Infosessie 'Brownbag session: Doing research in authoritarian environments'

In this session, Eureast Platform visiting fellow Dr. Aijan Sharshenova will discuss what multidimensional challenges that researchers face when collecting data and publishing research in authoritarian environments. She will touch upon such issues as censorship and self-censorship, positionality of researchers, ethics considerations, and transnational repression. The discussion is based on Aijan's co-edited book on navigating positionality while doing research in Central Asia. The book is available as open access.

About the speaker

Dr. Aijan Sharshenova is a Bishkek-based political analyst and the Executive Director at Crossroads Central Asia think tank (Kyrgyzstan). She holds two Masters in the EU and Central Asian Studies and in International Studies, and a PhD in Politics from the University of Leeds.

Aijan’s research interests include foreign policy and soft power, as well as democracy promotion, autocracy diffusion. She published extensively on Central Asian politics, focusing on the region’s relations with the EU, Russia and China. Aijan authored a book on the EU democracy promotion in Central Asia and co-edited a recent book on navigating positionality in research.

In addition to her academic career, Aijan has worked on promoting sustainable development goals in the international development area, including within the UN system in the Middle East.