LUND UNIVERSITY, SWEDEN
Rustamjon Urinboyev, Principal Investigator
Rustam Urinboyev is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology of Law at Lund University. He is a principal investigator of the EU-funded project “Central Asian Law: Legal Cultures and Business Environments in Central Asia,” which Lund University coordinates. Rustamjon works at the intersection of the sociology of law and ethnography, studying migration, corruption, governance, and penal institutions in the context of Russia and Central Asia. His current research focuses on (1) migration, shadow economy, and informal legal orders in hybrid political regimes, (2) corruption, informality, and legal pluralism in Uzbekistan, and (c) informal hierarchies, religious orders, and ethnic identities in Russian penal institutions. He is the author of Migration and Hybrid Political Regimes: Navigating the Legal Landscape in Russia (2020), published by the University of California Press.
Sherzod Eraliev – Researcher
Sherzod Eraliev is a postdoctoral researcher at the Sociology of Law Department at Lund University. His research lies within migration, informality, democratization, civil society, and authoritarianism studies in Eurasia. Sherzod’s research has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes. He has been an Academy of Finland researcher at the Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, a research fellow at the Institute of European, Russian and Eurasian Studies, George Washington University, and has worked with international organizations in the development, migration, and humanitarian spheres. He has been a visiting lecturer at several universities in Kazakhstan, Turkey, and Uzbekistan. In addition to his involvement in the MOCCA project at Lund University, Sherzod is currently running a research project, “Informality, Migrant Precarity, and Exploitation in Nordic Context: Uzbek Migrant Workers in Sweden and Finland” (IMPEX), funded by Forte – Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare.
Elmurod Sobirov, Project Assistant
Elmurod Sobirov is a project assistant of the EU-funded project “MOCCA: Multilevel Orders of Corruption in Central Asia,” which Lund University coordinates. He is a recent graduate in Public Administration from the National University of Political Studies and Public Administration. He has studied law and social sciences at various EU universities, such as the University of South-Eastern Norway (Norway), Lodz University (Poland), Polytechnic Institute of Bragance (Portugal), European University Viadrina (Germany), and University of Oslo (Norway). His bachelor’s thesis and master’s dissertation focused on corruption, informal hierarchies, the rule of law, informal legal orders, and other existing problems in Uzbekistan. Elmurod’s main interests focus on governance in post-Soviet societies, the rule of law and corruption, and state-society relations.
Chekhros Kilichova – Project Assistant
Chekhros Kilichova is a project assistant of the EU-funded project “MOCCA: Multilevel Orders of Corruption in Central Asia,” which is coordinated by Lund University. She graduated from the University of World Economy and Diplomacy in Uzbekistan. She is studying MSc in Economic growth, Population and Development at Lund University. Before joining the project, Chekhros gained work experience in public communications as well as project and programme management. Her main interests focus on economic governance and trade relations in Central Asian countries.
AARHUS UNIVERSITY, DENMARK
Maria Louw
UNIVERSITY OF ZURICH, SWITZERLAND
Peter Finke
Peter Finke is a Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Zurich and Co-director of the Centre for Anthropological Studies on Central Asia (CASCA). He holds a PhD from the University of Cologne (1999) and a post-doctoral degree from the University of Leipzig (2006). Between 2000 and 2006, he was a Senior Research Fellow and Head of a Research Group at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle. He also served as a Visiting Professor at the University of New Hampshire (2002 to 2003), the Middle Eastern Technical University, Ankara (2004 to 2006), and was President of the Swiss Anthropological Association (2012-2017).
MARMARA UNIVERSITY, TURKEY
Erhan Doğan
Prof.Dr. Erhan Doğan has been a researcher and lecturer at Marmara University Department of Political Science and International Relations since 2003. He teaches BA and Ph.D. level courses on Comparative Politics, European Union, Turkey-EU Relations and Civil Society. Dr.Doğan has also supervised a number of PhD and M.A. theses. Dr.Dogan’s research focuses on the impacts of Turkey-EU interaction and its impacts on Turkish politics. The impacts of the EU travel visas over Turkish citizens’ political and travel behaviors is a research question that Dr.Doğan had conducted research on. Dr.Doğan has also conducted researches on the increasing Civil Society/NGO involvement to Turkish Foreign policy, which is a byproduct of Turkey-EU engagement and developing capabilities and might of Turkey’s commercial and industrialist bourgeoisie, and also identity-based social and political groups. Dr.Doğan had been at Ohio State University, USA (1999-2000) and the Free University of Brussels-ULB, Belgium (2000) as a Ph.D. level visiting researcher, and Dublin City University, Ireland (2008-2009), Higher School of Economics, Moscow (2013), Jawaharlal Nehru University (2014), India as a post-doctoral researcher.
