Josh Hughes graduated from the University of South Carolina with a degree in political science and Russian. His undergraduate research explored the effects that Soviet state atheism had on the lives and institutions of Muslims in Soviet and post-Soviet Central Asia. He has studied in the region on two occasions, most recently as a Critical Language Scholar in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, in 2023. He has also conducted ethnographic research in Bishkek and Almaty and archival research in the Central State Archives of Kazakhstan and the Kyrgyz Republic. His research explores the sociological foundations of nationalism and nationalist thought in Central Asia in the post-Soviet, independent era.