Dr. Werner is a socio-cultural anthropologist who specializes in economic anthropology. Her research is focused on the economic and political transition in post-Soviet Kazakhstan.

In particular, she has examined

• the relationship between gift exchange, feasting, and social networking;
• women traders and the rise of small-scale trade; and
• the privatization of agriculture,
• the practice of bride kidnapping in southern Kazakhstan,
• the development of international tourism in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

Her current recent research projects involve

• Migration of Mongolian Kazakhs to Kazakhstan
• the perception of risk from nuclear testing in northern Kazakhstan

Her teaching interests include socio-cultural anthropology, economic anthropology, applied anthropology, kinship and marriage, ethnographic methods, and the anthropology of tourism.