A Historian of the Middle East by background Galina M.Yemelianova has been researching and teaching history and contemporary politics in the Middle East and Muslim Eurasia for more than two decades.  Since 2008, she has headed the University of Birmingham Research Group on the Caucasus and Central Asia.  

Her language competencies include:

• Russian - native
• Arabic - fluent
• French - intermediate
• Kazakh-intermediate
• Turkish-intermediary

 

Current Convening and Teaching:  

 

Postgraduate

        MSc Pathway on the Caucasus and Central Asia consisting of 3 modules :

• The Caucasus: History, Culture and Contemporary Politics 
• Central Asia: Islam, Nationalism and Globalization
• Ethnic and Ethno-Religious Conflict  in Eurasia

An integral part of the Pathway is Kazakh language course which is taught by a native Kazakh language speaker.

 

Undergraduate

• Outlines of Russian History (1^st year)
• European Identities (1^st year)
• Extended Essay and Dissertation  in Russian and East European Studies’ (3^rd and 4^th years) 

 

Previous Convening and Teaching:  

      Postgraduate

• MA module on Historiography of the Arab Countries 
• MA module on History of Social Thought in the Middle East

      Undergraduate

• Medieval Arab History (1^st year)
• Modern Arab History (2^nd  year)

Dr Yemelianova has extensive experience in successful supervision of PhD students from numerous countries on various topics related to the Middle East and Muslim Eurasia.  Currently she is supervising 3 doctoral students (from the USA, the UK and Azerbaijan).

Major research interests

• History of Peoples of Central Asia, the Caucasus and the Volga-Urals Regions   
• History and Contemporary Politics of the Middle East
• Ethnicity, Nationalism and Religion in Russia, Eurasia and East Europe  
• Islam and Islamic Radicalisation in the Middle East, Eurasia and Eastern Europe
• Contemporary Islamic Thought and Islamic Movements
• Sufism (mystical Islam) in the Middle East, Central Asia, Eurasia, Eastern and Western Europe  
• International Islamic and Islamist Networks and Movements
• Islam and Modernization
• Islam, Secularism and Citizenship.

 Previous research projects

Between 1996 and 2010 Dr Yemelianova  successfully managed and conducted eight large  research projects on the history and contemporary ethno-religious situation in various  regions of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, funded by the British Academy, The Leverhulme Trust, the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the Nuffield Foundation, the European Commission  and the British Council. Her research was based on extensive field-work in Muslim-populated region of the former Soviet Union. Her research team  included academics from the Caucasus, Central Asia and Russia.

 Current research projects

Since April 2010 Dr Yemelianova has led  and managed an  international project ‘Innovative Teaching and Research through Academic Partnership’ between the University of Birmingham and the Kazakh-British Technical University (KBTU, Almaty, Kazakhstan),   funded by the British Council,  ( for the period between 01. 04.2010 and 31.03.2013.  The project’s activities include an exchange of academics and students between the two Universities, an involvement of Kazahstani academics in teaching of the MSc Module of Central Asia: Islam, Nationalism and Globalization  at CREES(convened and taught by Dr Yemelianova),  a teaching of Kazakh language  by Dr Svetlana Zhanabayeva, KBTU (in class and via skype) to students  on MSc  module on Central Asia at UoB; a teaching by UoB academics of MSc module on Economics in post-Communist Societies  and MA module on Development and Emerging Inequalities in post-Soviet Eurasia  at KBTU;  a joint research on factors of rising Islam in the UK and Kazakhstan; an organisation of seminars on Kazakhstan and wider Central Asia with external guest-speakers; an organisation of joint panels, round-tables  and workshops with the purpose of  disseminating the project’s findings (up to date - panel at XII European Society for Central Asian Studies (ESCAS) , University of Cambridge, 20-22 September 2011; poster presentation at the British Council International Forum Going Global 2012, QEII Conference Centre, London, 13-15 March 2012 and round-table at BASEES Conference, University of Cambridge, 30 March-2 April 2012)and  joint publications by members of the research team.  

