Surviving the Transition

Surviving the transition_cover-Surviving the Transition? Case Studies of Schools and Schooling in the Kyrgyz Republic Since Independence

(co-authored with Alan De Young and Galina Valyayeva). Information Age Publishers Series on International Perspectives on Educational Policy, Research and Practice, 2006.

Drawing on ethnographic and case study methods, this book explores the everyday navigation of radical economic and political transformation within four school communities in rural Kyrgyzstan. The case study that I contribute, from Ak-Tatyr village of Batken district, Continue reading →

Completed PhD supervision

Completed PhD supervision

Deana Jovanović (2016 completion, University of Manchester), Ambivalence and the Work of Hope: Anticipating Futures in a Serbian Industrial Town (Second supervisor, with Stef Jansen)

Medina Aitieva (2015 completion, University of Manchester), Reconstituting Transnational Families: An Ethnography of Family Practices Between Kyrgyzstan and Russia (First supervisor, with Nick Thoburn)

Ivan Rajkovic (2015 completion, University of Manchester), Struggles for moral ground: problems with work and legitimacy in a Serbian industrial town (Second supervisor, with Stef Jansen)

Hannah Wadle (2014 completion, University of Manchester), Good Tourismship in Transformation. Moral Stories from the Masurian Lake District in Poland (First supervisor, with Rupert Cox)

Till Mostowlansky (2013 completion, University of Berne), Azan on the Moon: Entangling Modernities along Tajikistan’s Pamir Highway (Co-supervisor, with Karénina Kollmar-Paulenz)

Past and on-going collaborative projects

Moral markets and Islamic finance in Kyrgyzstan (2013-)

I currently serve as International Mentor to Aisalkyn Botoeva (Brown University) for a research fellowship awarded by the Central Asia and Afghanistan Research Fund of Aga Khan Development Network. Botoeva’s research explores the cultural and political means through which the “run-by-Muslims” market niche is being created and legitimated. Continue reading →