ISTANBUL MEDIPOL UNIVERSITY
Deniz GENÇ
Dr. H. Deniz GENC is an associate professor of International Relations at İstanbul Medipol University. She earned her Ph.D. degree from Marmara University, İstanbul, in November 2013, with a comparative thesis on the bordering processes of Spain and Turkey. She holds two master’s degrees in EU Politics and International Relations from the University of Lund and Marmara University. She conducted post-doctorate research in the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS) at the University of Oxford in 2015. Her research focuses on different aspects of international migration. She published on irregular migration, forced migration, migrant integration, and borders in Europe and Turkey in various journals, including International Migration, Turkish Studies, Migration Letters, and IZA Journal of Development and Migration. Her recent research focused on migrants’ access to healthcare services in Turkey. The research project – A Comprehensive Study on Non-nationals’ Access to Health Services in Turkey: Research of Limitations and Opportunities, was funded by Turkey’s Scientific and Research Council (TUBITAK) under Grant no. 118K345. In this exploratory research, a team of researchers collected data through 1,5 hour face-to-face in-depth interviews with 149 participants during the course of 2018 and 2019.
VILNIUS UNIVERSITY, LITHUANIA
Konstantinas Andrijauskas
Konstantinas Andrijauskas is an Associate Professor of Asian International Relations at the Institute of International Relations and Political Science, Vilnius University (Lithuania); formerly a senior visiting scholar at China’s Fudan (2011) and Zhejiang (2013) universities as well as Columbia University under Fulbright Scholar Program (2017); associate expert at the Eastern Europe Studies Centre’s China program (Lithuania). Dr. Andrijauskas’ research is focused on the contemporary domestic and international politics of China and Russia, with an additional academic interest in key regions neighboring both of them, including Central Asia.
CHARLES UNIVERSITY, CZECH REPUBLIC
Slavomir Horak
Slavomír Horák is an Associate Professor at the Department of Russian and East European Studies of the Institute of International Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University in Prague. He received his Associate Professorship in Politicial and Cultural Geography (2019) and Ph.D. in Area Studies (2007). He lectures on political and social issues in Central Asia as well as the modern history of Central Asia. His main research focus includes a complex survey of contemporary Turkmenistan, particularly state- and nation-building, ideology, and internal politics, with particular attention to informal structures as well as the foreign policy of Turkmenistan. The author of numerous scholarly journal articles and several books on state- and nation-building in Central Asia, Russian policy in Central Asia, and conflict in Afghanistan. His most recent project also includes researching de facto state border cases in Northern Eurasia.
UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI
Anna-Liisa Heusala
Anna-Liisa Heusala is a University Lecturer in Russian and Eurasian Studies at Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki. She received her PhD in 2005 in political science and has researched public administration and legal changes since the 1990s. More recently, she has focused on migration and illiberalism, as well as comprehensive and human security. She has worked in the Ministry of Justice (Finland) and the Finnish Police University College and has conducted several commissioned research projects for the Finnish Government.
ESTONIAN BUSINESS SCHOOL, ESTONIA
Gaygysyz Ashyrov
Gaygysyz Ashyrov is a Senior Research Fellow in Economics at the Estonian Business School in Estonia. He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Tartu (2020). Previously, he worked as a Research Fellow and Program Manager for the Bachelor of Business Administration at the University of Tartu until 2022. His research interests lie in the fields of Institutional Economics and Microeconomics, with a specific focus on corruption and other institutional dysfunctions in post-Communist countries. His work has been published in various academic journals, including Kyklos, the Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Post-Communist Economies, the Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, and Crime, Law, and Social Change.
Kaire Põder
Kaire Põder is an education economist, who works on various topics related to educational equity and inequality. Her methodological toolbox covers various tools regarding quasi-experimental evaluation methods, which allow her to contribute to evidence-informed policies and practices in education. She has been a member of the expert group Investing in Quality Education in the European Commission, leads the Labor Market and Economics research group in EBS and presents and publishes in various journals in the fields. She has been a principal investigator of EC and local research projects regarding higher education financing and policy, school and school network efficiency, and evaluations of social and family policies. Kaire has teaching experience in various fields of Economics (Education Economics, Institutional Economics, Game Theory, Microeconomics) in various universities in Estonia and abroad, more recently she has concentrated her teaching on causal methods and applications in R. She is and has supervised students working on evaluation studies in education and labour market.
