In late September, I passed my PhD viva with minor corrections with my thesis: “Amir Timur in Shanghai: Locating agency in Uzbekistan-China normative encounters”. I thank my supervisor Dr Matthew Bishop, and my examiners Dr Burak Tansel (external, University of Newcastle) and Professor John Hobson (internal) for the amazing support and useful comments! Below, I decided to share my acknowledgements for the thesis, as after all they are a fundamental part of my thesis. As for the central arguments and findings from my thesis, please read my incoming publications!

Acknowledgements

Writing a PhD thesis has been a challenging, demanding, and amazing experience that changed me to the core. I do not come from an academic family, as I am the first one in the larger circle of relatives to earn a higher education degree, imagine a PhD. I did not grow up knowing I would be an academic, and still nowadays the idea of becoming a scholar boosts my imposter syndrome. I would have never been able to do it without the support, care, and love of a number of people, teachers, and family, who believed in me throughout the years, and to whom I dedicate this achievement. The first is my grandfather, Vittorino, who passed away in 2014 and who had promised my elementary teacher, il Signor Mario Marchesi, to push me to earn a university degree. He died a month after I obtained my BA at the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, and his support is still with me in all my achievements. There are also a number of teachers from elementary, middle, and high school that I need to thank for their academic and psychological support during my education: Laura Faccin, Viviana Marcati, Monica Dal Maso, Loredana Padovani, Eleonora Iacobacci, Melanie Sander and Tiziana Ponso. I also would like to thank my supervisors and other lecturers at Ca’ Foscari University and the University of Bologna who supported my education and pushed my ambition beyond a first-level degree: Franco Gatti, Elena Pollacchi, Pina Lalli, Daniela Giannetti, and Antonio Fiori. I especially thank Professor Daniela Meneghini, who organized a fundraising campaign in our Department in Venice to support my studies during a time of financial difficulty, and those who supported my studies during those challenging times, particularly my parents Cosetta and Michele, my siblings Charly and Sophia, and my nonna Francesca, who all made many sacrifices to pay my tuition. I also thank Ilaria Gervasoni, Francesca Bortot, and Matteo Cocco for sharing my passion for politics and teaching me about leftwing activism and dedication, as well as my best friends Serena and Alberto for putting up with me over my university years and being great life companions. I also want to mention my amazing housemates over the years Betta, Francesca Manna, Holga, Lalli&SanVitale56, Sian, Helen, Ben, Filippo, who are still my chosen family.

Receiving a White Rose DTP award at Sheffield was a great achievement, for which I must thank Claudia Roberta Combei who was the first to believe in my project, and my initial supervisor Katherine Morton, who supported my bid. The first years in Sheffield were disrupted by a global pandemic, but in the first Covid-free months of my time in Sheffield I had already started a new Brit(ish) family made up of new friends for life: Bryony Vince, Charline Sempéré, Mike Livesey, Remi Edwards. I must mention some other friends who held my hand through a pandemic in a foreign country, and beyond: Balazs, Alice, Joe, Mike Marshall and Megan. Many friends and colleagues entered my life later and helped build the funny bunch that is the Politics PGR office: Dubem, Nina, Vicki, Josh, Nat, Lauren, Diego, Tom, and Navid. Thank you all for filling my life with laughter and love. Thanks to my friends Flo Gaughan, Joe, Olivia, and Judith Blake, who welcomed me into their family and helped me adjust to the UK, and D.C. thanks to the help of the amazing Laura, Helene and Willa, my American family.

