Asel Doolotkeldieva is a political scientist and a Research Fellow at the University of Potsdam. She holds a PhD in Politics from the University of Exeter (UK) and a Master’s degree in Political Sociology from Sciences Po Paris (France). Doolotkeldieva previously served as a Senior Lecturer at the OSCE Academy in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, and as a Non-residential Fellow of George Washington University, based in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Her academic work centres on popular sentiment and contentious politics in authoritarian contexts, intense resource-extractive environments, and post-imperial entanglements, with a focus on the wider region of Central Asia. Thanks to her extensive fieldwork in the region and fluency in local and international languages, she has a nuanced knowledge of her research area, also with regard to China and Russia. She combines her academic research with consulting work for international organisations in the spheres of environmental, social and governance frameworks.

Selected publications