Faculty & Staff

Dr. Bermet Tursunkulova is a part-time Professor in the International and Comparative Politics department at the American University of Central Asia. She holds her Kandidat (Ph.D.) in Political Sciences from Kyrgyz-Slavic Russian University (2006, Kyrgyzstan), a Master of Arts in International Relations and European Studies from Central European University (1999, Hungary), and a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations and International Law from International University of Kyrgyzstan (1998, Kyrgyzstan). She is an awardee of the 20th Anniversary Alumni Hero Award from the President of CEU (2011, Hungary). 

Dr. Tursunkulova joined AUCA in 2000 and became a Chair of the International and Comparative Politics department in 2007. She then served as the AUCA’s Vice-President for Academic Affairs from 2008 till 2015. During her term as the Vice-President for Academic Affairs, she directed all curricula changes to meet the US accreditation standards and the alignment to the liberal arts syllabus/standards/teaching style for the Bard degrees. She also directed the transition to complete instruction in English, instituted faculty peer review as an evaluation criterion, and transformed the Orientation Program for Freshmen to focus more on writing, thinking, and articulation skills. Under her leadership, the number of non-Bishkek students increased by more than 10%. She initiated more aggressive recruitment in Kazakhstan, China, and Russia, and student mobility increased from 3 study-abroad programs to 8. She directed the launch of an online course registration system (the only one in the country) and introduced psychological counseling for students. 

Currently, Dr. Tursunkulova is overseeing the AUCA’s Development office. She has significant fundraising experience, having worked since 2017 for the Global Snow Leopard Trust as a Public Relations and Fundraising Consultant. From January to September 2016, she served as Deputy Head of the World Nomad Games Secretariat in Bishkek and was responsible for coordinating preparatory activities for the World Nomad Games (held in September 2016), chief fundraiser, and liaison between the Secretariat, sponsors, partners, and the President’s Administration, and raised more than $3,500,000 in eight months from public and private companies and NGOs. For this work, Bermet received the "Outstanding Service Award to Kyrgyzstan" in March 2017 from the Prime Minister. Bermet served as the Deputy Minister of Education in 2014-2015 and later as an Advisor to the Prime Minister in 2017-2018.