Ulan Bigozhin

Ulan Bigozhin is an assistant professor at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Nazarbayev University. He received a PhD in Anthropology from Indiana University, Bloomington, in the Spring of 2017.  His primary research interests are religion, nationalism, patrimonial relations, and state-building in post-Soviet Kazakhstan, with a focus on how religion (Kazakh Muslim sacred places and veneration) is involved in state and nation-building processes at the grassroots level. His dissertation is entitled “Shrine, State and Sacred Lineage in post-Soviet Kazakhstan”, where he conducted field research in the areas of Ekibastuz (Northern Kazakhstan) on the sacred shrine complex of Isabek Ishan. In his dissertation, he shows that state, local business, and sacred lineage descendants (qozhas) are deeply involved in state and nation-building through shrine complex restoration.