Khasan Redjaboev

I am a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the Center for Asian Democracy, University of Louisville, where I am Instructor of Record for Comparative Political Economy and produce Inside Asia Podcasts. I received my PhD in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2025. 

Previously, I have been a Pre-Doctoral Fellow at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University, 2023-2025. 

I am interested in how developing countries (often under authoritarian rule) distribute welfare, conduct economic development reforms, and manage gender and social policies. Broadly, my research focuses on comparative political economy of development, public administration and policy, gender and politics, and social policy and redistribution, with an empirical focus on developing countries in Asia and post-communist Eurasia. My most recent CV is here. You can learn more about my research by listening to this podcast.

My first book project, titled State Patriarchy: Forced Labor and the Making of Progressive Authoritarianism in Eurasia, contributes novel theoretical frameworks and empirical evidence to help explain (1) how authoritarian welfare policies were established through forced labor extraction that heavily relied on women's participation among Asian ethnic groups and (2) how authoritarian welfare policies shape development and political behavior today. My primary research interests in forced labor and their state-building, gender and social policy effects were informed by my immediate family members’ work in cotton fields (along with the millions of other victims).

In addition to my academic and public service work (read more about it here), I aim to bring world class research with local partnerships to Central Asia. I co-founded and am a co-principal investigator at two long-term and externally funded collaborative research projects: Local Economic and Administrative Performance (LEAP) in Central Asia and Interdisciplinary Central Asia Politics, History and Economics (ICAPHE) Research Group. Both projects proudly employ and train junior Central Asian scholars. 

I published policy commentary at East Asia Forum and Bourse and Bazaar Foundation (Central Asia and Middle East-focused think tank), hosted expert talks, and spoke and actively participated at several high-level policy events on the benefits of greater public accountability, democratic participation, and evidence-based decision-making, most recently at the Uzbekistan Economic Forum and International Ratings Forum in Tashkent, both in 2022. 

You contact me via email at khasan.redjaboev[at]louisville[dot]edu or by mail at 211 Stevenson Hall, 101 E. Centennial Walk, Louisville, KY 40208.