Acknowledgements
This book, and the PhD thesis that preceded it, has been a long time coming. That it is finally published is thanks in no small part to all the friends, colleagues, mentors, and family members who have encouraged, cajoled, and supported me. First and foremost, though, I give thanks to the people who agreed to be part of this project, who allowed me to interview, them, and who gave up their time (and space). I salute the dedication and compassion that you bring to your work, as well as your generosity in sharing your time with me. Спасибо большое.
Thank you to Laura Hammond at the Department of Development Studies at SOAS for taking a chance on me as one of her first PhD students in a new department, for putting me on a strict writing schedule and making me stick to it, and—especially—for staring down the naysayers in the department who dismissed the chances of a part-time student ever finishing. Thanks to Deniz Kandiyoti for stepping in as an additional supervisor and for saying the things I needed to hear at crucial (and often unexpected) points along the way. Further back in time, thanks to all who taught on the LSE’s Gender and Development MSc programme in 2002–2003 for totally altering my world view, and at the University of Manchester, to Lynn Attwood for piquing my interest in gender in Soviet and post-Soviet societies, and Ursula Tidd for giving me a taste of what independent (feminist) research might be like. Thanks to Patricia Radder and colleagues at Brill for taking on the manuscript, and to the anonymous reviewer for their generous and thoughtful reflections.
A thesis goes nowhere if the only person you are discussing it with is yourself, and the arguments that I put forward here have been challenged, nuanced, and developed through conversations with friends and colleagues over the years. In Kyrgyzstan (or near enough), thanks to Anara Moldosheva, Charlie Buxton, Syinat Sultanalieva, Mohira Suyarkulova, Nazik Abylgazieva, Orla O’Flanagan, Selbi, Wibke Crewitt, Matthew Naumann, and Tarot Couzyn for many, many chats and exchanges, and to Jeanne Féaux de la Croix for reviewing my work and providing her particular brand of quiet but firm encouragement. Thanks also to the staff of the (sadly defunct) Social Research Center at AUCA (in particular, Ainura Asamidinova) for their intellectual, practical, and moral support during my time as a visiting research fellow at the Center.
In other places, thanks to Irene Gedalof for all our conversations on things feminist and for her unstinting guidance and friendship over the past thirteen years. Thanks to Katherine Chamberlain, Birgitte Molstad, Rachel Levy, and Christina Jutzi for keeping me grounded and never flinching in the face of the more eccentric twists and turns my life has taken over the years, this project included (and to Rachel for looking after the cat). I was lucky enough to live through the PhD process surrounded by friends who were starting / in the midst of / finishing their own doctoral research, and I am forever grateful for the camaraderie and perspective that they provided. Of this group, thanks to Eleanor Peers and Zayra Badillo Castro for our shared love and enthusiasm for the Soviet periphery and for always being able to top my PhD horror stories, to Ana Paola Gutierrez Garza and Gwendolyn Beetham for, well everything, but especially for never allowing me to give in to self-doubt or to forget the (feminist) point of it all (and to Ana for also looking after the cat), to Hannah Williams and Mia Ridge (and the rest of the Gingerbeer theory reading group) for queer and feminist theory discussions and humouring my obsession with a certain philosopher, and to Sîan Thomas for being as nerdy about feminist research methodologies as I am.
To my parents, thank you for raising me in a household full of books where curiosity about the world and the pursuit of knowledge were givens, for supporting me in this and every other area, for reviewing my work, and for (almost) always knowing when not to ask how the manuscript was coming along.
Finally, thank you to Jika—nothing would be possible without you, including this.