Project team

LUND UNIVERSITY, SWEDEN

Rustamjon Urinboyev, Principal Investigator

Rustamjon Urinboyev at an academic conference. Photo.

Rustam Urinboyev is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology of Law at Lund University. Rustamjon works at the intersection of the sociology of law and ethnography, studying migration, corruption, governance, and penal institutions in the context of Russia and Central Asia. His current research focuses on (1) migration, shadow economy, and informal legal orders in hybrid political regimes, (2) corruption, informality, and legal pluralism in Uzbekistan, and (c) informal hierarchies, religious orders, and ethnic identities in Russian penal institutions. He is the author of Migration and Hybrid Political Regimes: Navigating the Legal Landscape in Russia (2020), published by the University of California Press.

Sherzod Eraliev – Principal Investigator

Sherzod Eraliev presenting at a meeting. Photo.

Sherzod Eraliev is a senior researcher at the Sociology of Law Department at Lund University. His research lies within migration, informality, democratization, civil society, and authoritarianism studies in Eurasia. Sherzod’s research has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes. He has been an Academy of Finland researcher at the Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, a research fellow at the Institute of European, Russian and Eurasian Studies, George Washington University, and has worked with international organizations in the development, migration, and humanitarian spheres. He has been a visiting lecturer at several universities in Kazakhstan, Turkey, and Uzbekistan. Sherzod Eraliev has co-authored, among others, “The Political Economy of Non-Western Migration Regimes: Central Asian Migrant Workers in Russia and Turkey” (Palgrave, 2022) and “Global Migration and Illiberalism in Russia, Eurasia, and Eastern Europe” (Helsinki University Press, 2024).

Chekhros Kilichova – Project Assistant

Chekhros Kilichova outdoors near a body of water. Photo.

Chekhros Kilichova is a project assistant of the EU-funded projects. She graduated from the University of World Economy and Diplomacy in Uzbekistan and completed her MSc in Economic growth, Population and Development at Lund University. Before joining the project, Chekhros gained work experience in public communications as well as project and programme management. Her main interests focus on economic governance and trade relations in Central Asian countries.