Jukka Veikko Mäkinen
Jukka Veikko Mäkinen (D.Sc Econ, Aalto University) is a professor of Business Ethics at the Estonian Business School, Estonia and a Docent of Corporate Social Responsibility at the Aalto University School of Business, Finland. He approaches the political and socio-economic responsibilities of governments, businesses, and civil society from the perspectives of contemporary political and ethical theory. His work appears in leading journals in his research area, such as Business & Society, Business Ethics Quarterly, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Information Technology, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, and Utilitas. He has worked as a visiting scholar at Sciences Po, Audencia Business School, University of Amsterdam Business School, Stanford University, and Harvard University. Mäkinen is an editorial board member of Business Ethics Quarterly.
THE GENERAL PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE OF THE REPUBLIC OF UZBEKISTAN
Zarrina Tolibova
Zarrina Tolibova is the prosecutor of the International Legal Department of the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Uzbekistan. Her current responsibilities are enhancing international cooperation with competent authorities of foreign countries and international organizations and instructions. Besides, she is responsible for sending and organizing the execution of requests for extradition and mutual legal assistance in criminal matters, including asset recovery. Z. Tolibova has worked in prosecutor’s authorities for eight years in different positions as prosecutor’s activity. She has a Bachelor’s degree from the University of World Economy and Diplomacy in “International Law” and a Master’s degree from the Tashkent State Law University in “Criminal and Criminal Procedure Law.” She conducts research and training at the Law Enforcement Academy of the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Uzbekistan. Currently, she is conducting scientific research to gain a Ph.D. candidate degree on the theme: “International cooperation in the sphere of combatting corruption.” The study aims to examine the new and innovative mechanisms for enhancing international cooperation in preventing, identifying, investigating, and prosecuting corruption, including recovery and repatriation of assets of corruption transferred abroad to the country of their origin, particularly analyzing the factors affecting this process.
ZHETYSU UNIVERSITY NAMED AFTER I.ZHANSUGUROV, KAZAKHSTAN
Nazgul Baigabatova
Nazgul Baigabatova is an Associate Professor in Historical science at Zhetysu University named after I. Zhansugurov. She is the head of the scientific and educational center “Rukhani Zhanguru” where she manages projects on challenges in society and culture. Her research interests are studying everyday practices, diaspora, ethnic identity, problems of adaptation, and integration of repatriates. She has conducted field research in Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and China.
Daniya Nurmukhankyzy
Daniya Nurmukhankyzy is the head of educational programs in the direction of training “law” at Zhetysu University, named after Ilyas Zhansugurov. Ph.D. in Jurisprudence, Associate Professor of Law. Engaged in the development of new and innovative educational programs for the preparation of competitive legal personnel. Research interests: investment law, environmental law, agricultural law, digital and information law. She is also an Expert in the scientific anti-corruption expertise of legal acts.
TAJIK STATE UNIVERSITY OF COMMERCE, TAJIKISTAN
Farhod Sharopov
Farhod Sharopov – Vice-Rector for Science and International Relations of the Tajik State University of Commerce, Doctor of Economics, Professor (2018). Since 2000, he has been working in the field of Economics and Higher Education, and he is an international expert in the field of quality assurance. For more than 10 years, he worked as the head of the Department of Economics and Business Organization and the Dean of the Faculty of International Economic Relations and Law. The sphere of scientific interests of Professor Farhod Sharopov is the problems of business development, international trade, digital, and the “green” economy. He is the head of the university’s scientific area and the dissertation council’s chairman for the defense of candidate and doctoral dissertations in the field of economics and entrepreneurship. Under the guidance of Professor Farhod Sharopov, 7 Ph.D. theses were defended. He is the author of 10 monographs, 5 textbooks, and more than 60 scientific articles in the field of business and tourism, digital economy, and higher education. Actively participates in the development and implementation of international projects. He was the coordinator and expert of 6 international projects and also did his research at the universities of Turin (Italy), Dijon (France), Edinburgh (Scotland), Seville (Spain), and others.
WESTMINSTER INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY IN TASHKENT, UZBEKISTAN
Khasan Sayfutdinov
Khasan Sayfutdinov is a Senior Law lecturer at Westminster International University in Tashkent (WIUT). He is also the Course Leader for LLM in the International Commercial Law program at WIUT. As a course leader, he is responsible within the Faculty to ensure the quality of the design and delivery of the LLM program of study at the postgraduate level. He earned his PhD and LLM from the School of Law, Xiamen University, China. Dr. Sayfutdinov has been teaching International Economic Law to undergraduate and graduate students since 2017. He has supervised students who wrote the dissertations on international investment and trade law. His latest research works are focused on areas like the Law of the World Trade Organization and bilateral investment treaties. The topic of his doctoral dissertation was “Study on the Role of Bilateral Investment Treaties in the Attraction of Foreign Direct Investment to China”.
