This month, we welcome new Academy in Exile fellow Yerkebulan Sairambay to KWI. We talked to him about his current research and plans.

What is your current research focus?

My current AiE project examines how queer scholars at risk from Central and Eastern Europe and post-Soviet countries develop and sustain resilience against authoritarian regimes, anti-LGBTQIA+ policies, and restrictions on academic freedom before and after exile. It investigates how scholars navigated hostile academic and social environments, what strategies enabled them to continue their work under repression, what ultimately made remaining impossible, and how they continue resisting authoritarian governments and discriminatory social norms through research, writing, teaching, and public engagement from exile.

What are your plans for your time at KWI?

I am working on academic resistance before and after exile with a particular focus on queer scholars at risk from Central and Eastern Europe and post-Soviet countries. I am planning to obtain ethics approval for my research and conduct interviews with scholars at risk and in exile. I also plan to participate in all KWI colloquia, present the preliminary findings of my research at my own colloquium on 16 December, and take part in AiE events, including the international interdisciplinary symposium Cultures of Refuge: Climate, Flight, Refuge, which will be held on 15–16 October 2026.

What are your first impressions of the Ruhr area?

My first impression of the Ruhr area was like: “Wow, train-connected, obsessed with postal mail, privacy-concerned, long-word-loving, tall Europeans surrounded by Turkish and Middle Eastern people everywhere – a very different part of Europe.“