Russel Zanca
Senior Fellow 2022–2023

Russell Zanca is professor of anthropology at Northeastern Illinois University and an associate of the University of Chicago’s Center for East European, Russian/Eurasian Studies. His research focuses on pastoralism in Kazakhstan in the present, with emphasis on the interface between ecological imperatives and social-behavioral practices of dwindling livestock-centered populations.

As a senior fellow at the Collegium, Russell worked collaboratively to plan a long-term fieldwork project on Kazakhstan’s range lands, which will include contributions from biologists, ecologists, and geographers. With his research, he hopes to propose solutions drawn from ethnography that may benefit regional pastoral communities and ecosystems.