Dr. Aksana Ismailbekova
Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin

Positions
Education
Publications
2017: ‘Blood Ties and the Native Sons: Poetics of Patronage in Kyrgyzstan’, Bloomington: Indiana University Press
2016: ‘Spatial mobility of women: constructing authority through custom. The case of Bulak, Kyrgyzstan’. Special issue on “Gender and Nationalism in Central Asia”. Ed. Lucia Direnberger, Juliette Cleuziou, and Iman Karzabi. Nationalities Papers 44: 266-280.
2014: ‘Performing democracy: State-making through patronage in Kyrgyzstan’. In: Performing politics: Ethnographies of the state in Central Asia. Ed. Reeves M, Rasanayagam J, and Beyer B. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 78-98.
2013: ‘Circle of Trust: functions and mechanism of Patron-Client Relations in the Private Farm’. In: Politics, Identity and Education in Central Asia. Ed. Pinar Akçali, Cennet Engin-Demir. Post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan. London and New York: Routledge.71-98.
2018: Secure and Insecure Spaces for Uzbek Businesspeople in Southern Kyrgyzstan. International Quarterly for Asian Studies. 49: (1-2), pp. 41-60.
2016: ‘Brak kak strategia vyzhivanie uzbeksoi obshiny posle konflikta v Oshe 2010’ [Marriage as a coping strategy in the aftermath of conflict in Osh], Etnograficheskoe Obozrenie.№ 6:6, 156-167.
2015: ‘Single Mothers in Osh: Well-being and coping strategies of women in the aftermath of the 2010 conflict in Kyrgyzstan’. Focaal. Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology. 71: 114–127.
2014: ‘Migration and patrilineal descent: the role of women in rural Kyrgyzstan’. Central Asian Survey. 33 (3): 375-389.
2013: ‘Coping Strategies: Migration, Public Avoidance, and Marriage in the Aftermath of the Osh Conflict, Fergana Valley’. Nationalities Papers. 41 (1): 109-127.
2012: ‘Dynamika mejetnichekih brakov posle konflikta v Oshe’ [Dynamics of inter-ethnic marriages in the aftermath of conflict in Osh], Etnograficheskoe Obozrenie.№ 6 pp 84-98.
with Günther Schlee, 2017: El parentesco en Asia Central desde una perspectiva comparatista in: Pertenencias múltiples, identidades cruzadas. Edited by Jiménez Tovar, Anabel Alejandra Soledad Primera edición. - México : El Colegio de México, pp 49-86.
with Baktygul Karimova, 2017: Ethnic Differentiation and Conflict Dynamics: Uzbeks Marginalization and Non-Marginalization in Southern Kyrgyzstan. In Understanding the City through its Margins Pluridisciplinary Perspectives from Case Studies in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Edited by André Chappatte, Ulrike Freitag, Nora Lafi. New York, NY: Routledge. 161-184.
with Aida Alymbaeva, 2015: 'Doing fieldwork in one’s own society—or ‘anthropology at home’. Contribution to volume on Central Asia Regional research in contemporary anthropology. Ed.Sergey Abashin. Anthropological Forum: A Journal of Social Anthropology and Comparative Sociology. Vol. 28: 17-35.
with Wladimir Sgibnev, 2015: ‘As long as the Capital is far away: multi-scalar regionalisation in Central Asia’. In: Ehrlich, Kornelia; Henn, Sebastian; Lang, Thilo (eds.): "New Geographies of Central and Eastern Europe. Socio-Spatial Polarization and Peripheralization in a Rapidly Changing Region". London: Palgrave Macmillan. 80-97.
with Emil Nasridinov, 2012: ‘Transnational Social Networks and Trajectories of Religious Practices and Discourses of Kyrgyz Dawatchis’. Transnational Social Review – A Social Work Journal (TSR). Vol. 3. 177-195.
with Sophie Roche, 2010: ‘Demography and patronage. The dynamics of youth bulge in Kyrgyzstan’.Orient JournalORIENT IV. 33-43.
with Jeanne Féaux de la Croix, 2014: ‘Introduction’ Special Issue on Ethnographies of Futures and Belongings in Kyrgyzstan. The Anthropology of East Europe Review. 32 (2): 1-16 [OA].
2017: ‘Better to hold on to salt than to hold on to your daughter’ - marriage as a strategy in the aftermath of the conflict in Osh, Kyrgyzstan. In The Family in Central Asia. New Perspectives. Ed Sophie Roche. 108-126. Berlin: Klaus Schwarz Verlag.
