Hi, I'm Raushan, a PhD Candidate in Political Science based in NYC.

I am a Political Science PhD candidate at the George Washington University where I specialize in comparative politics and quantitative methods. My research focuses on political communication, mis/disinformation, public diplomacy, and political psychology, with a regional emphasis on post-Soviet Central Asia and Eastern Europe. My methodological expertise spans quantitative and experimental methods, including causal inference, survey experiments, and text analysis. 

My dissertation looks at the strategic narratives produced and promoted by states during international crises and the impact of emotions on public reception of such narratives. Empirically, I use the 2022 Ukraine War as an international crisis, as it serves as a stark illustration of competing narratives, and media outlets affiliated with different actors striving to shape public understanding of the events and garner international support. This study contributes to the understanding of these narratives and their impact in three countries in the region: Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. 

At GWU, I am affiliated with the Institute for Data, Democracy, and Politics and the Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies. Prior to joining GWU, I received a Master of Arts in Global Affairs from the University of Notre Dame and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and International Relations from Nazarbayev University in Kazakhstan. I also spent a semester as an exchange student at California State University, Bakersfield on a U.S. State Department scholarship.

I have received additional training in quantitative methods through programs at the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) at the University of Michigan, and in international survey methods through the LAPOP Summer School at Vanderbilt University. 

My work has been published in PLOS One and Post-Soviet Affairs.

I am currently a Visiting Scholar at the New York University Jordan Center for the  Advanced Study of Russia.