Researching in the Former Soviet Union

Jasmin Dall’Agnola is an Associated Research Fellow at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Academy in Bishkek. Her research centers on the relationship between gender, governance, and technology in post-Soviet Central Asia. She has been awarded a prestigious two-year, full-time Postdoc. Mobility Fellowship from the Swiss National Science Foundation, to explore the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on smart city technologies in Central Asia. In her role as founder and acting chair of the Eurasian, East and Central European Studies Women Academics Forum (EECES WAF), Jasmin is involved in various collaborative research and networking endeavors to address gender disparity in academia.Allyson Edwards research examines Militarism in Post-Soviet Russia, more specifically, the mechanisms behind latent militarization between 1990 and 2000. She is currently a lecturer in Global History at Bath Spa University and plays a wider role in the academic community as Vice-Chair of the EECES WAF. She specializes in topics related to militarism, memory, education, and parades in the Russian/Eurasian space.Marnie Howlett is a Departmental Lecturer in Politics in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford. She has held Fellowships supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the Canadian Foundation for Ukrainian Studies, and the John Fell Fund. Marnie was a Deputy Editor for Millennium: Journal of International Studies, vol. 48 and currently sits on the editorial board for Qualitative Research. Her research centers on the intersection of nationalism, geopolitics, and cartography within the former Soviet Union, particularly Ukraine.

• Preface. Introduction: The Challenges of Fieldwork in Post-Soviet Societies. Part I: Stories from the Post-Soviet Field. 1.Understanding and Managing One’s Own Mistrust: The Value of Embodied Ethnography during Fieldwork in a Contested Postwar Polity. 2.Doing Fieldwork (Not Quite) at Home: Reflecting on an Expat’s Positionality in Lithuania. 3.A Woman of Her Word Prepared for the Worst: Researching Drug Trafficking in Kazakhstan. Part II: Stories from the Hybrid Field. 4."Hanging Out" with the Boys: The Female Participant Observer in a Male-Dominated Group. 5.Balancing Diasporic Ties and Research: A Ukrainian-Canadian’s Reflection on Fieldwork in Ukraine. Part III: Stories from the Digital Field. 6.Listening and Its Limits: Reflections on Fieldwork in/on Kyrgyzstan. 7.The Academic Lion Skin: Balancing Doctoral Research with Motherhood. Afterword: Gaining Access to the Field