Mehmet Volkan Kasikci received his Ph.D. in History from Arizona State University in 2020. He is a historian of Soviet Central Asia and completed his dissertation on children and childhood in Kazakhstan from 1928 to 1953. For his research, he lived in Kazakhstan for over three and a half years. His first article was published in Europe-Asia Studies in 2019. He is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of International Relations at the University of World Economy and Diplomacy.