Center for Independent Social Research
CISR – USA
Expertise
Post‑Сommunist
Societies
Mission Statement
Center for Independent Social Research, Inc. (CISRus)
CISRus is a non-profit association of scholars and experts working on issues related to the post-communist transformation. We conduct unbiased, in-depth social research to enrich scientific knowledge and strengthen civil society.
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Our academic mission is to improve scholarly understanding of post-communist societies using knowledge drawn from interdisciplinary work in the social sciences.
- Our educational mission is to support students and young scholars in the social sciences during the early stages of their professional careers.
CISRus Projects
Promoting Academic Freedom in Russia and the Post-Soviet Region
Supported by the National Endowment for Democracy
2023 – 2025
This project seeks to deepen understanding and raise public and scholarly awareness of the limitations on academic freedom in Russia and other post-Soviet countries.
Russia: Violations of academic freedom in 2023
The socio-political context and persecution of scientists and teachers
2024
Our selection method is based on the Scholars at Risk methodology for identifying violations of the academic rights and freedoms of teachers and students.
“Anti-War Civic Mobilization in Russia”
The response of Russian civil society to the war in Ukraine.
2022 – 2024
The purpose of the project is to explore the response of Russian civil society to the war in Ukraine with special focus on anti-war activism at the grass-roots level.
“Non-Profit Lawyers Working with the Victims of Domestic Violence:
Best Practices, Legal Mechanisms and Substantive Networks”
2021
The main purpose of the project is the cross-border exchange of professional experience in helping the victims of domestic violence in the United States and Russia. Another purpose of the project is to get acquainted with the existing infrastructure of US organizations and institutions assisting victims of domestic violence.
“Teaching Math in the USA:
Professional Integration of High-Skilled Female Immigrants from Russia and the FSU”
2020-2021
The object of the study is so-called “Russian math education”—a specific professional and educational niche within the sector of supplementary after-school education created by Russian (female) immigrants.
“Academic
Freedom”
2020-2021
The project implies monitoring, analyzing, and raising awareness of issues surrounding academic freedom in Russia and post-Soviet countries.
“Russian Youth
and Corruption”
2019
The study of attitudes towards corruption among Russian Generation Z including nine focus groups with university students in three Russian cities.
Academic Freedom in Flux: Purpose, Beneficiaries, and Practices in the Contemporary World
October 16-18, 2025
Tashkent city, Uzbekistan
The conference is organized by CISRus (Center for Independent Social Research) and Central Asia Program, George Washington University with generous support of Tashkent State university of Economics.
We aim to foster interdisciplinary dialogue on the following broad themes:
- Understanding academic freedom: philosophical definition, legal understanding, and boundaries, reconceptualization based on boundary cases.
- Challenges to academic freedom: research on individual issues, mutual influence of significant challenges of recent years (pandemics, wars, right-wing radicalism, neo-managerialism, and others).
- Protecting academic freedom: legal actions, community practices, and emerging tools (decentralized science, platform collaboration, etc.).
We welcome theoretical and empirical studies that shed light on these topics, offering fresh perspectives and insights into the evolving landscape of academic freedom. At the same time, we welcome submissions from practitioners who can offer reflections on the topics above from an applied perspective, including potential changes in educational policy, which should also be considered an integral part of the reflection on the state and development of academic freedom worldwide.
Application deadline: June 30, 2025
CISRus Blog
Russian Scientists in Search of Utopian Freedom
Sofia Smyslova
Why specialists who have left the country are combining formal institutionalized activities with informal ones.
April 21, 2025
Strategies and Survival Scenarios for Russian Scientists
Dmitry Dubrovsky
Part 2: Abroad
April 5, 2025
Strategies and Survival Scenarios for Russian Scientists
Dmitry Dubrovsky
Part 1: Within the Country
March 23, 2024
Academic Freedom: Freedom from Restriction or Opportunity for Growth?
Irina Chudova
A study of the discourse of Russian and Kazakh teachers.
March 9, 2025
CISRus Partners
Foreign agents
The term ‘foreign agent’ was initially introduced in Russin federal law in 2012
Autonomy of universities
has been decreasing after launching the Federal Universities project
rubles in a year
The average salary of rectors of public universities in 2018
Leading Universities
Participants of the Project 5-100 to be more competitive globally
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