Dr Elmira Satybaldieva

About

Dr Elmira Satybaldieva is one of the leading scholars in Central Asian politics. Her main area of research interest is politics and development in the post-Soviet space, with a particular focus on grassroots activism and international capital in Central Asia.
She is currently researching Chinese, Russian and American investment strategies in Central Asia and their geo-economic implications for the region. She is a co-investigator on a 2-year research project that examines Chinese industrial investments in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan (Enacting the Belt and Road Initiative: the implementation of Chinese projects in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, Faculty of Social Science Research Grant, University of Kent, 2020-22).
She has been researching the region for over 13 years, collaborating with principal international aid agencies (DFID, Open Society Foundations, USAID and European Commission’s Department for International Cooperation and Development) and research/policy institutions (Woodrow Wilson Center, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Swiss National Science Foundation, EU-Central Asia Monitoring and Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an).
Previously, she worked at the American University-Central Asia and the Karelian Institute, University of Eastern Finland, and had fellowship at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University. She has published widely on social movements, development and political economy in the region.