Dr. Yerkebulan Sairambay

2018 - 2022
PhD in Sociology, University of Cambridge (UK)

2016 - 2018
IMRCEES Erasmus Mundus Master’s Double Degrees in Russian, Central and East European studies (University of Glasgow) and Political Science (Corvinus University of Budapest).

2011 - 2015
Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, M. Auezov South Kazakhstan State University (Shymkent, Kazakhstan)

2025 - 2026   
Visiting postdoctoral researcher, Centre for Oriental Studies, University of Tartu

2025
Associate professor and senior research fellow, Central Asian Research Centre, SDU University

2023 - 2025
Assistant professor and senior research fellow, Central Asian Research Centre, SDU University

2022 - 2024
SDU University’s ethics committee member

2022 - 2023
Assistant professor and research fellow, Suleyman Demirel University

2022 - 2023
Research associate, Department of Sociology, University of Cambridge

2017
Camp counsellor, Concordia Language Villages, United States

• British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies
• European Sociological Association
• International Sociological Association
• Erasmus Mundus Association
• Central Eurasian Studies Society

since 2026
‘Academy in Exile’ Research Fellow at the TU Dortmund and KWI Essen, Germany

2025 - 2026
Estonian national grant for researchers and academic staff (HARNO)

2025
‘El Umiti’ Fellowship 2025 – George Washington University, USA (declined by Yerkebulan Sairambay)

2021
ESA PhD Summer School Scholarship, Spain

2021
Dora Fellowship, Estonia

2018 - 2022
‘Bolashaq’ Fellowship, UK

2016 - 2018
Erasmus Mundus Scholarship, Scotland-Hungary

2014 - 2015
SILKROUTE Scholarship, Italy

2013
Academic Mobility Scholarship, Luxembourg
 

Kazakh: Native language
English: C2
Estonian: A2
Hungarian: A1
Italian: A2
French: A1
Russian: C2

2024
Honourable mention of my first monograph by Lexington Books at the Best Book Award ceremony at the Central Eurasian Studies Society conference in Almaty

2023
Best Professor of SDU University

Sairambay, Yerkebulan. “Towards a Conceptualisation of ‘Alternative’ Political Participation.” Journal for Philosophy and Cultural Studies: Topos 56, no. 1 (2026): 262-79. doi.org/10.61095/815-0047-2026-1-262-279

Sairambay, Yerkebulan. “Internet and New Media use by Central Asian Citizens Before and Towards the End of the COVID-19 Pandemic.” SDU Journal of Media Studies, 1, no. 1 (2025): 6-17. doi.org/10.47344/sdubss.v55i1.003

Sairambay, Yerkebulan, and Assel Kamza. “The Effects of the Russo-Ukrainian War on the Kazakhstani Online Media Landscape.” Slavonica 29, no. 1 (January 2, 2024): 16–31. doi.org/10.1080/13617427.2025.2452794.

Sairambay, Yerkebulan, Assel Kamza, Yessengul Kap, and Bakhtiyar Nurumov. “Monitoring Public Electoral Sentiment Through Online Comments in the News Media: A Comparative Study of the 2019 and 2022 Presidential Elections in Kazakhstan.” Media Asia 51, no. 1 (July 3, 2023): 33–61. doi.org/10.1080/01296612.2023.2229162.

Sairambay, Yerkebulan. “How Young People Use New Media in Political Participation in Russia and Kazakhstan.” Laboratorium: Russian Review of Social Research 14, no. 2 (January 1, 2022). doi.org/10.25285/2078-1938-2022-14-2-38-72.

Sairambay, Yerkebulan. “Internet and Social Media Use by Young People for Information About (Inter)National News and Politics in Russia and Kazakhstan.” Studies of Transition States and Societies 14, no. 1 (2022): 56-70. doi.org/10.58036/stss.v14i1.1007

Sairambay, Yerkebulan. “The Contributions of New Media to Young People’s Political Participation in Russia and Kazakhstan.” Central Asian Survey 41, no. 3 (October 18, 2021): 571–95. doi.org/10.1080/02634937.2021.1978929.

Sairambay, Yerkebulan. “Political Culture and Participation in Russia and Kazakhstan: A New Civic Culture with Contestation?” Slavonica 26, no. 2 (July 3, 2021): 116–27. doi.org/10.1080/13617427.2021.1983095.

Sairambay, Yerkebulan. “Transitional Justice and Democratic Consolidation in the Post-Communist Space: A Comparative Review of the Czech Republic, Latvia and Slovakia.” Politics in Central Europe 17, no. 1 (March 1, 2021): 127–42. doi.org/10.2478/pce-2021-0006.

Sairambay, Yerkebulan. “The Contemporary Challenges of Measuring Political Participation.” Slovak Journal of Political Sciences 20, no. 2 (December 31, 2020): 206–26. doi.org/10.34135/sjps.200202.

Sairambay, Yerkebulan. “Reconceptualising Political Participation.” Human Affairs 30, no. 1 (January 1, 2020): 120–27. doi.org/10.1515/humaff-2020-0011.

Sairambay, Yerkebulan. “Young People’s Perspectives on How ‘Zhuz’ and ‘Ru’ Clans Affect Them: Evidence from Three Cities in Post-Soviet Qazaqstan.” Studies of Transition States and Societies 11, no. 1 (2019): 39-54.

