Professor Commercio specializes in Russian and Central Asian comparative politics. Her research interests include regime transition, ethnic politics, Islam, and gender. Professor Commercio's research has been funded by IREX (International Research and Exchange Board), NCEEER (National Council for Eurasian and East European Research), APSA (American Political Science Association), USIP (United States Institue of Peace), the NSF (National Science Foundation), the IIE (Institute of International Education), sand the University of Vermont. Her work appears in Central Asian Survey, Central Asian Affairs, Politics and Gender, Politics, Groups, and Identities, Political Science Quarterly, Studies in Comparative International Development, Nationalities Papers, Problems of Post-Communism, and Post-Soviet Affairs. Professor Commercio's first book, Russian Minority Politics in Post-Soviet Latvia and Kyrgyzstan: The Transformative Power of Informal Networks, was published in 2010 with the University of Pennsylvania Press. Her second book, Polygynous Marriages Among the Kyrgyz: Institutional Change and Endurance, was published in 2022 with the University of Pittsburgh Press. She is currently writing a book on women's political participation in Kyrgyzstan.