Alun Thomas

Associate Professor

Health, Education, Policing and Sciences

I began my academic career resarching the modern history of Russia and Central Asia, concentrating primarily on the Soviet era. My early work focused on the formative years of the Soviet Union, after the Russian Revolution of 1917, and followed the development of new borders and state structures, especially in rural areas. My doctoral work and first monograph explores how these processes affected the millions of people in Central Asia who still lived as mobile pastoralists, or nomads, in the 1920s and 1930s.

Since joining the University of Staffordshire in 2017, my work has become increasingly concerned with the contemporary politics of Russia and particularly Central Asia. I am interested in how historical knowledge can be better applied when explaining the local and global trends now affecting the Central Asian region, from border disputes and agricultural change to the influence of Russia and China.

I have extensive experience of archival research in Moscow, Almaty, and Bishkek. I was promoted to Associate Professor of Eurasian Studies in 2023. My monograph, Nomads and Soviet Rule: Central Asia under Lenin and Stalin, was awarded the Alexander Nove Prize from the British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies (BASEES) for 2018. The judges’ verdict stated: ‘This pioneering and ambitious book adds significantly to our understanding of the Soviet Union and its peoples'. More recently, my article 'Paths Not Taken: How did Nomadism Affect Border-Making during National Delimitation in Central Asia?’ was awarded the Ab Imperio article prize for the year 2023, for the 'best article in a peer-reviewed academic journal or chapter in a scholarly collection'.

Professional memberships and activities

Member of the British Association of Slavonic and East European Studies (BASEES)

Committee Member of the BASEES Research and Development sub-Committee Co-convenor of the BASEES Eurasian Regions Study Group (ERSG)

Co-editor of the ‘Peripheral Histories?’ digital history project: peripheralhistories.co.uk

Member of the Central Eurasian Studies Society (CESS)

Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy Oxus Society for Central Asian Affairs

Academic qualifications

PhD, The University of Sheffield, 2015
MA Modern History, (Distinction) The University of Sheffield, 2011
BA (Hons) Russian and Politics, (First with Distinction in spoken Russian), The University of Sheffield, 2009

Expertise

To date, I have contributed to public events, consultation work, and CPD training programmes for British and US public sector organisations. My contributions have principally concerned the contemporary politics of Russia and Central Asia.

Research interests

My research interests include: all aspects of contemporary Central Asian affairs; the history of Russia, Central Asia, and the Soviet Union; border-making, state-building, and urbanisation; mobile pastoralism (nomadism) and socioeconomic change; imperialism and colonialism.

Grants

In 2025-2026 I held an AHRC Curiosities Award for the project 'Staggered Decolonisation: Power and Space in Kyrgyzstan,1924-2024'. The project involved archival research and fieldwork in urban and rural Kyrgyzstan, the organisation of two international conferences, and outputs on the contemporary politics of Central Asia. My PhD at the University of Sheffield, 2011-2015, was fully funded by an AHRC Student Fellowship.

Enterprise and commercial interests

During 2021-2022 I contributed an extended report and advisory presentations and documents to the Development, Doctrine and Concepts Centre (DCDC), a Ministry of Defence (MoD) think tank. My contribution focused on the near future of the five Central Asian states: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, including both their international relations and domestic affairs. Ultimately this work supported the content of Global Strategic Trends 7.

Teaching

I am currently Course Leader for the University's International Studies Masters Programme, encompassing three courses: MA International History, MA International Relations, and MA International Security, including both standard and MoD-specific entry. I deliver a range of content for these postgraduate courses, such as a specialist pathway module 'Russia and Russian Security'. Additionally, I run two core modules on the University's BA (Hons) Intelligence and International Relations MoD degree, including 'Global and Regional Security'.

Typically my teaching relates to contemporary history, the contemporary politics of Russia and Central Asia, and thematic topics such as borderland conflict, transnational repression, and Central Asia's relations with China and Europe. I lead on the University’s partnerships with the MoD across various platforms, including the tendering, development and delivery of CPD Short Courses on a variety of topics. Finally, I lead the University's partnership with APIIT Sri Lanka in the provision of its International Relations postgraduate provision.

Publications

Academic

‘Since it’s about to be a capital’: managing urban growth and pasturage in early Soviet Bishkek' Urban History (2025), pp. 1-16

‘Paths Not Taken: How did Nomadism Affect Border-Making during National Delimitation in Central Asia?’ with Stephan Rindlisbacher, Ab Imperio 2 (2023), pp. 117-141.

‘Peripheral Histories: Reflections on a Digital History Project in an Evolving Field’ with Catherine Gibson, Siobahn Hearne, Susan Grunewald, Hanna Matt, Jo Laycock, Ab Imperio 3 (2023), pp. 245-253

'Revisiting the "Transcaspian Episode": British Intervention and Turkmen Statehood, 1918-1919’ Europe-Asia Studies (Summer 2021).

An Empire Remembered? Collectivization and Colonialism in Mukhamet Shayakhmetov’s 'TheSilent Steppe' in Dirk Göttsche (ed.), Memory and Postcolonial Studies: Synergies and New Directions across Literatures from Europe, Africa and the Americas (Peter Lang, 2018).

Nomads and Soviet Rule: Central Asia from Lenin to Stalin (I.B. Tauris, 2018).

‘The Caspian Disputes: Nationalism and Nomadism in Early Soviet Central Asia’, The Russian Review 76:3 (2017), pp. 502-525.

‘On Guard at BAMlag: Representations of Guards in the 1930s Gulag Press’, The Soviet and Post-Soviet Review, 4:11 (2014), pp. 3-32.

Online Papers and Recorded Talks

'The Tajik-Kyrgyz Border Conflict: Historical Roots and Current Causes', in 'War, Displacement, and Migration in Eastern Europe and Eurasia' The Centre for Eastern European and Eurasian Studies, University of Southampton, April 2024

‘Nomads in Early Soviet Central Asia’ The Cambridge Central Asia Forum Seminar, University of Cambridge (online), March 2021 [link]

Author interview ‘Земля номадов: кочевники и советская власть при Ленине и Сталине. Интервью’ [The Land of the Nomads: Nomads and Soviet Power under Lenin and Stalin. Interview], www.caa-network.org, April 2021

Author Interview ‘Nomads and Soviet Rule’ www.voicesoncentralasia.org, March 2020 [link]

Video interview with two founders of the Oxus Society for Central Asian Affairs, on behalf of the Peripheral Histories Digital Humanities project, December 2020 [link]

Podcast Interview for Nomads and Soviet Rule on New Books Network newbooksnetwork.com, 2018 [link]

Podcast Interview for Nomads and Soviet Rule on Sean’s Russia Blog srbpodcast.org, 2018 [link]

External profiles

ORCID