2014: ‘Mobility as coping strategy of Osh Uzbeks in the aftermath of conflict’ Special issue Mobilities in Asian Contexts. Ed. Henryk Alff, Andreas Benz, Matthias Schmidt . Internationales Asienforum 45(1/2): 49-68.
2014: ‘Securing future lives of children through ritualised parenthood in the village of Bulak, Kyrgyzstan’. Special Issueon Futures and Belongings in Kyrgyzstan. Ed. Jeanne Féaux de la Croix and Aksana Ismailbekova The Anthropology of East Europe Review (AEER) 32 (2): 17-32 [OA].
2015: ‘Invisible borders’: conflict, space, and ethnicity in the aftermath of the Osh conflict, Kyrgyzstan. in “Spaces of Conflict in Everyday Life: Figurations and Methodology” (ed.) Martin Sokefeld. pp 35-57. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag.
2018: Informal governance and corruption in Kyrgyzstan (Macro-Level). Basel Institute on Governance (open access) informalgovernance.baselgovernance.org/country-findings/kyrgyzstan [OA].
2018: Informal governance and corruption in Kyrgyzstan (Micro-Level). Basel Institute on Governance publications (open access)http://informalgovernance.baselgovernance.org/country-findings/kyrgyzstan [OA].
2013: Migration and patrilineal descent: the effects of spatial male mobility on social female mobility in rural Kyrgyzstan. In: Crossroads Asia Working Paper Series, No. 12. [OA].
2012: Coping Strategies: Public Avoidance, Migration, and Marriage in the Aftermath of the Osh Conflict, Fergana Valley. In: Crossroads AsiaWorking Paper Series, No. 4. [OA].
with Andreas Benz, Ayfer Durdu, Dietrich Reetz, Elena Smolarz, Petra Tiller and Christoph Wenzel, 2012: Crossroads Asia through the Lens of Mobility and Migration: A Conceptual Approach. In: Crossroads Asia Concept Paper Series, No. 3. [OA].
2017: Nalivkin, Vladimir, Maria Nalivkina, and Mariana Markova. Muslim Women of the Fergana Valley: A 19th-Century Ethnography from Central Asia. Translated by Mariana Markova and Marianne Kamp. Edited by Marianne Kamp. Bloomington; Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2016. In: Central Asian Survey, Pages 1-3, Published online 5 June 2017: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02634937.2017.1332309
2016: Finke, Peter, 2014 Variations on Uzbek Identity: Strategic Choices, Cognitive Schemas and Political Constraints in Identification Processes (Integration and Conflict Studies). Oxford and London: Berghahn Books: 288 pages. In: Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale. 24(3):388-389.
2015: Roche, Sophie, 2014 Domesticating Youth: Youth Bulges and Socio-Political Implications in Tajikistan (Integration and Conflict Studies). Oxford and London: Berghahn Books:, xv + 271pp. In: Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale. 23 (3):400-401.
2014: Liu, Morgan, Under Solomon’s Throne. Uzbek Visions of Renewal in Osh. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2012, xv + 280pp. In: The Asia-Europe Studies Journal. 66-2: 333-334.
Media Articles
Patronage Politics in Kyrgyzstan .What lays beneath the surface of Kyrgyzstan’s dramatic political scene? Published 20 August, 2019: https://thediplomat.com/2019/08/aksana-ismailbekova-on-patronage-politics-in-kyrgyzstan/
Lineage associations in Kyrgyzstan, The Central Eurasian Studies Society Blog: http://thecessblog.com/2018/01/04/lineage-associations-in-kyrgyzstan-by-aksana-ismailbekova/, Published on thecessblog.com on January 4, 2018.
Kyrgyzstan: Lineage Associations and Informal Politics. EurasiaNet: http://www.eurasianet.org/node/84036, Published 16 June 2017. EurasiaNet Commentary (in English and Russian languages).
Presidential elections Kyrgyzstan 2017. Peaceful in most regions except Osh city: http://balticworlds.com/presidential-elections-kyrgyzstan-2017/, Published on balticworlds.com on December 7, 2017.
2012: Rituals Vs. Reality: What Does Democracy Look Like in Kyrgyzstan? (English, Kyrgyz, Uzbek): http://www.bbc.co.uk/uzbek/institutional/2012/01/120113_cy_blog_my_take_on.shtml
Development of Anthropology in Kyrgyzstan, American University of Central Asia, Magazine, Bishkek Kyrgyzstan, 23. November 2011. Online.
with Roche, S., 2010: Problesk nadejdy v okrovlennom v Kyrgyzstane. [Hopes of people in violent conflict, Osh, Kyrgyzstan]: http://www.ferghana.ru/article.php?id=6687 (in Russian).
