Malika’s thesis, entitled “Transformation of Kazakhstan’s Elite: The Role of International Education (1993–2005)”, examines the Bolashak International Scholarship Programme as a mechanism of elite formation and nation-building in post-Soviet Kazakhstan. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of practice, the dissertation argues that Bolashak should be understood not merely as a state investment in human capital, but as a state project of symbolic consecration, producing and legitimizing a new generation of internationally educated elites. The thesis introduces the concept of the “statist moderniser” to capture the particular dispositions cultivated through the programme: cosmopolitanism, modernising idealism, professional confidence and a sense of obligation to the state. Drawing on in-depth interviews with Bolashak fellows now occupying government management positions, more than 30 years after the programme began, the thesis contributes to scholarship on post-Soviet elite formation, as well as to broader debates on the role of international education in the reproduction of elites under authoritarian rule.
Malika’s research was supervised by Prof. Alena Ledeneva and Prof. Eric Gordy.