This PhD would not have been possible without the support, guidance, and caring supervision of Matthew Bishop. His trust in my abilities and my research project has never wavered even during very difficult times. Matt’s empathy and kindness taught me how to become a better academic, as he pushed me to take breaks when my mental health was poor and to press on when I was feeling better. His experience and understanding of research design, fieldwork research and the academic environment allowed me not only to finish my PhD in time but also to secure a postdoc position even before submitting my thesis. I also would like to thank my second supervisor, Thomas Johnson, and my temporary supervisors Todd Hartman and Marjorie Dryburgh for their support. The Department of Politics and International Relations has been the cradle of my professional development. I would like to thank the PGR and research directors Anastasia Shesterinina, Alasdair Cochrane, Lisa Stampnitzky, Liam Stanley, and Simon Rushton and other colleagues whose work inspired me, Amna Kaleem, Annapurna Menon, Patricia Nabuco Martuscelli, Sarah Ababneh, Jonna Nyman, Xavier Mathieu, Natalie Langford, Barış Çelik, Gregory Styles. Also, the project would not have existed without the administrative help of Jackie Mather, Emily Rahtz, Liz Brock, Nathan Genders, Wendy Birks, Charlotte Massarella, Gail Smallwood, Kerry Swain, Beth Walker, Freya Ratcliffe, Kevin Henry, and Daniel Villalba Algas. The Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute (SPERI) has been my second academic home, for which I thank the directors Colin Hay, Andy Hindmoor, Hannah Lambie-Mumford, Tom Hunt, and Genevieve LeBaron, and my Doctoral Network colleagues Remi, Charline, Emma Mahoney, Josh White, Vicki Reif-Breitwieser, Nina Lotze, James Jackson, Chris Saltmarsh and Georgette Fernandez.

I owe the success of this research entirely to my research partner in Uzbekistan, my brother Islomkhon Gafarov, University of World Economy and Diplomacy in Tashkent, whose guidance, friendship, and care transformed my stay into an unforgivable journey. I am looking forward to other conversations in front of a smoking plov. Thanks also to other colleagues in Uzbekistan who helped me with my research: Sardorbek Murtozayev, Gulnoza Ismailova, Akram Umarov, Alouddin Komilov, Abbos Bobokhonov, Odil Gafarov, Dilfuza Kurulova, Iroda Babaeva. I also would like to thank my acquired Uzbek family for making me feel at home: Nargiza, who was the best Russian language tutor and became a close friend, Rustam, the best tourist guide in Uzbekistan, and their children Iskander, and Imran. I would like to thank the Oxus Society for their support, particularly Edward Lemon, Bradley Jardine, and Noah Tucker, the D.C. Central Asia bunch, and particularly Ambassadors Allan Mustard and Richard Hoagland, Marlene Laruelle, and Sebastien Peyrouse, Global Partners Governance and the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office for the great opportunities, particularly Emily Death, Leni Wild, Müjge Küçükkeleş, Madina Myngaiymbek, Baroness Allison Suttie, and Matthew Willmore. Thanks also to those who contributed to this dissertation, particularly my interview participants listed below, and others: Amitav Acharya, Deborah Bräutigam, David Shambaugh, Su Chang, Nargis Kassenova, Navbahor Imamova, Evan Feigenbaum, Allison Gill, Aliyor Tilavov, Xiang Lanxin, Eva Seiwert, Elzbieta Pron, David Cadier, Precious Chatterje-Doody, Natasha Kuhrt, Flavia Lucenti, Michela Zingone, Isabell Burmester, Maxine David, Jennifer Murtazashvili, Pengshan Pan, Roland Dannreuther, Wojciech Ostrowski, Bhavna Dave, Luca Anceschi, Filippo Costa Buranelli, Franco Galdini, Madina Gazieva, Giulio Benedetti, Eugenia Pesci, Lily McGarrangle and particularly Jasmin Dall’Agnola. Finally, I thank the Italian Association for the Study of Central Asia and the Caucasus, particularly Aldo Ferrari, Carlo Frappi, Giorgio Comai, and Fabio Indeo, for welcoming me to their team. A special thanks to my academic sister Dr Giulia Sciorati, LSE’s best China-Central Asia relations expert, whose support and respect are my favourite confidence boost, and whose friendship is an antidote to the toxicity of academic competition.