KARA DOWNEY, kmdowney@stanford.edu

Kara is a PhD Candidate in Political Science at Stanford University.  She will join CASI from August - December 2012 to conduct preliminary research about how the language and format in which political information is presented affects people's willingness to believe it.  Her research is sponsored by the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies and the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies, both at Stanford.  This research will form the basis of her dissertation.

Kara previously lived in Kyrgyzstan from August 2008 - August 2009 on a Fulbright Grant.  Before coming to Kyrgyzstan the first time, Kara earned a BA in both political science and theater from Northwestern University, and taught English for a year in Irkutsk, Russia.  She received her MA in Political Science from Stanford University in March 2012, and has spent summers in Astrakhan, Russia and Dushanbe, Tajikistan since starting graduate school.  She speaks Russian and some Tajiki, and looks forward to improving her Kyrgyz.