Dilmurad Yusupov is a researcher, civil society activist, and international development consultant advocating for the rights and inclusion of disabled people in Uzbekistan. An ally of the emerging disability rights movements in Central Asia, he uses ethnographic and participatory research methods to analyze the social exclusion of people with various forms of impairments. As a Postdoctoral Fellow, his research focuses on how to best support the inclusive employment of disabled people. This project is directly informed by his PhD dissertation on disability exclusion and his hands-on experience as co-founder of NGO Sharoit Plus. At the NGO, he helped launch IshPlus.uz, a specialized recruitment web portal for disabled job seekers and employers in Uzbekistan. He will analyze effective policies and successful practices from countries including Japan, exploring the collaborative roles of government, civil society, and businesses. He is particularly interested in how Japanese companies integrate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) principles and how innovative solutions, such as AI and online job-matching platforms, can create a more accessible and equitable labor market. At Tokyo College, he will also continue his broader research, investigating the relationship of religion and disability, using participatory video for social change, civil society development, inclusive higher education and social protection.
2025-2028 Postdoctoral Fellow, Tokyo College, The University of Tokyo
2017-2023 PhD in Development Studies, Institute of Development Studies (IDS), University of Sussex
2011-2013 MA in Economics, Waseda University
2006-2010 BA in Economics, Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO University)
“Yusupov, Dilmurad (2023). Disability and citizenship in post-Soviet Uzbekistan: the role of disabled people’s organizations, mahalla and Islam. University of Sussex. PhD Thesis. https://hdl.handle.net/10779/uos.23496305.v1
Auerbach, Adam Michael; Sacks, Audrey; Yusupov, Dilmurad, (2023) Climate Change and Disability Inclusion in Uzbekistan (English). Washington, D.C. : World Bank Group.
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099101923163071469/P17958902c9e1107e0bb04024b9f7408d5d
Yusupov, Dilmurad. “”Disability and Religious Inequality Intertwined: Double Discrimination against Deaf Jehovah’s Witnesses in Uzbekistan””. Poverty and Prejudice: Religious Inequality and the Struggle for Sustainable Development, edited by Mariz Tadros, Philip Mader and Kathryn Cheeseman, Bristol, UK: Bristol University Press, 2023, pp. 166-170. https://doi.org/10.56687/9781529229066-027
Yusupov, Dilmurad; Abdukhalilov, Abdullo (2022). Barriers to disability-inclusive employment in Uzbekistan: A pilot qualitative study of disabled people’s lived experiences. Journal of International Development, 34(5), 1048–1068.
https://doi.org/10.1002/jid.3693
Yusupov, Dilmurad (2021) Deaf Uzbek Jehovah’s Witnesses: The Case of Intersection of Disability, Ethnic and Religious Inequalities in Post-Soviet Uzbekistan, CREID Working Paper 8, Coalition for Religious Equality and Inclusive Development, Brighton: Institute of Development Studies, DOI:10.19088/CREID.2021.008
Yusupov, Dilmurad, (2020) Uzbekistan: Why the Reform of “Merciless” Houses is Stuck? Central Asian Bureau for Analytical Reporting (CABAR.asia),
https://cabar.asia/en/uzbekistan-why-the-reform-of-merciless-houses-is-stuck
Yusupov, Dilmurad (2020), Challenges NGOs in Uzbekistan are still facing, The Foreign Policy Centre, July 14, 2020, https://fpc.org.uk/challenges-ngos-in-uzbekistan-are-still-facing/
Yusupov, Dilmurad; Isakov, Oybek; (2020), Regulation of NGOs in Uzbekistan: Control or Partnership? Central Asian Bureau for Analytical Reporting(CABAR.asia), https://cabar.asia/en/regulation-of-ngos-in-uzbekistan-control-or-partnership
Yusupov, Dilmurad; Isakov, Oybek; (2020), Why is it Difficult to Open an NGO in Uzbekistan? Central Asian Bureau for Analytical Reporting (CABAR.asia),
https://cabar.asia/en/why-is-it-difficult-to-open-an-ngo-in-uzbekistan
Yusupov, Dilmurad (2019), Uzbekistan: How to Ensure Higher Education Accessibility for People with Disabilities? Central Asian Bureau for Analytical Reporting (CABAR.asia) https://cabar.asia/en/uzbekistan-how-to-ensure-higher-education-accessibility-for-people-with-disabilities
Yusupov, Dilmurad (2018 – until recently), publishing op-eds on the themes of disability inclusion and civil society development in Uzbekistan at a local Internet newspaper Gazeta.uz, https://www.gazeta.uz/ru/authors/dyusupov/
2018-2022 Wadsworth International Fellowship from the Wenner-Gren Foundation
2017-2019 Civil Society Scholar Award (CSSA) from the Open Society Foundations
May 2013 “Leader of Tomorrow”, the Wings of Excellence Award from the 43rd St. Gallen Symposium in
Switzerland
2011-2013 Japanese Government MEXT Scholarship for graduate students under “Global 30” project
2006-2010 Russian Government “President’s Scholarship” for undergraduate students from the
Commonwealth of Independent States”
