Barbara Junisbai

Associate Professor of Organizational Studies

With Pitzer Since: 2016
Field Group: Organizational Studies
Campus Address: Broad Hall 107
Phone: 909.607.1266
Email: [email protected]
Student/Advising Hours: See Faculty Directory

Educational Background
PhD, Political Science, Indiana University
MIS, Information Science, Indiana University
BA, International Relations and Geography, San Francisco State University

Research Interests

Comparative political organizations and institutions, authoritarianism, democratization, post-Soviet politics and society, learning-centered pedagogy and academic assessment

Selected Publications

Junisbai, Barbara. (forthcoming, fall 2024). The Pitfalls of Family Rule in Kazakhstan and Beyond. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press.

Barbara Junisbai. 2022. “Outsourcing Violence: Provocateurs and Power Struggles in Kazakhstan, January 2022,” PONARS Eurasia Policy Memo No. 781. With Dinissa Duvanova.

Barbara Junisbai. 2020. “Are Youth Different?  The Nazarbayev Generation and Public Opinion in Kazakhstan.” Problems of Postcommunism, 67 (3): 251-263. With Azamat Junisbai.

Barbara Junisbai. 2020. “Informal Politics: Elite-Led Pressure Groups,” in Cambridge History of Inner Asia: The Modern Age, eds. Annette Bohr and Edmund Herzig. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Barbara Junisbai. 2019. “Polarization during Institutional Decline: Variation in Educational Attainment in Post-Soviet Central Asia, 1991-2006.” European Education 51 (3): 186–211. With Christopher Whitsel and Azamat Junisbai.

Barbara Junisbai. 2019. “Regime Type versus Patronal Politics: A Comparison of ‘Ardent Democrats’ in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.” Post-Soviet Affairs 35 (3): 240-257. With Azamat Junisbai.

Barbara Junisbai. 2018. “Are Youth Different? The Nazarbayev Generation and Public Opinion in Kazakhstan.” Problems of Postcommunism, 1-13. Published online on 25 October. With Azamat Junisbai.

Barbara Junisbai. 2017. “Two Countries, Five Years: Islam in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan through Public Opinion Surveys.” Central Asian Affairs 4 (1): 1-25. With Azamat Junisbai and Baurzhan Zhussupov.

Barbara Junisbai. 2016. “A Pragmatic and Flexible Approach to Information Literacy: Findings from a Three-Year Study of Faculty-Librarian Collaboration.” The Journal of Academic Librarianship 42 (5): 604-611. With Sara Lowe and Natalie Tagge.

Selected Awards and Honors

Board member, Central Eurasian Studies Society (CESS), 2021-2024 (elected)

Chair, Communications Committee, Central Eurasian Studies Society (CESS), 2021-2024 

External reviewer, Carnegie Corporation of New York, since 2021

Inaugural Faculty Curator, The Work of Yusef Pierce, Pitzer College Art Galleries, 2021

Student Marshal, elected by Pitzer seniors to represent the graduating class of 2019, 2020, 2021, 2023

Faculty Co-Director, Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL), The Claremont Colleges, 2021-2024

Member, international advisory board, Central Asian Survey2020-present

Political expert/expert witness, Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project, 2019-present

Country expert (Kazakhstan), Varieties of Democracy Project (V-Dem), 2013, 2020

Member, Program on New Approaches to Research and Security in Eurasia (PONARS Eurasia), 2017-present

Grapples and Oranges Featured Teacher, in recognition for dedication to teaching and mentoring writers on campus, Pitzer College Writing Center

Additional Information

[Curriculum vitae]

Page last updated on February 19, 2024