Nari Shelekpayev

Nari Shelekpayev is an Assistant Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures at Yale University, currently on leave for 2024-2025. His research focuses on transnational and comparative history, with specializations in urban history, Soviet and post-Soviet biopolitics, and the cultural history of Central Asia. He holds a Ph.D. in History from Université de Montréal, an M.A. in Social Sciences from EHESS Paris, and an M.L. in International Law from Université Paris 2, Panthéon-Assas, alongside a B.A. in Political Science from Nankai University.

His research interests include the intersection of cities and political power, cultural memory in the Soviet and post-Soviet eras, and the role of opera in capital city formation. He has published extensively on topics such as Astana’s urban transformation, Soviet protests in Kazakhstan, and the symbolism of capital cities in imperial contexts.

Recent publications include manuscripts on post-Soviet biopolitics and comparative Eurasian urban history. His work has appeared in Kritika, Urban History Review, and Slavic Review, among others. He has held prestigious fellowships including the Macmillan Center Research Grant (2024) and the Nizami Ganjavi Fellowship (2022).

Shelekpayev teaches courses such as The Master and Margarita: Money, Sex, and Power in Stalin’s USSR and Second Sex After Second World War at the undergraduate level, and a graduate seminar on Central Asian studies. He is fluent in English, French, Italian, Russian, and Kazakh, with reading competency in Chinese and Portuguese.