Sairambay, Yerkebulan. “Post-Soviet Russian Nation-Building: ‘Purposefully Ambiguous’ or ‘Sufficiently Flexible’ With ‘A Russian Flavour’?” Slavonica 24, no. 1–2 (June 10, 2019): 1–11. doi.org/10.1080/13617427.2019.1573554.

Sairambay, Yerkebulan. “Post COVID-19 Media Trends in Central Asia” Institute of Cultural Research, Centre for Oriental Studies (August 30, 2025).

Sairambay, Yerkebulan. “How Has Digitisation Facilitated the Rise of “Digital Totalitarianism”?” VISION: A Publication of Cambridge University International Development Society (Michaelmas 2021): 35-37.

Sairambay, Yerkebulan. “On the International Stage, to What Extent Do Legacies of “Imperial Status” Affect Contemporary Policies and Practices of the Russian Federation?” iScience (2018).

Sairambay, Yerkebulan. “The Philosophical Arguments for and Against Using Extraordinary Measures, such as Torture and Extra-Territorial Targeted Killings in the Context of the War Against Contemporary Terrorism” Gumilyov Eurasian National University (2016).

Sairambay, Yerkebulan. “Problems of Export Competitiveness of Enterprises in Kazakhstan and Their Solutions” European Humanities University (2015).

Sairambay, Yerkebulan. “Agrotourism as an Element of Sustainable Tourism in Kazakhstan in the Context of Globalization” Orenburg (2015).

Sairambay, Yerkebulan. “Differences in the Operation and Organization of Public Transport in Kazakhstan and Europe and Offers to Improve the Situation in Kazakhstan” Gumilyov Eurasian National University (2015).

Sairambay, Yerkebulan. “As a Factor of Sustainable Development in a Globalizing World, the Way of Kazakhstan Towards a “Green Economy”” VII Astana Economic Forum (2014).

Sairambay, Yerkebulan. “Matematikalyq induktsia adisin geometria kursynyn keibir esepterin sheshude qoldanu [The Use of Mathematical Induction Principle for Solving Certain Geometrical Problems]” Young researcher (2008).

Sairambay, Yerkebulan. New Media and Political Participation in Russia and Kazakhstan: Exploring the Lived Experiences of Young People in Eurasia. Lexington Books, 2023.

Sairambay, Yerkebulan. The Geography Test Collection. Shymkent: Zhebe design, 2009.

Sairambay, Yerkebulan. “Digital Political Participation in Rural Kazakhstan: Evidence from Three Villages.” In Rural Media Studies: A Global Perspective, edited by Rashid Gabdulhakov and Marc Esteve del Valle, 37-58. Bloomsbury Academic, 2026.

Sairambay, Yerkebulan. Review of The Kazakh Spring: Digital Activism and the Challenge to Dictatorship, by Diana T. Kudaibergen. Journal of Contemporary Asia (2026).

Sairambay, Yerkebulan. Review of Backlash: China’s struggle for influence in Central Asia, by Bradley Jardine and Edward Lemon. Central Asian Affairs 13, no. 1 (2026): 119-121.

Sairambay, Yerkebulan. Review of What does it mean to be Kazakhstani? Power, identity and nation-building, by Diana T. Kudaibergen. Nationalities Papers 54, no. 3 (2026): 678-679.
 

Solovyeva, Alevtina, Betti Marie Peterson, Carl Frederick Liles, Yerkebulan Sairambay, Jonathan Darvish-Kojori, Rodion Krupin, and Vladimir Sazonov. Struggling Across Screens: Production and Consumption, Threats and Opportunities in Central Asia’s Mediasphere. Tartu: University of Tartu, 2026. aasiakeskus.ut.ee/sites/default/files/2026-05/Central%20Asia%20Mediasphere_MAY%202026.pdf

Sairambay, Yerkebulan. “From Kazakhstan to Scotland and England: How a Kazakh Scholar Lived and Studied in Glasgow and Cambridge.” The Forum: The Scotland-Russia Forum Magazine 48, Summer, 2025. scotlandrussiaforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/The-Forum-48.pdf

Sairambay, Yerkebulan. “Nashi v Mire. Kak Postupit v University of Cambridge i Chto Nuzhno Znat ob Uchebe v Odnom iz Luchshyh Vuzov Mira [Our People Abroad. How to Get into the University of Cambridge and What You Need to Know About Studying at One of the World’s Best Universities].” WEproject.media, March 19, 2025. weproject.media/articles/detail/nashi-v-mire-kak-postupit-v-university-of-cambridge-i-chto-nuzhno-znat-ob-uchebe-v-odnom-iz-luchshikh/
 

Sairambay, Yerkebulan. “Dating Apps, Queer Stigma, and Digital Intimacy in Kazakhstan.” The Nordic Asia Podcast, June 8, 2026. Podcast, open.spotify.com/episode/2L1GCdc2rNv2yGHFStOfVY.

Sairambay, Yerkebulan. “New Media and Political Participation in Russia and Kazakhstan: Exploring the Lived Experiences of Young People in Eurasia.” New Books Network, August 26, 2024. Podcast, newbooksnetwork.com/new-media-and-political-participation-in-russia-and-kazakhstan.

Sairambay, Yerkebulan. “Politicheskie Kultury i Novye Media Rossii i Kazakhstana [Political Cultures and New Media of Russia and Kazakhstan].” Podcasty CEURUSa [CEURUS Podcasts], June 21, 2021. Podcast, www.podcastera.es/episodes/-ceurus/8--TTtTmnYnFW.