Alisher Pulatov
“Alisher Pulatov is a Senior Law lecturer at Westminster International University in Tashkent (WIUT). His current administrative responsibilities are Dean of SOLTE (School of Law, Technology and Education) and Director of the Centre for Professional and Lifelong Learning in WIUT. For the last 10 years, Alisher Pulatov has been an employee of WIUT and taught in fields like Contract Law, Public Law, International Trade Law, and Law of International Organizations. Currently, he is a PhD candidate at the University of Law, has an LLB and European Relation degree from Surrey University, did postgraduate studies at Groningen University and an LLM in International Commercial Law degree from Westminster University. His research interest areas are multinational corporations, international trade, the digital economy, and taxation. Prior to the academic experience, Alisher Pulatov worked in different law firms and international and local private companies as an in-house lawyer.”
Dildora Karimova
Dildora Karimova has been working as a Lecturer at Westminster International University in Tashkent (WIUT) for 7 years. Prior to joining the WIUT, she was a lecturer at the University of World Economy and Diplomacy. She obtained her Master’s degree after graduating with a Programme in Law and Economics from Bilkent University in Turkey. She completed her Bachelor’s degree in Public International Law, graduating from the University of World Economy and Diplomacy in 2010 (Tashkent/Uzbekistan). For the last 7 years, she has taught various modules like International Banking and Finance Law, Law of International Organizations, and Dissertation in Law and currently, she is teaching two modules, Public International Law and Corporate Crime. Her Research Interests include Public International Law, Human Rights, Women Empowerment, and Corporate Criminal Liability. She has also been coaching WIUT’s Jessup team for 6 years, and her team won the National Rounds in Uzbekistan and got into the top 100 ranking in the International Rounds.
EURASIAN INSTITUTE OF INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES, KAZAKHSTAN
Jakipbek Altayev
Doctor of Philosophical Sciences, professor
He is one of the leading experts in the field of the history of Kazakh national philosophy and social philosophy. Scientific supervisor of dissertations of numerous young scientists studying current problems of Farabian studies, the history of Kazakh philosophy, and the spiritual culture of the Kazakh people. He is the author of more than 35 textbooks, teaching aids, monographs, and 300 scientific articles, including in journals with a non-zero impact factor.
Research interests: social philosophy, history of philosophy, Islamic philosophy, history of Kazakh philosophy.
Daniyar Kaldiyarov
Doctor of Economic Sciences, Professor
Managed scientific projects of grant funding, participated in and executed national and international scientific projects, and was the author of more than 200 scientific papers, research articles and reports, monographs, and textbooks.
Research interests: economics of the agro-industrial complex, food security, regional economic management, analysis and assessment of investment projects, investment attractiveness, planning and management in the field of higher and postgraduate education.
OSCE ACADEMY, KYRGYZSTAN
Indira Satarkulova
Dr. Indira Satarkulova has joined the OSCE Academy team as Deputy Director and served as Acting Director of the Academy in 2016-2017, 2022-2024. Dr Satarkulova holds an LL.M (NY, USA) and PhD (Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan) degrees in law. She is a licensed member of the Kyrgyzstan BAR Association with extensive successful professional experience in Kyrgyzstan and abroad, and is a current arbitrator/member of Supervisory Boards of several international courts of arbitration in China, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan. The combination of her research and professional experience includes but is not limited to international law, international business transactions, international commercial arbitration (involving sovereign states) and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards, civil, criminal, state law procedure, programme management and development, advocacy and resource mobilization, knowledge management, data analytics and etc. She is a multilingual expert who has taught national and international law-related courses, authored numerous publications, and completed an Advanced Programme in European Law and Economics (Riga, Latvia).
Almakan Orozobekova
Dr. Almakan Orozobekova is a Project and Training Specialist at the OSCE Academy in Bishkek. She is also a Coordination Council member of the OSCE Network for Women Professionals in Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism and Radicalization that Lead to Terrorism in Central Asia. Dr. Orozobekova completed fellowships at the NATO Defense College in Italy and Geneva Centre for Security Policy in Switzerland. Previously, she worked in the research group “How ‘Terrorists’ Learn” at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Germany. She gained a doctoral degree from the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg.
