Education
BA in International Area Studies, Eurasian National University (Kazakhstan)
MA in International Area Studies, University of Tsukuba (Japan)
MA in History, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Research Interests
I specialize in Russian imperial and Soviet history, with a particular focus on the societies of tsarist and Soviet Muslims. My dissertation examines the social and political history of Muslim religious institutions on the Kazakh steppe during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This transformative period, often referred to as the Islamic revival on the steppe, witnessed a rapid growth of religious institutions. By drawing from both tsarist and Muslim sources, my work offers a reinterpretation of existing scholarly narratives, providing a more nuanced portrayal of tsarist Muslims and their responses to the challenges as well as opportunities engendered by the Russian imperial expansion into Central Asia.
My research has received support from a Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Writing Fellowship, the Harriman Institute’s Russia Research Grant, ASEEES’s Dissertation Research Grant as well as short-term grants from the German Historical Institute in Moscow (DHIM), Roshan Institute for Persian Studies, the CSEEES at UNC, and the American Historical Association.
Courses Offered
HIST 162: Russian History since 1860 to the Present Day (Instructor)
HIST 163: Modern Central Asia (TA)
HIST 139: History of Muslim Societies since 1500 (TA)
HIST 140: The World since 1945 (TA)