Guzel Garifullina is a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Democracy, Development, and Rule of Law (CDDRL). She earned a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2021 and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Skalny Center for Polish and Central European Studies (University of Rochester) in 2021-2022.

Guzel's research focuses on local politics and governance in Russia, and she uses a variety of tools, including lab and survey experiments and analysis of detailed observational data to conduct comparative studies of authoritarian institutions. Her work appeared in Post-Soviet Affairs, Comparative Political Studies, Demokratizatsiya, and Europe-Asia Studies.