Akbota Saudabayeva graduated summa cum laude from Tufts University in 2022 with degrees in anthropology and Russian & Eastern European studies. At Tufts, she was the editor-in-chief of the campus newsmagazine, head writer of a sketch comedy group, and instructor of a self-designed, first-year anthro seminar on food systems. Her undergraduate thesis intervened into decolonial discourses in anthropology that long neglected the Soviet Union’s employment of power over Central Asia. By juxtaposing the early Soviet modernization project’s simultaneous maintenance and destruction of Central Asian indigeneity—through nationalities policy, labor programs, and famine—with Western capitalist development models, her research examined the Soviet Union’s ambiguous affect and status as a colonial power with a distinct ideological foundation. Upon graduating, Akbota received the Pauline and Peter Kozachok Prize from the Russian program.
Since 2022, Akbota has worked in a melange of positions, including administering private and federal grants for economic research, cheese mongering, and directing the production of the Boston Compass, a local arts and culture newspaper.
At Harvard, Akbota is continuing her research on Soviet nationalities policy, focusing on interethnic collaboration and formal experimentation at Kirghizfilm during the “Kyrgyz Wonder.” She is also engaged in ethnographic filmmaking as part of Harvard’s Sensory Ethnography Lab course.
Last updated September 2026.