Visiting Scholars in Residence

Tcholpon Akmatalieva, PhD
Kyrgyzstan

Dr. Akmatalieva received her Doctorate in social philosophy at Moscow State University in Moscow, Russia and also received a certificate from the College of Strategic Studies and Defense Economy in Garmish-Partenkirchen, Germany. She has written a variety of publications on the women’s movement and has taught political science classes at different universities in the Kyrgyz Republic.

Dr. Akmatalieva is currently studying the role of national traditions in the change in status of women in post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan. Since Kyrgyzstan became an independent democratic State, the expected progressive changes have not occurred. Rather, the position of women has noticeably deteriorated leaving them in poverty and more frequently victims of violence, bride kidnappings, and polygamy. Dr. Akmatalieva is analyzing the basis of these problems in terms of the complex interactions between economic, political, and social factors.

Jen Wahlquist, MA
Utah Valley University

Professor Wahlquist is the former chair of the department of English and Literature at Utah Valley State College and came to the Women’s Research Institute at the suggestion of the English department at Brigham Young University.

Professor Wahlquist is writing a historical novel built on actual characters, settings, and events, including the matriarchal Abenaki society and the way in which these women provided significant strength to their tribe or clan in that society where councils listened with respect to women’s voices, and women managed the land and all agricultural pursuits. However, by the end of the 17th Century, Abenaki women found their lives and cultures in almost complete disarray. This novel traces a New England family from Boston and Concord Massachusetts through several generations ending with a fifth-generation who emigrated south to New York City and west to Palmyra, New York where, according to documentary evidence, they interacted with the family of Joseph Smith.