Dilara Garaeva
Former Staff Writer
Discipline: Social Anthropology
Research Interests: I am researching the networks of identities in transnational construction projects on oil, gas, and chemical industry objects in Russia and Central Asia which have Chinese construction companies as general contractors.
If you were a box of cereal what would you be and why: Probably rice pops because they start to pop when you add milk. I also need something extra to get out of my bubble.
What did you want to be when you grew up: I wanted to be a doctor: either a dentist or a gynaecologist. These dreams were abandoned in the 7th grade when I started learning Chemistry and realised that loving the body and its structure was not enough to become a doctor, I also needed to understand the tiny processes which help to construct and maintain the body. I was already occupied with languages at the time, so I decided to learn a lot of languages instead. I still like medicine and bodies, which is probably why I've turned to anthropology.
Tell us something about another staff writer: Aglaia makes spontaneous, wonderful paintings of people that really inspire and make you feel special.
I wrote this post on 7th March 2012, just after going to the Russian embassy in London to vote in the Russian presidential elections. At the time I was studying for my Master’s at the University of Bristol. As a reminder: these were the elections in which Putin was elected, after being Prime Minister under Dmitriy Medvedev’s presidency.