidates for European Union (EU) membership in the Western Balkans is great, the main roadblock to progress is the same: entrenched elites for whom high quality institutional and economic reforms are costly. Croatia charts a relatively hopeful course. From his jail cell, former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader symbolizes the possibility that leaders of authoritarian parties will moderate party agendas and then overhaul state institutions in response to domestic and external pressure for reform.

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Enlargement in the Western Balkans: Can We Hope for “Sanaderization”? (454 KB pdf)

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My research examines the intellectual environment of the early twentieth-century Central Asia with a particular attention to the intellectuals of the Semirech'e oblast of Russian Turkestan. It investigates historical and social settings in which these intellectuals produced their works. It also examines cultural encounters and interactions among the intellectuals of Semirech'e and their Muslim counterparts in other parts of the Russian empire and looks at the ways different interactions shaped their views.

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Central Asian Intellectuals of Semirech’e Oblast of Russian Turkestan (430 KB pdf)

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After decades of providing economic aid to Afghanistan, following the 1978 April Revolution and its December 1979 invasion of the country, the Soviet Union sought to remake the Afghan state economy, and society. The experience of the advisors who participated in these operations suggests that even the best attempts at development in Afghanistan will falter sans a new deal for the country’s ethno-confessional politics and a comprehensive trade and transit agreement with Pakistan and India.

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Soviet Economic Development Policy in Afghanistan (394 KB pdf)

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My project examines contemporary Islamic practices and beliefs regarding pilgrimage and shrines in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. A swell of interest from local populations in visiting and rejuvenating sacred sites accompanied the emergence of independent states after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

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Pilgrimage and Shrines in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan (531 KB pdf)

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Since 2007 Bucharest has witnessed a resurgence of state-led urban development on a scale not seen since the socialist period. EU Structural Funding and public funding have financed many of these projects, transforming the dynamics of central and local governance in the process. This project examines the emergence of a new regime of urban governance that relies critically on EU and public funding, and the procurement of public projects.

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Urban Governance, Public Funding, and Recession in Postsocialist Bucharest (435 KB pdf)

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The system of education in Azerbaijan has witnessed a series of reforms. My project analyzes the extent to which these reforms have impacted school education. I have investigated the number of children, especially girls, who drop out from schools, what the reasons are for dropping out, what types of professional education are most popular, and how many of women pursue professional careers after school. As a special topic, I studied the impact of traditional religious and cultural values on women’s education in Azerbaijan.

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Girls' Education in Rural Azerbaijan: A Case Study of the Astara Region (257 KB pdf)

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Attitudes to violence have dramatically changed over the past twenty years in Central and Eastern Europe, but despite extensive activism, Hungary is one of three states in the region without a specific law on domestic violence. Additionally, services for victims are substantially below internationally expected levels, and data on violence against women are unreliable or unavailable.

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Defining Domestic Violence in Hungary: Successes and Continuing Challenges (421 KB pdf)

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Party system nationalization constitutes a growing area of research in political science. This project examines the influence of electoral rules on party system nationalization in Ukraine, a country with significant regional variation in voting patterns. It finds that single-member district rules tend to intensify regional variation in voting, by making it harder for parties to compete in electorally hostile regions. However, until Ukraine attains a democratic equilibrium, the impact of electoral rules will be secondary to concerns over creeping authoritarianism.

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The Influence of Electoral Rules on Party System Nationalization in Ukraine (337 KB pdf)

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This project is concerned with the study of immigration from Russia to the United States prior to 1917 and the establishment of Russian communities in the United States. Emigration from the Russian Empire grew tremendously beginning about the last third of the nineteenth century, with ever-increasing numbers choosing the United States as a permanent or temporary new home. The reasons for emigration were numerous, from political and religious persecution to economic betterment. The paths of emigration were also varied, including a great deal of illegal departures.

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U.S.-Russian Relations and Russian Immigration to the U.S. (318 KB pdf)

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