Prof. Laura Yerekesheva teaches and researches at the Chair of Middle East and South Asia, Oriental faculty, al Farabi Kazakh National University. She graduated with honors from the Faculty of History (special department) of KazNU; her PhD dissertation was at IAAS, Lomonosov Moscow State University (South Asia Chair). Areas of research interest include cultural and religious identity, social cohesion and nation-building, the “Other”, nationalism, cross-cultural and religious encounters, the history of art in Central and South Asia. By training and research, she is uniquely positioned to study these themes with focus on Central Asia and India. Professor Yerekesheva is the author of the UNESCO report “Youth in Central Asia: Challenges to Peacebuilding” (Paris: UNESCO 2021), books “Culture and Religion in the History of Central Asia” (2013), “Religion and Politics in South Asia: Hindu-Muslim Question in British India” (2005); (co)editor of edited volumes published in Kazakhstan and India, author of articles in indexed peer-reviewed journals, reviewer of articles and expert of scientific projects. She was a visiting research fellow: at Yale University as a Fulbright Scholar and Central Asia Seminar Fellow (USA), the Indian Institute of Heritage and Indian Institute of Advanced Study as an ICCR Senior Research Fellow, FMSH Scholar in Residence, DEA Programme (France), etc. She was principal investigator and project participant in the projects in Kazakhstan and abroad (UNESCO, Georgetown University-Qatar, etc). She has contributed to UNESCO programmes as an author, expert, consultant, member of the Scientific Panel of the 2023 UNESCO Youth Research Grant. Her teaching experience includes courses for BA, MA, PhD students at al Farabi KazNU (faculties of history, oriental), Indian Institute of Heritage (history of art faculty), at International Summer Schools in Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkey, at UNESCO schools. She was awarded medal “For merits in the development of science of the Republic of Kazakhstan” by Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan (2017), “Distinguished ICCR Fellow 2016” (India, 2017); she was also a winner of the competition “Best Researcher of the Republic of Kazakhstan” (2022). She could be reached at: Laura.Yerekesheva@kaznu.edu.kz