PROFIL PRACOWNIKA: Anna Cieślewska

I am a social anthropologist. Since 2006, I have conducted field research in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and most recently, Georgia. I have also worked as a project coordinator and consultant for international organizations and conducted project evaluations in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia, Armenia, Russia, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, and Ukraine.  I am currently a principal investigator of the project "Religious Domains of Infrastructure and its Role among Armenians and Azerbaijanis in Georgia." I also work on migrants from Central Asia in Poland and the EU.

My research interests include Islam in the post-Soviet space, sociopolitical problems of Central Asia and the Caucasus, migration and interethnic relations, development, and humanitarian aid. I am also interested in the post-colonial perspective in field research and social anthropology. 

Research projects

2021-2022 - Principal Investigator of the research project - Azerbaijanis and Armenians in Georgia, uncertain peace and conflict mobility in the context of the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, the Institute of Slavic Studies, the Polish Academy of Sciences (fieldwork in Georgia)

2021 - a researcher for the preliminary research project of the archive of Professor Antonina Pisarczyk, a Soviet ethnographer of Central Asia, Department of Iranian Studies, Institute of Oriental Studies , Jagiellonian University

2017-2019, Assistant Professor, Department of Iranian Studies, Institute of Oriental Studies , Jagiellonian University, Principal Investigator of the research project - Changes in Spiritual Tradition of Migrants from Tajikistan in the Russian Federation (fieldwork in Moscow).

2013-2016, a researcher (post-doc), Department of Iranian Studies, Institute of Oriental Studies , Jagiellonian University (fieldwork in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan).Principal Investigator of the research project - A Social Role of Female Religious Leaders in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan (fieldwork in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan).

2008-2013, Ph.D. student, a researcher, Institute of Applied Social Sciences, University of Warsaw (fieldwork in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan). The research project - The Relationship between Self-governments and Informal, Traditional Institutions, and International and Local Non-governmental Organizations in Tajikistan

2006 , research for MSc dissertation, SOAS (fieldwork in Kyrgyzstan)a research project: The Informal Economy and Women’s involvement in The Bazaar trade after the Collapse of the USSR

Selected publications:

1. Cieślewska A. (2013) From Shuttle Trader to Businesswomen: the Informal Bazaar Economy in Kyrgyzstan, [in] ‘The Informal Post-Socialist Economy. Embedded practices and livelihoods’, Morris J., Polese A., (eds.), London and New York: Routledge. p. 121-34.

2. Cieślewska A. (2014) Challenges and Controversies of International Assistance in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, [in] ‘Economy and Growth from the Asian states' perspective’, Marszałek-Kawa. J. (ed.) Toruń. p. 209-26.

3.Cieślewska A. (2015) Female Religious Practitioners in the Context of Contemporary Transformations of Islam in Tajikistan [in] ‘Studies on the Iranian World II: Medieval and Modern’, Krasnowolska A., Rusek-Kowalska R. (eds.), Krakow: Jagiellonian University Press.p. 129-48.

4. Cieślewska A. (2015) Turkmenistan, The SAGE Encyclopedia of World Poverty (II) Mehmet Odekon (ed.)

5. Cieślewska A. (2015) Uzbekistan, The SAGE Encyclopedia of World Poverty (II) Mehmet Odekon (ed.)

6. Cieślewska A. (2015) Community, the State and Development Assistance: Transforming the Mahalla in Tajikistan, Księgarnia Akademicka: Krakow (book). p. 239.

7. Cieślewska A. (2016) Transforming the Social Role of Female Religious Professionals in Tajikistan [in] a speciale issue: ‘Studying Female Islamic Authority: From Top-Down to Bottom-Up Modes of Certification’, 40/4 Asian Studies Review. p. 510-26.

8. Cieślewska A. (2016) Islamskii faktor (discussion), Antropologicheskii forum. 2016/28, European University St. Petersburg p .118-20.

9. Cieślewska A. (2017) Chelnoki, T he Global Encyclopaedia of Informality, Understanding Social and Cultural Complexity, Ledeneva A. (ed.) Vol. 2.

10.Cieślewska A. (2017) Islam with a Female Face: How Women are Changing the Religious Landscape in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, Księgarnia Akademicka: Krakow (book). p. 275

11. Cieślewska A. (2017) Local Development in Practice: a Case Study – Mahalla Committees in their Interaction with a Foreign NGO in the Vakhsh Valley in Tajikistan (In Russian and English), Antropologicheskii forum. 2017/35, European University St. Petersburg. p. 169-88.

12. Cieślewska A. (2018) Bibi Otun – tradicionnye zhenskie religioznye lidery v Tadzhikistane (Mezhdu tradiciej i sovremennostju) [in] ‘Oazisy Shelkovogo puti. Sovremennye problemy etnografii, istorii i istochnikovedenija Centralnoj Azii’, Abbiazov R. (ed.), Islamskaja kniga, Moskwa 2018, p. 756-62.

13. Cieślewska A. (2019) Religious Practices: Preaching and Women Preachers: Tajikistan [in] Encyclopedia of Women & Islamic Cultures, General Editor Suad Joseph. First published online: 2019.

14. Cieślewska A., Błajet Z. (2020) The spiritual industry of Central Asian migrants in Moscow Laboratorium-Russian Review of Social Research (a special issue) 12.1 . p. 106-126.

15. Cieślewska A. (2021) Spiritual Mobility: Alternative practices of healing among migrants from Central Asia in Moscow [in] Labour, Mobilities and Informal Practices: Power, Institutions and Mobile Actors in Transnational Space, Turaeva R., Urinboyev, R. (eds.), the Routledge BASEES series. p. 133-148.

16. Cieślewska A. (2021) Second Wife, Second Life: Polygyny among migrants from Central Asia in Moscow , a special issue: Marriage quandaries in Central Asia, Cleuziou, J., McBrien, J (eds.), Oriente Moderno 100.2. p. 225-47.

17. Cieślewska A. (2021) Praying in Moscow-migrants’ city - a religious experience of female migrants from Central Asia [in] “ Cultures Of Islam: Vernacular Traditions and Revisionist Interpretations across Russia, Laruelle, M. i Schmoller, J (eds.), Central Asia Program, Washington. p.113-128.

18. Cieślewska, A., Khutsishvili, K. (2023) Armenians and Azerbaijanis of Georgia in the context of the 2020 war, The Research and Media Report, Institute of Slavic Studies, The Polish Academy of Sciences.

19. Cieślewska, A. (2023), Armenians and Azerbaijanis in Georgia: the role of religion and religious leaders in the second Karabakh war, Caucasus Analytical Digest 134.

20. Cieślewska, A., Błajet, B. Seitov, E. Islam w Azji Centralnej, (report), Office for Foreigners in Poland, In Polish and English languages.

21. Cieślewska A., Kosicińska K. “ Navigating Turbulence: Azerbaijani-Armenian Relations in Georgia Post-2020 Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict [in] “From Multi-ethnic Societies to Homogeneous States: Collective Memory and Fiction on Emergence of Modern Nations, Armenia and Azerbaijan, Mamedov. M, (ed.) Routledge, forthcoming.