I joined University of Glasgow in October 2023. Prior to coming to Glasgow, I was a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Social Anthropology and the Centre for Energy Ethics at the University of St Andrews (2020-2023), and a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Karelian Institute of the University of Eastern Finland. 

I received my PhD in Sociology and Eurasian Studies from the Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara, Türkiye, in 2016. In my doctoral dissertation I examined the impact of the postsocialist transition on the engineering profession in Azerbaijan. I have longstanding interests in the issues of identity and nationalism going back to my undergraduate training in Conflict Studies (St Petersburg State University, 2001-2004).

My research to date has broadly encompassed two themes: the societal impacts of postsocialist industrial change, and the questions of identity and territoriality, with a focus on Azerbaijan. My latest research project, entitled 'Turning oil into stone', brings these themes together to examine the role of oil and oil industry in the production of urban space and culture in Baku, Azerbaijan. In the future, I want to expand the framework that I am currently developing to explore the role of energy extraction and distribution in the construction of Eurasian region. 

Research groups

• Central & East European Studies

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Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Individual Fellowship, grant no. 897155

I welcome proposals on post- and de-colonial approaches to Central Asia and the Caucasus, energy transition, and industrial change in the region

• Napier, Elliot
  Becoming a queer migrant in Kazakhstan

'Becoming a queer migrant in Kazakhstan' (with Dr Francesca Stella)

Issues in Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies (CEES5065)

Cultural politics and social diversity in contemporary Russia and post-socialist Europe (CEES4014)