Azamat Junisbai

  • Professor of Sociology
  • Sociology Field Group
Azamat Junisbai
Office Location

Scott Hall 222

Office Hours
Contact Professor

On Sabbatical Spring 2026

With Ҵý Since: 2009

PhD, MA, Indiana University
BA, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Kazakhstan

Social stratification and public opinion about inequality and decolonization in Central Asia.

Quantitative Research Methods 

Contemporary Central Asia

Hidden in Plain Sight: US and Soviet Colonialism (with Prof. Steinman)

Model Minority & Perpetual Foreigner: Asians in America

Research Design for Senior Thesis

Azamat Junisbai. 2026. ." Central Asian Survey, 1–20.

“.”&Բ;PONARS Eurasia Policy Memo No. 897 (2024).

“.”&Բ; PONARS Eurasia Policy Memo No. 775 (2022).

“.” PONARS Eurasia Policy Memo No. 660 (2020).

“.” PONARS Eurasia Policy Memo No. 573 (2019). With Barbara Junisbai.

“.” Post-Soviet Affairs, (2019). With Barbara Junisbai.

“.” Problems of Post-Communism, (2018).  With Barbara Junisbai.

“.”&Բ; Central Asian Affairs, (2017).  With Barbara Junisbai and Baurzhan Zhussupov.

“,”&Բ;Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization, (2015).  With Barbara Junisbai and Nicola Ying Fry.

“,”&Բ;Europe-Asia Studies, (2014).

“,”&Բ;Social Forces, (2010).

Department of Defense, Minerva Research Initiative, Defense Education and Civilian University Research (DECUR) Program award to study decolonial developments in the Caucasus, Central and North Asia. $395,881. 2024-2025.

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).