My PhD project investigates fanfiction of curriculum-taught classic Russian-language literature on Ficbook.net. Ficbook, the most popular Russian language fanfiction website, was banned by Roskomnadzor in July 2024 due to its slash and femslash content (stories surrounding homosexual romantic and sexual pairings). Despite this ban, Ficbook still flourishes, with thousands of stories posted every day, and maintains over four thousand fanfictions about the works that make up the Russian literary canon - with slash as its most popular genre. Such a body of work calls into question what readers learn when they read these texts in school, what they care about, imagine, and whether or not it is possible to truly control engagement with canonical texts in the digital age. In my research, I investigate the questions: How are writers and readers engaging with classic Russian-language literature through the medium of fanfiction? To what extent do the values expressed in Russian fanfiction reinforce the values the Russian Federation promotes through literature in school? Does Russian fanfiction offer alternative values or readings of the canon that challenge the ones the Russian government condones? How have Ficbook’s digital communities responded to Russia’s restrictions on freedom of speech and Russia’s anti-gay laws (2013, 2023)? In my project, I make use of ongoing scholarship surrounding fanfiction as a literary genre, the fanfiction on Ficbook as a body of work itself, and the expansive body of existing research that examines some of Russian literature's most famous works. I see my research as situated in the current use of literature in Russian politics, particularly through school education, and study how a body of work that is made by fans for fans settles in such a political atmosphere.

My PhD project examines how the Tajik state regulates women’s dress and public conduct as part of moral governance and post-Soviet nation-building. Since the 2000s, state institutions have promoted the image of the “ideal Tajik woman”. In June 2024, the Parliament of Tajikistan adopted, and President Emomali Rahmon signed a new law amending the existing Law on Regulation of Traditions and Ceremonies. This law: bans the wearing, import, sale, and promotion of clothing deemed “alien to national culture”, discouraging and restricting both Islamic dress (such as the hijab) and “Western-style” clothing (such as tight-fitting clothing). These interventions are justified through narratives of protecting national culture, secular order, and social stability. I argue that dress regulation functions as a governance strategy through which the state produces moral “certainty”, defines legitimate femininity and citizenship, and reinforces political authority in a contested public sphere. At the same time, these policies generate everyday uncertainty for women by creating shifting boundaries of what is acceptable, respectable, or “national,” alongside uneven enforcement and informal policing in schools, workplaces, and public spaces. The project also investigates how women and civil society actors respond to and contest these practices both online and offline, including through digital advocacy, strategic self-presentation, and everyday negotiation. The study contributes to political science debates on authoritarian governance, state secularism, and gendered nation-building in Central Asia. Methodologically, it uses a mixed-methods design combining survey data on women’s lived experiences and perceptions, semi-structured interviews with women and civil society actors, and visual discourse analysis of official messaging, media materials, and public representations of femininity. By connecting state moral regulation to broader processes of order-making, the project offers a framework for understanding how identity-based governance operates under conditions of (un)certainty.

This paper explores how intimate citizenship is constructed, negotiated, and rendered uncertain within the framework of public education in contemporary Hungary. Drawing on qualitative, semi-structured interviews with teachers, the study examines how state regulations, institutional norms, and broader political discourses shape pedagogical practices related to intimacy, sexuality, and family life under conditions of illiberal governance. The concept of intimate citizenship refers to individuals’ socially and politically mediated capacities to make legitimate claims regarding intimacy, sexuality, and personal relationships. While previous scholarship has emphasized expanding rights and recognition, this paper focuses on the production of uncertainty as a central governing logic. In the Hungarian context, recent regulatory changes and politicized narratives surrounding “child protection” and “ideological neutrality” have not simply restricted sexual education but have created ambiguous and unstable normative environments for educators. The analysis shows that teachers operate within a field marked by legal vagueness, institutional silence, and heightened moral scrutiny. This uncertainty generates adaptive strategies ranging from self-censorship and avoidance to selective engagement and informal negotiation. Rather than producing uniform compliance, regulatory ambiguity functions as a disciplinary mechanism that shifts responsibility onto individual teachers while limiting collective pedagogical autonomy. By situating school-based sexual education within broader debates on democratisation, autocratisation, and civil rights in Central and Eastern Europe, the paper contributes to understanding how intimate citizenship is reshaped under conditions of political uncertainty. Methodologically, it also addresses the challenge of observing uncertainty as a social phenomenon, arguing that uncertainty itself becomes a key empirical object through teachers’ narratives and practices. The Hungarian case highlights how illiberal governance reconfigures not only political rights but also the intimate dimensions of citizenship mediated through education.