Research

Selected publications

Full publication list available in my CV.

Current projects

Authoritarian framing and public trust

A pre-registered survey experiment (N=804) studying how securitisation and human rights framing affect support for police violence in Kazakhstan after the 2022 Qandy Qantar events. The key finding is a null: securitisation framing did not increase trust in law enforcement, suggesting diminishing returns from authoritarian messaging. We also found domain-specific attitudes toward police force, with greater approval of repression against feminist protests than labor protests.

Women's crisis shelters in Kazakhstan (CBPR)

A community-based participatory study of how domestic violence shelters operate within Kazakhstan's authoritarian governance and patriarchal norms. We identified 6 shelters across different regions and are conducted one-week field visits with participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and stakeholder mapping. The study compares municipal and NGO-operated shelters to understand when they serve as protective institutions and when they are constrained by the state.

Heteronormative accountability and attitudes towards SGM in Kazakhstan

A constructivist grounded theory study of how people in Kazakhstan construct meaning around sexual and gender minorities (SGM). Drawing on West and Zimmerman's "doing gender" framework, the study finds that visibility, not identity, is what triggers gender policing. We identified four meaning-making frameworks: conditional tolerance, threat narratives, empathy-driven acceptance, and strategic disengagement. A key methodological finding is that Russian-speaking and Kazakh-speaking respondents draw on fundamentally different moral repertoires when accounting for their attitudes, revealing how language structures the available scripts for gender accountability in a bilingual society.

AI-augmented social science

What changes when AI enters research and teaching not as a productivity tool but as a genuine cognitive partner? I'm building this practice across multiple sites: working with AI as a co-analyst in qualitative fieldwork, developing AI-integrated methods courses, and co-supervising an MA thesis with AI as a third supervisor. The goal is to produce frameworks and evidence for meaningful AI integration, not just adoption.

Global collaborations

Trust in Science and Populism (TISP)

A 68-country mega-study on public trust in scientists and perceptions of science, contributing Kazakhstan's data to cross-national analyses. Published in Nature Human Behaviour, Nature Climate Change, Scientific Data, and Science Communication.

Global Gratitude Project (The Love Consortium)

A Templeton-funded international research initiative investigating the cognitive and cultural foundations of gratitude across cultures. Contributing Kazakhstan data to the Global Gratitude Dataverse.

Future directions

Gender politics under authoritarianism

Expanding the crisis shelters and SGM work into a broader research program on how authoritarian states manage gender-based violence policy and regulate gender norms.

Public health attitudes in Kazakhstan

A qualitative follow-up to our vaccination survey experiment, with focus groups and participatory observation in hospitals and parent groups to understand how people socialize about vaccination and what shapes these attitudes beyond individual decision-making.

Coworking with AI in qualitative research

A methodological paper and book project on what happens when AI participates in qualitative analysis as a co-analyst rather than a tool. Drawing on documented collaboration across fieldwork, three AI-integrated courses, and systematic research journaling to develop frameworks for evaluating AI-human collaboration in social science.