Egor Lazarev

Egor Lazarev is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Yale University. Previously, he held positions at the University of Toronto (2018-2019) and was a Harvard Academy Scholar (2019-2020). His research focuses on law, state-building, and conflict in post-Soviet regions, particularly Chechnya and Crimea, emphasizing legal pluralism and societal resilience. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University (2018) with a dissertation titled Laws in Conflict: Legacies of War and Legal Pluralism in Chechnya.

His work examines how state and non-state legal systems interact in conflict-affected societies, with a focus on gender dynamics and post-war governance. Key publications include the award-winning book State-Building as Lawfare (Cambridge UP, 2023), which analyzes Chechen legal systems post-war, and articles in World Politics and Political Science Research & Methods.

• Recipient of the 2024 Gaddis Smith Book Prize for State-Building as Lawfare.
• Recipient of multiple APSA awards for dissertation fieldwork and research on gender and religion in politics.
• Research funded through fellowships from the United States Institute of Peace and Yale’s Order, Conflict, and Violence Program.

Teaching expertise includes post-Soviet politics, political violence, and qualitative research methods. He has advised numerous collaborative projects on conflict legacies and legal systems in Eurasia.