Ethnicity and Nationalism Studies; Nation-Building, National Identity; Nation(alizing)-State; Minority Identities; Border Communities; Multiculturalism; Civil Society; Peace and Conflict Studies

Post-Soviet Region, South Caucasus - Azerbaijan; Armenia, Georgia

Mirkamran Huseynli is a PhD Candidate at the Department of Political Science at Vytautas Magnus University and a Swiss Government Excellence Research Fellow at the chair of Prof. Dr. Peter Finke at ISEK (Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology) at University of Zurich. Alongside a B.A degree in American Studies at Baku State University, he also has an M.A degree in East European Studies from University of Bologna, another M.A degree in Nationalism Studies from Central European University and a graduate non-degree in Conflict Resolution & Mediation from University of San Diego. He offered undergraduate courses – Political Theory and Modern World History – at the School of Public and International Affairs at ADA University in Baku, Azerbaijan in 2021-2022. He has also collaborated with various NGOs internationally and in Azerbaijan regarding peace-building and conflict resolution in recent years. Alongside his PhD studies, he was a CEES Fellow at Center for East European Studies at University of Zurich and Max Weber fellow at Leibniz Institute (ZMO) in 2024-2025. His work has been published in Ethnicities, ASIAC – Studies on Central Asia and the Caucasus, Review of International Studies, Caucasus Edition: Journal of Conflict Transformation, and a Routledge edited volume.

Given Mirkamran’s interdisciplinary academic background, his PhD research likewise draws on multiple disciplines, including political science, history, sociology and social anthropology. His doctoral dissertation is titled “⁠Institutionalizing Nationhood: The Politics of Nationalization, Homogenization and Assimilation in Contemporary Azerbaijan”. More specifically, Mirkamran examines nation-building, national identity, and minority identities in the case of Azerbaijan, critically engaging with the nation(alizing) discourses and policies of Azerbaijani governments since the country’s independence. In tandem, he has conducted semi-structured interviews with opposition politicians, civil society activists, and members of ethnic minorities. This combined top-down and bottom-up approach is intended to assess the corresponding reciprocity between state narratives and societal responses. It also intends to illuminate various factors shaping the nationalization and homogenization of Azerbaijani society during the post-Soviet period – processes that have particularly affected ethnic minorities. Building on his ethnographic contributions, Mirkamran further seeks to advance understanding of concepts such as the nation(alizing)-state, national minorities, external national homelands and inter-imperiality.

Book Chapters

Huseynli, M., & Mutnansky, A. (2025). The evolution of Azerbaijani Talysh identity: Construction, deconstruction, and reconstruction across Soviet and post-Soviet eras. In V. Kopeček, M. Lepič, & L. Jelen (Eds.), Ethnicity and ethnic minorities in post-Soviet Eurasia (pp. 86–97). Routledge. DOI: 10.4324/9781003652885-9

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles (Scopus / Web of Science)

Mutnansky, A., & Huseynli, M. (2025). Primordialism, perennialism, modernism and ethno-symbolism: The perception of homeland and identity among Azerbaijani Lezgins. Ethnicities, 25(5). https://doi.org/10.1177/14687968251329023

Barberis, C. F., & Huseynli, M. (2025). The Breakup of Civil Society in Post–War Azerbaijan. ASIAC – Studies on Central Asia and the Caucasus (SCC), 2, 25–43. https://doi.org/10.36253/asiac-3466

Barberis, C. F., & Huseynli, M. (2025). Obliged to hate: The successful stigmatisation of anti-war voices in Azerbaijan. Review of International Studies, 51(3), 431–448. https://doi:10.1017/S0260210525000191

Policy Articles

Ghazaryan, F. & Huseynli, M. (2022) Armenian and Azerbaijani History-Textbooks: Time for a Change, Caucasus Edition| Journal of Conflict Transformation, Volume 5, Issue 1, 53-89 https://caucasusedition.net/armenian-and-azerbaijani-history-textbooks-time-for-a-change