Fellowships and Awards
Funding
- ‘Harnessing Informality: Designing Anti- Corruption Network Interventions and Strategic Use of Legal Instruments ’ the Global Integrity Anti-Corruption Evidence Programme (GI-ACE), € 11, 000
Visiting Scholar
Fieldwork Experience
Memberships
- Central Eurasian Studies Society (CESS)
- Central Eurasian Scholars and Media Initiative (CESMI)
- European Society for Central Asian Studies (ESCAS)
Commissions of Trust
- Board Member of Central Eurasian Studies Society (CESS) (since 2017)
- Reviewer, National Science Centre (since 2017)
- Reviewer, the Czech Science Foundation (since 2017)
- Reviewer, the Bertelsmann Transformation Index (BTI) (since 2018)
Reviewer
- Anthropological Quarterly, Nationalities Papers, Europe-Asia Studies, Central Asian Survey, Focaal
Consultancy
Organisation of International Conferences and Workshops
Invited Lectures
‘Blood Ties and the Native Sons: Poetics of Patronage in Kyrgyzstan’,at Indiana University, USA, 29 October 2018
‘Informal governance and corruption in Kyrgyzstan’. American University - Central Asia, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan 14 November 2017
‘Informal governance and corruption in Kyrgyzstan’. Presented at the 17th Annual Conference of the Central Eurasian Studies Society (CESS). Princeton University, USA, 3-7 November 2016.
‘Conflict dynamics, ethnic differentiation, and identity in Osh and Nookat, Southern Kyrgyzstan’. Österreichische Orient-Gesellschaft Hammer-Purgstall, Vienna, Austria (www.orient-gesellschaft.at), 5December 2016
‘Construction of women’s authority through custom: mobility, reflexivity, and temporality’. At the Cluster of Excellence "Asia and Europe in a Global Context: The Dynamics of Transculturality", Heidelberg University 4December, 2014
Crossroads Asia Lecture Series ‘Coping Strategies: Public Avoidance, and Migration, Marriage in the Aftermath of the Osh Conflict, Fergana Valley in Kyrgyzstan’. Zentrum für Entwicklungsforschung (ZEF), 28March 2012
Aga Khan University Lecture Series ‘Coping Strategies: Public Avoidance, and Migration, Marriage in the Aftermath of the Osh Conflict, Fergana Valley in Kyrgyzstan’ at the University of Central Asia, Bishkek, 27 July 2012
The Danish Society for Central Asia Lecture Series. A public talk on ‘Localized Democracy: Change and Future in Kyrgyzstan’at the University of Copenhagen in Copenhagen, Denmark, 15 April 2010 (http://www.centralasien.dk/)
Teaching Experience
2011 - Summer semester: "Introduction to Kinship". Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany (Language: English)
2010 - Winter semester: "Zensus, Statistik, Bürokratie" - together with Larissa Vetters at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany (Language: English and German)
2009-2010 - Summer semester: "Central Asia Identity Politics". Martin Luther University Halle- Wittenberg, Germany (Language: English)
2010 - August: "Research Methods and Theories of Identity". Lectures for senior scholars from Central Asia at theCARTI Sumer School program, Izmir, Turkey
2008 - Summer semester: "Introduction to Kinship". Manas University, Bishkek
Summer school teaching experiences
Summer school Inter-ethnic tolerance. Batken, 2-13 August 2012, Funded by Aigine, USA Embassy in Kyrgyzstan
Summer school ‘Building Anthropology in Eurasia’, 2007-2011 (July), Issik-Kul, Kyrgyzstan, Funded by Soros Foundation
Summer school on The Soviet in Everyday Life, Regional Seminar on Excellence in Teaching, 16-31 July 2010 Tbilisi, Georgia, OSI/HESP
Other seminars
Kinship Politics. Lectures for students from Indiana University, Bloomington, USA, 30 October-3 November 2018
Supervising and mentoring activities
International advisor of Aigerim Zhakypek (a PhD student from Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Specialty social work, social research, aging), 01/09/2018-30/05/2021
International supervisor of Sabit Myrzabaev (a PhD student from Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, research topic: suicide in Kazakstan), 2018-2021