Dr. Aziz Burkhanov is an Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Public Policy at Nazarbayev University. His research interests include nationalism and identity theories, and national identity politics, policies, and practices, with a special focus on identity issues and their perceptions in the public narratives in the former Soviet area. He has worked in policy analysis and consulting as a Research Fellow at the IWEP, a think-tank advising the Kazakhstan government on policies, and as a Senior Associate at IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA).

Dr. Burkhanov has authored “Kazakhstan’s National Identity-Building Policy: Soviet Legacy, State Efforts, and Societal Reactions,” Cornell International Law Journal (2017), “The Determinants of Civic and Ethnic Nationalisms in Kazakhstan: Evidence from the Grass-Roots Level” Nationalism and Ethnic Politics (2017); and “Kazakh Perspective on China, the Chinese, and Chinese Migration,” Ethnic and Racial Studies (2016); among others.