Dr Yemelianova’s other academic activities include:

• membership of the University of Birmingham Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Block Grant Partnership BGP (BGP) Board representing the College of Social Sciences;
• membership of the editorial board of Europe-Asia Studies (Glasgow).

Beyond academia, Dr Yemelianova regularly consult government and international organisations, as well as think-tanks, particularly on political, ethno-national and religious dynamic in Central Asia, the Caucasus and Muslim-populated regions of Russia.

Dr Yemelianova has provided regular interviews and expert comments to  relevant TV and radio programmes ( Television News, Sky News, Radio 1’s World at One, BBC World Service)  and periodicals (see link to her  latest interview to  newspaper PULSE in January 2012), as well as interviews to  radio and TV programmes and periodicals  in  Bulgaria, Kazakhstan and Russia and Sweden.

• Books

Yemelianova, G (ed) (2010) Radical Islam in the former Soviet Union, Routledge, ISBN 10:0-415-42174-8, 305

Pilkington, H and Yemelianova, G (eds) (2003) Islam in post-Soviet Russia. Public and Private Faces, London and New York: Routledge Curzon, ISBN 10:0-415-29734-6, 307 pp. 

Yemelianova, G (2002) Russia and Islam: A Historical Survey, London: Palgrave, ISBN   0333683544, 243 pp.

Yemelianova (Udalova), G (1988) Yemen During the First Ottoman Rule (1538-1635), Moscow: Nauka Press (in Russian), ISBN 5020164518, 200 pp.

• Articles in Refereed Journals

Yemelianova, G, together with Wolczuk, K (2008) ‘When the West Meets the East: Exploring Ethnic Diversity in Eastern Europe,’ Nationalities Papers, vol 36(2), May, pp 177-195.

Yemelianova, G, (2007) ’The Rise of Islam in Muslim Eurasia: Internal Determinants and   Potential Consequences,’ The China and Eurasia Forum Quarterly,  vol 5(2), May, pp 73-92.

Yemelianova, G (2005) ‘Kinship, Ethnicity and Religion in post-Communist Societies’,  Ethnicities, vol 5(1), pp 51-82.

Yemelianova, G (2005) ‘Islam in Russia’, The Maghreb Review, vol 30, nos 2-4, pp 162-174.

Yemelianova, G (2004)  ‘Islam in the North-Western Caucasus, Cahiers d’etudes sur la   Mediterranee oriental et le monde turco-iranien, no 38, juillet-december, pp 42-71.

Yemelianova, G (2003) ‘Russia’s Umma and its Muftiis, Religion, State and Society, no 2, pp 139- 150.

Yemelianova, G (2001) ‘Sufism and Politics in the North Caucasus, Nationalities Papers, December,  vol 29, no 4, pp 661-688.

Yemelianova, G (2000) ‘Shaimiev’s ‘Khanate’ on the Volga and its Russian Subjects’, Asian Ethnicity, vol 1, no 1, pp 37-52.

Yemelianova, G (1999) ‘Islam and Nation Building in Tatarstan and Dagestan of the Russian Federation’, Nationalities Papers, vol 27, no 4, pp 606-630.

Yemelianova, G (1998) ‘Volga Tatars, Russians and the Russian State at the Turn of the Nineteenth  Century: Relationships and Perceptions’, The Slavonic and East European Review,  vol 77, no 3, pp 448-484.

Yemelianova, G (1997) ‘The National Identity of the Volga Tatars at the Turn of the 19th Century: Tatarism, Turkism and Islam’, Central Asian Survey, vol 16(4), pp 543-72.

Yemelianova, G (1995) ‘Russia and Islam’, Asian Affairs, vol xxvi, part 3, pp 278-290.

Yemelianova, G (1991) ‘Problems of Integration in the Arab World’, Vostok, Moscow, no 4, pp 32-49 (in Russian).

• Book Chapters

Yemelianova, G (2010) ‘Divergent Trends of Islamic Radicalisation in post-Soviet Russia’ in  Dannreuther, R and March, L, eds, Russia and Islam: State, Society and Radicalism,  Routledge, 7,870 words.

