This dissertation considers the intersections of Islam and secularism in the post-Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan, as well as how international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have worked to promote peace and counter violent extremism in the country. By introducing two intert…
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This dissertation studies the rise of rural-based cultural nationalism in the USSR in the years between the death of Stalin in 1953 and the break-up of the USSR in 1991. It analyzes the lives and work of a multinational group of writers who were part of a massive wave of rural-t…
In this study, I examine the oppositional configuration of public figures around the poles of "proper" Muslimness and "authentic" Kyrgyzness in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. I ask: Why are public actors defining their positions in opposition to the other? Why do such opposing positions t…
This dissertation is about social mobilizations in rural Kyrgyzstan from 2010-2015. Following a constructivist approach, I aim to answer a puzzling question in regard to multiple but rarely sustainable protests in this global periphery: Under what conditions can provisional epis…
This dissertation addresses organized crime in post-Soviet Eurasia (Georgia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan) exploring the nexus between politics, business and crime. Based on extensive field research in the three countries the dissertation examines organized crime groups in the region and…
This thesis is an ethnography of how places like mountain pastures (jailoos), hydro-electric dams and holy sites (mazars) matter in striving for a good life. Based on eighteen months of fieldwork in the Toktogul valley of Kyrgyzstan, this study contributes to theoretical questio…
Food security is a fundamental human necessity. Although our global society has been constantly tackling hunger around the world, there still exists many socially and geographically isolated communities that struggle to achieve food security. A growing body of literature examine…
As the title suggests, this thesis comprises several works of creative nonfiction. First, "Zen and the Art of Conquest" presents an incomplete narrative, in six chapters, that draws inspiration from Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974) and other trave…
Current Knowledge: Normative pluralism (plural sources of social ordering) has existed in in Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan ) since pre-Tsarist times. Respected male elders (aksakals), for example, led nomadic groups where customar…
Intimate partner violence (IPV) violates human rights, specifically, the right to life and bodily integrity. Although considerable knowledge about the prevalence of and risk factors for IPV in developing countries has been amassed, little attention has been paid to the attitudes…
In this dissertation I argue that political institutions in a plural society, through their ability to induce and constrain a wide range of interactions, can facilitate (or hinder) the prospects for cross-ethnic trust generation, and by extension cross-ethnic cooperation. More s…
Background . Although injection drug use emerged as the initial propellant of HIV in Central Asia, the epidemic may be verging on widespread diffusion through bridge populations to the general population. While HIV incidence appears to be increasing sharply, the absolute number …
This study was concerned with examining any differences between the cultural value characteristics of entrepreneurs and factory workers in Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Czech Republic, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Bulgaria, and Kyrgyzstan, and whether these differ…
The problem. The purpose of this study was to examine characteristics of and intercultural relationships among major cultural groups in formerly Soviet Central Asia, culturally integrating and differentiating processes in the context of the Soviet Union's breakup and possible co…
The central focus of this dissertation is an examination of the new regional character of the five post-Soviet Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. In the first three post-Soviet years, 1992-1994, the five states gradually …
The motivation for this research comes from the belief that an over reliance on a social constructivist perspective has caused development studies in general, and post-development in particular, to under-theorize the role of discourse in development. A key issue in post-developm…
I divide political opportunity as a theme into two distinct parts that are both important factors and that influence ethnic mobilization in different ways. The first of these factors is opportunity in the sense of political space, or the idea that elites who would instrumentaliz…
The countries of post-Soviet Central Asia share remarkable similarities: they came into existence at the same time, have since undergone similar processes and challenges in establishing statehood, are culturally related to each other, share similar historical paths, and have nea…
The internet is has grown exponentially in Central Asian during the last decade. Political turmoil, media censorship, and the unique social and economic characteristics rooted in traditional culture and informed by the Soviet experience have informed the development of the inter…