Asel Myrzabekova is an Assistant Professor in the Psychology department at the Ӱ. She holds a Master’s of Philosophy in Peace and Conflict Transformation from the UiT the Arctic University of Norway (2014, Norway), and a Bachelor's degree in Psychology from the Ӱ (2008, Kyrgyzstan).
Asel Myrzabekova joined Ӱ in 2015 as an Instructor and currently works as an Assistant Professor. She participated in various professional development programs, conferences, and workshops, including:
- UN Women Academic Gender Studies Summer School in Kyrgyzstan (2015),
- Workshop of “Research Beyond the Ivory Tower” project: “Producing policy-relevant research and papers to influence decision-making” at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (2015),
- Central Eurasian Studies Society (CESS) Conferences at Princeton University, NJ, USA, 2016; at the University of Washington, Seattle, USA, 2017; at Pittsburgh University, PA, USA, 2018,
- Second Annual IA-Ӱ Workshop “New Socialites” at the School of Global and International Studies of Indiana University (2018),
- Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tampere (UTA), gave a visiting lecture on the Master’s Degree Programme course “Complexity of Regional Conflicts and Challenges to Peace Processes in the Former/Post Soviet Area”, Finland (2017),
- AFK/EUPRA Conference, presenting in the panel “Everyday Practices of Security-making in Central Asia”, Germany (2017),
- Workshop "Ideas and Practices: Exploring Economic and Social Transformation in Central Asia", PhD students meeting, Max Planck Institute, Halle/Saale, Germany (2018),
- Training on Conflict Sensitivity Programme Clinic for FAO project managers and representatives of stakeholders conducted by Conflict & Peace Analysis Unit, FAO (2020).
Asel Myrzabekova co-facilitated the organization of international exchange summer schools at Ӱ, including Ӱ/Bard College - "Development & Social Change in Central Asia" and the Ӱ/ (2017).
- Master’s Program Scholarship Awardee, The Centre for Peace Studies, UiT The Arctic University of Norway (2012-2014)
- Matthew Nimetz Award, recognition and appreciation for my publication with co-authors “The Making of Empowered Women: Exploring Gender and Development Practice in Kyrgyzstan” (2018)
- Dating and Marriage practices
- Gender and Development
- Gender-Based Violence
- Peace and Violence
- Developed a policy paper and co-authored a peer-reviewed article titled "Making the ‘Empowered Woman’: Exploring Contradictions in Gender and Development Programming in Kyrgyzstan". This article was published in 2018 and was later included in the 40th-anniversary collection of the Central Asian Survey: Critical Reader in Central Asian Studies: 40 Years of Central Asian Survey.
- Myrzabekova, A. (2020). Measuring mixedness: A case study of the Kyrgyz Republic. In Rocha, Z., & Aspinall, P. (Eds.), The Palgrave International Handbook of Mixed Racial and Ethnic Classification. Palgrave Macmillan
- Myrzabekova, A. (2020). Romantic Securityscapes of Mixed Couples: Resisting Moral Panic, Surviving in the Present and Imagining the Future. Surviving Everyday Life: The Securityscapes of Threatened People in Kyrgyzstan, 153.
- UNDP, 2016, Case Study on combating gender inequality in political participation in Kyrgyzstan, available at
- Internship I & II
- History and Systems of Psychology
- Peace and Violence: Causes and Conditions
- Senior Thesis I & II
- Science of Love and Relationships