Malika Zekhni

Malika Zekhni is a PhD student at the Faculty of History at the University of Cambridge. She completed her undergraduate degree in History of Art and Archaeology at SOAS, University of London, and her MPhil degree in World History at Cambridge. Before embarking on a postgraduate career, Malika worked at several cultural and academic institutions, including the Shahidi International Foundation in Dushanbe, the Iran Heritage Foundation in London, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Her current doctoral research, supported by the Cambridge International Trust, centres on questions of mobility in Central Asia under Russian rule over the turn of the nineteenth century. Specifically, her project explores identification documents and regulatory mechanisms associated with shaping and controlling human mobility. Focusing on cross-border movement between Russian Central Asia and the neighbouring imperial territories, Malika’s research relies on a wide array of archival and other historical materials in Uzbekistan, Russia, and the United Kingdom.