Former Research Fellows of the OSCE Academy

               Pengshan Pan

Research topic: Does Opium fuel Insurgent Groups? Evidence from Afghanistan

Pengshan Pan is a doctoral candidate at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh. His research field is international political economy and development. His research focuses specifically on foreign direct investment in labour markets and domestic politics in Central and South Asia. He broadly studies the interlinkages between foreign direct investment, the environment and conflict. He is also interested in topics such as labour, foreign aid, industrial policy in post-communist countries, and China's development model in Central and South Asia.

             Aliya Assubayeva

Research topic: Review of uncertainties in water security decision-making in Central Asia

Dr. Aliya Assubayeva is a Research Associate at the Center for International Development and Environmental Research (ZEU), Justus Liebig University Giessen, Germany. With an interdisciplinary background, she holds a BA in Water Resources Management from Kazakh National Agrarian University, an M.Sc. in Agricultural Economics from the Humboldt University of Berlin, and a Ph.D. in Public Policy from Nazarbayev University. Her research interests encompass water security, transboundary cooperation, water governance and policy, and sustainable development. Dr. Assubayeva has authored research articles, policy briefs, and book chapters, contributing to the academic and policy discourse on water-related issues. She is also interested in science communication.

                Rashid Gabdulhakov

Research topic: “I saw it on the internet!” Sources, Mechanisms, and Impacts of COVID-19 Dis/misinformation on Labour Migrants from Uzbekistan

Rashid Gabdulhakov is a Ph.D. Candidate and Lecturer in the Department of Media and Communication of Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands. His research focuses on digital vigilantism – citizen-led justice manifested online – as well as social media surveillance, affordances, and governance. Rashid has written a number of articles on these and other topics and co-edited an open-access book on Vigilant Audiences. Having lived, studied, and worked in five different countries, Rashid likes to describe himself as an ‘academic nomad’. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Whitworth University, USA; a Master of Arts degree in Politics and Security from the OSCE Academy in Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic; and a Master of Advanced Studies degree in International and European Security from the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP) and the University of Geneva, Switzerland. In his spare time, Rashid enjoys painting, cooking, and blogging. You can learn more on his website: plovism.com.

                Ajar Chekirova 

Research topic: Kyrgyz Diaspora Online: Understanding New Forms of Transnationalism, Citizenship, and Political Participation

Dr. Ajar Chekirova is an Assistant Professor at Lake Forest College. She holds Ph.D. in political science from the University of Illinois-Chicago. Dr. Chekirova’s research interests include migration and citizenship, informal institutions, political communication and behavior. Her research has been previously sponsored by the Open Society Foundation, University of Illinois, George Washington University, and the University of San Francisco. Dr. Chekirova holds an MA degree in International Affairs from Ohio University, where she was a Fulbright Fellow. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in law from Peking University in China."

           Burulcha Sulaimanova 

Research topic: The Impact of Job-Education Mismatch on the Earnings: Empirical Evidence from Generation and Gender Difference

Dr. Burulcha Sulaimanova is an Assistant Professor at Kyrgyz-Turkish Manas University (Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan). She specializes in the fields of labor economics and applied economic analysis in Central Asian countries. In particular, her research interests include education-job mismatch issues in Kyrgyzstan labor market, gender aspects of labor migration, infrastructure development, and its impact on Central Asian economies. She has been engaged in various types of projects as a researcher, project leader, and consultant. One of her recent projects has been on “The impact of infrastructure on trade in Central Asia”, which was supported by the Asian Development Bank Institute. Dr. Sulaimanova holds a Ph.D. and MSc degree in Economics from the Kyrgyz-Turkish Manas University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Anadolu University, Turkey.

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