Leyla Almazova is Associate Professor of the Department of Oriental, African and and Islamic Studies, Institute of International Relations, History and Oriental Studies, Kazan (Volga Region) Federal University. She earned her doctorate in 2002 at the Kazan University. The theme of her dissertation was «Arab-Muslim and Tatar Philosophy: the Problem of Transformation (end of 19^th – the beginning of the 20^th centuries)”. Her teaching career started in 2001, first at the Tatar State Institute of the Humanities, then in the Academy of Social Education and finally in 2012 at the Kazan University where she is teaching courses within the circle of Islamic and Regional Studies. In 2010-2011, she spent an academic year at the University of Michigan (CRESS) as a Fulbright Visiting Scholar working on research that was devoted to the analysis and conceptualization of the phenomenon of intellectual Islamic resurgence in post-Soviet Russia. Since 2012, she has also worked as a head of the Islamic Studies Educational Program established at the KFU by the Russian Ministry of Education and Sciences. This programme involves holding conferences, round tables, seminars, and arranging visiting scholars’ lectures. The area of her research interests includes such topics as Islam in Russia, Islamic Education in Tatarstan, modern Islamic trends among Tatar-Muslims, and ethno-religious processes in Tatar society.

Leila Almazova is an Executive Board Member of the Central Eurasian Studies Society (CESS)