Guiding the Hand of God: The Influence of State Involvement in Religion on Religionational Identity by Dustin Gamza A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Political Science) in the University of Michigan 2019 Doctoral Committee: Professor Pauline Jones, Chair Associate Professor Robert Mickey Professor Mark Tessler Professor Geneviève Zubrzycki Dustin Gamza
[email protected] ORCID iD: 0000-0001-5233-6719 © Dustin Gamza 2019 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am grateful to all those who made this dissertation possible, whether it be through their support, advice, or comradery. I am thankful to the Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies, the University of Michigan’s International Institute, Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs, and the Boren Fellowship for providing platforms and funding that allowed me to begin my studies into religion and politics in the post-Soviet space. I am also grateful to the American University of Central Asia and their Central Asian Studies Institute for providing me an institutional home during my fieldwork that served as the foundation for this project, to the National Science Foundation for funding my survey in Kyrgyzstan, and to PIL Research Company for doing an excellent job administering the survey. Many people have provided me support throughout this endeavor. I owe thanks to Nurbek Bekmurzaev, who served as a guide, a translator, a co-researcher, and above all a friend during my time in Kyrgyzstan; to Alton Worthington and Anil Menon, who provided me with helpful advice on my methods; to Andrew Walker and Ana María Silva, who always provided a voice of reason and an escape through conversation and music; to my cohort in the political science department who embarked on this journey with me; and to all my Ann Arbor friends who spent countless nights with me cooking meals, playing games, and creating worlds.