Doctoral Candidate in Anthropology & History
About
My dissertation research traces the connection between the development of bureaucratic documentary practices and state involvement in family affairs and gender relations in the Inner Kazakh Horde, an administrative division of the Russian empire situated between the Volga and Ural rivers. Based on a close reading of little-studied archival sources from Russia and Kazakhstan, I argue that the importance of written documents over oral agreements in a predominantly pre-literate society was one of the main ways that Kazakhs experienced the modernizing imperial state in the mid-19th century.
Grants
- SSRC Eurasia Program Dissertation Development Award (non-monetary)
- Rackham Graduate School Predoctoral Fellowship
- CLIR-Mellon Fellowship for Research in Original Sources
- American Councils Title VIII CRLT Fellowship
- Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies Lack Award
Research Areas
Russia/Central Asia/Kazakhstan, 19th century, imperialism, bureaucracy and the materiality of paperwork, family law, gender relations
