She specializes in Eurasian and Central Asian intellectual history, involving the late Russian empire and the former Soviet Union. Her research and teaching interests also include colonialism, nationalism, ethnicity, Islam, nomadism, and cultural anthropology. Gulnar Kendirbai received her two PhDs from the Eotvos-Lorand University in Budapest (1987) and University of Tuebingen in Germany (2003). She is the author of Land and People. The Russian Colonization of the Kazakh Steppe, Berlin (2002). She also published her papers in the Encyclopedia The Turks, Central Asian Survey, Nationalities Papers, Asian Affairs, Central Asiatic Journal, Jahrbucher fur Geschichte Osteuropas, and other journals.  She has received fellowships from the Fulbright Commission, the American Councils (ACTR/ACCELS), the DAAD, and the Thyssen Foundation in Germany. Currently she is working on a book on the Alash movement led by the Kazak intellectuals of the beginning of the 20th century.