TEBIGY KUWWAT PUBLIC ASSOCIATION, TURKMENISTAN
Yolbars Kepbanov
Yolbars Kepbanov, Ph.D. in Law, is a Researcher at the Tebigy Kuwwat NGO (Turkmenistan). He is a Research Fellow of the EU-funded project “Central Asian Law: Legal Cultures and Business Environments in Central Asia” at Lund University. His area of expertise is legal issues of ecology and agriculture in Turkmenistan, education, and migration in the countries of Central Asia. He is the author of over 50 scientific papers in this area. Recent publications by Yolbars include The Organization of Environmental Activities in Turkmenistan (2018) and Return Migration in Central Asia (2020), the book published by IOM in 2020, which Yolbars contributed as a co-author. Yolbars has long experience of participating in environmental and development projects implemented by the UN, USAID, OSCE, GIZ, and other organizations at the local and international levels. He authored the legislation texts in the capacity of a local independent expert under a number of official programs in Turkmenistan.
Berdymyrat Ovezmyradov
Berdymyrat Ovezmyradov, Ph.D. in Policy and Planning Science, is a Research Fellow of the EU-funded project “Central Asian Law: Legal Cultures and Business Environments in Central Asia” at Lund University. His interdisciplinary area of research includes sustainable value chains and business analytics. Berdymyrat currently focuses on comparative studies of technological development in Central Asia. He previously published papers in the field of business, technology, and education. Berdymyrat has academic experience as a lecturer in engineering and management sciences. He also has industrial experience working in the manufacturing and logistics sectors.
ANTICORRUPTION BUSINESS COUNCIL UNDER THE PRESIDENT OF THE KYRGYZ REPUBLIC
Nuruipa Mukanova
Nuruipa Mukanova, since 2011 has been leading the Anticorruption Business Council of the Kyrgyz Republic, that has been moved under the President of the Kyrgyz Republic in July 2021 by decree of the President. The President of the Kyrgyz Republic chairs the Anticorruption Business Council, consisting of 43 members representing the Cabinet of Ministers, the business community, civil society, academia & education, and donor partners. In November 2021, under the supervision of Nuruipa Mukanova in the position of the General Secretary, the Council drafted, discussed, and approved by the President of the Kyrgyz Republic the main Concept of the Anticorruption Policy of the Kyrgyz Republic for 2022-2025. In 2022 the Council drafted a new anticorruption strategy and Action plans, held public hearings, consulted with the state agencies and ministries, and submitted to the President’s Administration for consideration in January 2023. Nuripa holds two higher education degrees, has a master’s degree in public administration, and completed a full-time postgraduate program at the Academy of Management under the President of the Kyrgyz Republic on national specialty economy. She holds an internationally recognized certificate, “Public Anticorruption Practitioner,” issued by the World Bank Institute and FPDL (Romania). Nuruipa graduated from the 2-year LGI “Policy Fellowship” program of the Open Society Institute (Hungary) under the mentorship of Prof. Guy Peters, a well-known scholar in the field of public administration. She is a member of the Expert Council of the Coordination Meeting under the General Prosecution of the Kyrgyz Republic and a member of the Network of Institutions and Organizations of Public Administration in Central and Eastern Europe (NISPACee).
KURULTAI CONSULTING
Kobil Ruizev
Dr Kobil Ruziev is Kurultai’s research coordinator. Dr Kobil Ruziev obtained his master’s degree from Vanderbilt University (USA) and his PhD degree from Stirling University (UK). His main research interests include economic transformation and financial development, connectedness, and equitable access to formal finance and higher education in the post-communist economies of Central Asia. Dr Ruziev regularly publishes his research in peer-reviewed academic journals and in edited book volumes. Some of Dr Ruziev’s works on connectedness and equitable access to formal finance and higher education were externally funded by such reputable research funding bodies as the British Academy and the UK Higher Education Investment Fund.
Dr Ruziev’s research network is extensive. Some of the external research institutions he has been working closely with include Lund University (Sweden), Jacobs University (Germany), Griffith University (Australia), Aberystwyth University (UK), Bournemouth University (UK), the University of Oxford (UK), and the University of Sheffield (UK). Dr Ruziev also has strong research links with the Tashkent State University of Economics and the Tashkent Institute of Finance in Uzbekistan.
Gulnoza Aliakbarova
Gulnoza Aliakbarova is a researcher and business ethics and management consultant at Kurultai Research and Consulting. Her areas of expertise include research, development, and consulting projects in business ethics, good governance, and research on gender equality. She also has previous work experience at the Center for Political Studies in Tashkent.