Aidana Rakhatbekova

Aidana Rakhatbekova is interested in advancing environmental justice in indigenous communities, focusing on how colonial legacies and state environmental policies impact indigenous territories, livelihoods, and traditional ecological knowledge. Her research explores how indigenous communities resist these pressures and mobilize for justice in the face of environmental change, governance challenges, and structural inequalities in North Asia.

Since 2016, Aidana has worked with international and local organizations on human rights, legal cooperation, and cross-cultural dialogue, including positions at the Red Crescent Society of Kyrgyzstan and the Foundation for International Legal Cooperation. Her academic and professional experiences across Central Asia, Turkey, and Germany have shaped her transnational outlook and commitment to working across diverse cultural and political contexts. She earned a Master’s in Peace and Conflict Studies from Otto-von-Guericke University in Germany as a DAAD scholar and a Bachelor’s in Sociology from Middle East Technical University in Turkey as a Türkiye Bursları scholar.