IREX is pleased to announce the 2013-2014 Individual Advanced Research Opportunities [4](IARO) fellowship recipients. The IARO program provides highly qualified U.S. scholars and professionals the opportunity to impact the formation of U.S. foreign policy by conducting open-source research on current regional issues of importance to the United States. Those who present the most relevant and timely projects are selected for conducting field research.
This year's fellows will be traveling to 13 countries across Eastern Europe and Eurasia to perform policy relevant field research, covering topics such as volunteerism, nationalism, religious tolerance, and migration. Meet our new scholars below and make sure to visit IREX's online library [5] to read their research findings.
Jason Anderson
Marine Corps Tactics and Operations Group
Project Title: "Insurgent Strength and Appeal in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan – and State Response"
Research Countries: Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan
Helmut Baer
Texas Lutheran University
Project Title: "Religious Freedom in Hungary: The Effects of Hungary's New Religion Law on Deregistered Religious Communities"
Research Country: Hungary
Sarrah Bechor
Georgetown University
Project Title: "A Crisis in the Caucasus: The Wider Regional Implications of the Iranian Nuclear Crisis for Georgia and the South Caucasus"
Research Country: Georgia
Khashayar Beigi
University of California at Berkeley
Project Title: "Transformations of Everyday Islam in Russia by Tajik Migrants"
Research Countries: Russia, Tajikistan
Douglas Foster
University of Oregon
Project Title: "Militarism in Tajikistan: Realities of Post-Soviet Nation Building"
Research Country: Tajikistan
Philip Gamaghelyan
George Mason University
Project Title: "Sustaining Change: Middle and Long-Term Impact of Armenian-Azerbaijani Dialogue Programs"
Research Countries: Armenia, Georgia
Egzon Gashi
University of Oxford
Project Title: "The European Union's Role in Kosovo and Serbia"
Research Countries: Kosovo, Serbia
Colin Johnson
Brown University
Project Title: "Nationalism and Perception: Migrant Integration in Russia"
Research Country: Russia
Irina Levin
New York University
Project Title: "Uncertain Returns: Citizenship, Property, and Law in the Caucasus"
Research Countries: Azerbaijan, Georgia
Suzanne Levi-Sanchez
Rutgers University
Project Title: "Politics at the Periphery of Tajikistan: Who Makes the Rules That Count at the Border?"
Research Country: Tajikistan
Elizabeth Peacock
Grinnell College
Project Title: "Emerging from the 2nd World: Class, Language, and Migration among the First Generation of
Postsocialism"
Research Country: Ukraine
David Siegel
City University of New York
Project Title: "State Formation in Central Asia: Clientelism in the Periphery"
Research Countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan
Christopher Snively
Purdue University
Project Title: "Silent Cleansing - The Politics of Population in Movement in Vojvodina during the Milosevic Era"
Research Countries: Hungary, Serbia
Joseph Torigian
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Project Title: "Military Politics and the End of Revolution in the Soviet Union and China"
Research Country: Russia
Chelsi West
University of Texas at Austin
Project Title: "Ethnography in the Margins: A Study of Socioeconomic Crisis, Mobility, and the Albanian-Greek Border"
Research Country: Albania
Michael Zboray
Rutgers University
Project Title: "Sino-Russian Relations in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization"
Research Country: Russia