Joanna Lillis is a Kazakhstan-based journalist reporting on Central Asia who has lived and worked in the region since 2001, in Uzbekistan (2001-2005) and Kazakhstan (since 2005). Her work has featured in outlets including The Economist, the Guardian, the Independent, the Eurasianet website, and Foreign Policy and POLITICO magazines. She is the author of the book Dark Shadows: Inside the Secret World of Kazakhstan.

Asel Doolotkeldieva is a Senior Lecturer at the OSCE Academy in Bishkek. She earned her PhD from the University of Exeter (UK) in Politics and previously worked as a Visiting Fellow at College Mondial, FMSH (Paris, France). Her academic interests include revolts and politics of populism, mobilizations and protests, as well as political economy of resource extraction in Central Asia. Presently, she is leading a research project “Micro-dynamics of protests in trust deficit societies”. Her last paper, "Populism à la Kyrgyz: Sadyr Japarov, Nationalism, and Anti-Elite Sentiment in Kyrgyzstan” proposes a bottom-up approach to the study of populism.

Temur Umarov is a fellow at the Carnegie Moscow Center. His research is focused on Central Asian countries' domestic and foreign policies, as well as China's relations with Russia and Central Asian neighbors.
A native of Uzbekistan, Temur Umarov has degrees in China studies and international relations from the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, and Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO). He is also an alumnus of the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center’s Young Ambassadors and the Carnegie Endowment’s Central Asian Futures programs.

Aigerim Toleukhanova is an independent journalist from Kazakhstan, a researcher in human rights and press freedom in Central Asia, and a former digital editor with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Kazakh service.

Christopher B. Primiano, PhD, is an assistant professor of international relations at KIMEP University and the Director of CCASC. 

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