About
I am a historian of Central Asia under Russian and Soviet rule. I specialise in the history of economic policies, taxation, agriculture, and the environment. Having concluded a comprehensive study of of land reform, agrarian change, and political mobilisation in early Soviet Uzbekistan, I am turning toward the history of capitalism in Tsarist Turkestan, with a focus on entrepreneurship, credit, and 'resourceification'. I am also interested in living standards, land rights, and forestry.
Originally from Italy, I completed a co-directed doctorate between the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa (Italy) and the EHESS in Paris. I have then conducted research in Tashkent, at the Slavic Research Center of Hokkaido University (Japan), and I was a Newton Fellow of the British Academy at the University of Manchester. I came to Liverpool in January 2018 after four years teaching on aspects of Central Asian history at all levels (from survey to master's) at Nazarbayev University (Astana, Kazakhstan), a start-up English-medium institution that aims at supporting best practices in the local academia.
At Liverpool I teach mainly in the fields of Russian and Soviet history, with an eye at the multi-ethnic, Eurasian dimension of the empire and of the USSR. I also teach on the history of Central Asia and on various aspects of 20th century history.
I am keen to hear from prospective post-graduate students and post-docs with an interest in the economic and environmental history of Central Asia and Russia/the USSR in the 19th and 20th centuries. I am also happy to supervise projects about the life of key Soviet-era political figures, for instance Sanjar Asfendiarov and Yuldash Akhunbabaev.