Yemelianova, G (2010) ‘Islam and Social Conflict in Russia,’ in Wright-Neville, D, ed,  Globalisation’s New Challenges: Social Cohesion in Diverse Communities, Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd, (forthcoming in November);

Yemelianova, G (2010) ‘Islamic Radicalisation: A Post-Soviet, or Global Phenomenon?’, in  Yemelianova, G, ed, Radical Islam in the Former Soviet Union, Routledge, pp 11-30.

Yemelianova, G (2009) (together with Sagramoso, D) ‘Islam and Ethno-Nationalism in the  North-Western Caucasus’, in Yemelianova, G, ed, Radical Islam in the Former Soviet Union, Routledge, pp 112-145.  

Yemelianova, G (together with Salmorbekova, Z) (2009) ‘Islam and Islamism in the Ferghana  Valley’,  in Yemelianova, G, ed,  Radical Islam in the Former Soviet Union,  Routledge, pp 211- 243.

Yemelianova, G (2007)  ‘Islamic Radicalisation in Muslim Eurasia,’ in Abbas, T, ed, Islamic Political Radicalism: A European Perspective, Edinburgh University Press, pp 83-98.

Yemelianova, G (2006) ’Islam in Russia,’ in Coughlin, K, ed, Muslim Cultures Today: A   Reference Guide, Westport: Greenwood Press, pp 147-158.

Yemelianova G, (with Draper, M and Nielsen, J) (2006) ‘Transnational Sufism: the Haqqaniyya,’ in Malik, J and Hinnells, J, eds, Sufism in the West, London and New York: Routledge, pp 103-115.

Yemelianova, G (2005) ‘Central Asia: The Reality of Human Rights’, in Smith, R and Ch.  Van den Anker, eds, The Essentials of Human Rights, New York: Hodder Arnold, pp 30-42.

 Yemelianova, G (2004) ‘Central Asia and Kazakhstan in the 18th -20th Centuries, in Smilianskaiia, I, ed, History of the East, vol 4, Moscow,  Vostochnaiia Literatura, pp 150-162.

Yemelianova, G (2004) ‘The Relationship between Russia and Central Asia in the 18th and 19th Centuries’, in Smilianskaiia, I, ed, History of the East, vol 4, Moscow, Vostochnaiia Literatura, pp 325-380 (in Russian).

Yemelianova, G (2004) ‘Problems in Multicultural Governance in the ex-Soviet Union,’ in   Singh, G and Rex, J, eds, Governance in Multicultural Societies: Lessons in Public Policy, Aldershot, Ashgate, pp 116-133.

Yemelianova, G (2003) ‘Muslim Russia after the Fall of Communism,’ in Bradshaw, R, Manning, N and Thompstone, S, eds, Ten Years After the Fall of Berlin Wall: Contemporary Change in Central and Eastern European Studies, East European Volume, Nottingham: Olearius Press, pp 193-215.

Yemelianova, G (2003) ‘Transnational’ Islam versus “Ethnic” Islam in Eastern Europe: The   Role of Mass Media, in Allievi, S and Nielsen, J, eds, Muslim Networks and Transnational Communities in and across Europe, Leiden, Brill, pp 243-280.

Yemelianova, G (2001) ‘A Study of Sufism in post-Soviet Dagestan of the Russian Federation’, in Zhelyazkova, A and Nielsen, J, eds, Ethnology of Sufi Orders: Theory and Practice, Sofia, IMIR, pp 126-142.

Yemelianova, G (1991) ‘Ethnic  Nationalism, Islam and Russian Politics in the North Caucasus’, in  Williams, C and Sfikas, T, eds, Ethnicity  and Nationalism in Russia, the CIS and  the Baltic States, London, Ashgate, pp 120-148.

Yemelianova, G (1997) ‘Alexander Shami’, in Naumkin, V, and Smilianskaiia, I, eds, Unknown Pages of Russian Oriental Studies,  Moscow, Nauka Press, pp 39-81 (in Russian).

Yemelianova, G (1990) ‘Dynamic of Inter-Arab Political Relations’, in Isayev, V and Naumkin, V, eds, The Arab World: 30 Years of Independent Development, Moscow, Nauka Press, pp 296-322 (in Russian)