Central Asian Governments’ Responses to Protest: Fieldwork in a Time of Crises

Katherine received an RSAA Travel Award in 2019 for research towards her PhD which focuses on the ways in which non-democratic governments in post-Soviet Central Asia, have responded to public protests.

This would have been a complicated subject to research in any circumstances, but the timing of Katherine’s fieldwork could hardly have been more difficult. Expecting originally to visit the region in 2020, her plans were disrupted by Covid-19 with, at the time, no clarity about when it might be possible to resume.

By the time she was able to travel, early last year, Kazakhstan was in turmoil, and Central Asian governments were confronting new pressures arising out of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The challenge of conducting fieldwork against this inauspicious background is the subject of her talk and we are delighted, after the unscripted delays, to be able to host her talk.

Please note that this is an evening event