Azamat Junisbai
Professor of Sociology
With Pitzer Since: 2009
Field Group: Sociology
Campus Address: Scott Hall 222
Phone: 607.3767
Email: azamat_junisbai
Office Hours: See Faculty Directory
Educational Background
PhD, MA, Indiana University
BA, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Kazakhstan
Research Interests
Social Stratification and Inequality, Political Sociology, Post-Soviet Transitions, Survey Research
Recent Courses
Model Minority and Perpetual Foreigner: Asians in America
Contemporary Central Asia
Social Inequality
Quantitative Research Methods
Sociology and Its View of the World
Selected Publications
“The Limits of Authoritarian Learning: Deconstructing Kazakhstan’s 2022 Coup Attempt.” PONARS Eurasia Policy Memo No. 775 (2022).
“Authoritarian Learning: Making Sense Of Kazakhstan’s Political Transition.” PONARS Eurasia Policy Memo No. 660 (2020).
“Institutional Trust in Kazakhstan Vs. Kyrgyzstan: How Divergent Trajectories Matter.” PONARS Eurasia Policy Memo No. 573 (2019). With Barbara Junisbai.
“Regime Type versus Patronal Politics: A Comparison of ‘Ardent Democrats’ in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.” Post-Soviet Affairs, (2019). With Barbara Junisbai.
“Are Youth Different? The Nazarbayev Generation and Public Opinion in Kazakhstan.” Problems of Post-Communism, (2018). With Barbara Junisbai.
“Two Countries, Five Years: Islam in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan through the Lens of Public Opinion Surveys.” Central Asian Affairs, (2017). With Barbara Junisbai and Baurzhan Zhussupov.
“Mass Media Consumption in Post-Soviet Kyrgyztan and Kazakhstan: The View from Below,” Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization, (2015). With Barbara Junisbai and Nicola Ying Fry.
“Determinants of Economic System Legitimacy in Kazakhstan,” Europe-Asia Studies, (2014).
“Understanding Economic Justice Attitudes in Two Countries: Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan,” Social Forces, (2010).
Selected Grants, Awards, and Honors
Core Fulbright Scholar Program Award. Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Almaty, Kazakhstan. August 2018 – June 2019.
Professor Junisbai gave an invited talk titled “Political Values in Kazakhstan: Insights into the 2019 Transition” at the Bureau of Intelligence and Research at US Department of State in Washington, DC on October 11, 2019.
National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to organize and oversee nationally representative public opinion surveys about social and economic inequality and the proper role of government in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. $100,000. August 2012-August 2014.
National Council for Eurasian and East European Research (NCEEER) National Research Competition grant. This program supports policy relevant field research in the countries of Eastern Europe and Eurasia and is funded by the U.S. Department of State. $40,000. 2012-2014.
International Research & Exchanges Board (IREX) Research Fellowship for the project “Norms of Social Justice and Welfare State Attitudes in Post-Soviet Central Asia.” This program is funded by the U.S. Department of State. $16,000 (Declined).
