Agnès Kefeli is Clinical Full Professor of Religious Studies at Arizona State University and the author of Becoming Muslim in Imperial Russia, which received the 2015 Reginald Zelnik Book Prize of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. She currently investigates various forms of Tatar enchantment in Soviet and Post-Soviet Eurasia, for which she was awarded a National Humanities Center Fellowship (Benjamin N. Duke Fellowship of the Research Triangle Foundation).
Hellen Faller is an anthropologist with 30 years’ experience in Russia, Tatarstan, and Central Asia and the author of Nation, Language, Islam: Tatarstan’s Sovereignty Movement, published by CEU University Press in 2011. She lives in Berlin, where she conducts research on decolonial Russia activism and publishes articles on Russia’s war in Ukraine and short stories featuring awkward female protagonists. She recently completed a memoir called Love Feasts: A Mostly True Story of Divorce and Dumplings on the Silk Road, based on nine months of ethnographic research supported by a Fulbright Fellowship in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Her next book will be a novel narrated by an ancient yogurt culture that dates from the Khazar Khanate period.
Ruslan Garipov is an Adjunct Professor at American University School of International Service (Washington, DC) teaching courses on Contemporary Russian Law and Politics, Arctic Sustainable Development, and Indigenous Peoples’ Rights. He has a solid experience working on and researching indigenous peoples’ issues at the Woodrow Wilson Center, World Bank, and United Nations. He earned his JD magna cum laude and PhD in International Law from Kazan State University (Russia) and LLM in International Legal Studies from American University Washington College of Law. Ruslan is the author of two books: Indigenous Peoples’ Protection in International Law (2012) and Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Protection in Russia and the US (2010) as well as many articles in peer-reviewed law journals both in Russian and English. Most of his publications are available at: www.ruslangaripov.com
Roza Ayupova holds doctoral degree in Modern Languages with specialization in the fields of Comparative Study of Modern Languages, Lexicography, Phraseology, Methodology of Teaching Foreign Languages and Translation. Roza Ayupova is the author of more than 100 scholarly articles published in International peer reviewed scientific journals, 5 Monographs and coauthor of multilingual Russian-English-German-Turkish-Tatar Phraseologic Dictionary. Nowadays scientific interests of Roza Ayupova encompass also Philosophy of Early Childhood Education and Child Psychology. For 20 years, she was a professor of Kazan Federal University, teaching English as a second languages, Translation theory, Intercultural communication theory, English Lexicology.
Renat Shaykhutdinov‘s research interests include ethnic conflict, power-sharing arrangements, religion and state, postcolonial politics, and the politics of the former Soviet Union and Central and Eastern Europe. Renat Shaykhutdinov, a native of Kazan in the Middle Volga Region, is fluent in multiple languages, including Tatar, Russian, and Turkish. Renat is an Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Political Science at Florida Atlantic University. Renat holds BA degrees in Political Science & International Relations, and Sociology from the University of Bosphorus in Istanbul, Turkey. In addition to his academic roles, Renat serves as the Secretary of the ISA Global IR Section (GIRS) and holds the position of Chair of Awards for the ISA Religion and IR (REL) section.
Chulpan Khismatova is a behavioral researcher with background in applied linguistics and education. She received her master’s degree in English and Russian philology and pedagogy: these two -ogies signify the fields of scholarly and applied inquiry in linguistics, literature, developmental psychology and teaching methodology. She earned her Candidate of Science degree in Comparative Linguistics from Kazan State University, certifications in Behavioral Research Methods and Technical Communication from Duke University. Chulpan leads the behavioral research laboratory at Duke University’s business school with interdisciplinary approach to research activities. Her academic interests are in decision making and multilingualism. She naturally mixes her three languages all the time and strives to sustain high level of proficiency in each of them. Chulpan is passionate about heritage language & handcraft preservation as well as sustainable practices.
Alima Salakhutdinova is a Tatar Language Instructor at Arizona State University Critical Languages Institute, Director of online Tatar School “Alima Academy”. She also serves as a Tatar Language consultant and executive director of North American Tatar Summit. Alima Salakhutdinova received her master’s degree in Tatar History and Education. She is currently a graduate student at Ottawa University’s Bilingual Studies and a student research assistant for Professor Nikolai Slavikov.
