Research Projects

Fellow 06/2025
Engineering Autocracy: The (Mis)Use of Referendums in Post-Soviet Regimes⎮Dr. Svitlana Kononchuk

This project studies the autocratization of hybrid regimes in the post-Soviet space. Evidence from various global contexts, such as Mexico, Belarus, Russia, and Turkey, suggests that referendums have played a significant role in consolidating autocratic regimes and increasing the capabilities of their leaders. The abuse of democratic mechanisms, especially plebiscites, contributes to the concentration of power in these regimes, thereby provoking autocratization and its further consolidation. The use of referendums to legitimize each new stage of autocracy consolidation is widespread in many countries that emerged after the collapse of the USSR. Drawing on the concept of “autocratic legalism,” which reveals the strategic use of legislation to support and maintain an authoritarian regime, this study focuses on proving that the imposition of control over the rules of referendums themselves is an integral part of the abuse of this tool.

Fellow 05/2025
Routing across a Memory Palace: The Chronicle of Bychowiec as an Oeuvre of the Renaissance Mnemonic ⎮ Dr. Uladzimir Kananovich

Scholars traditionally consider the sixteenth-century Chronicle of Bychowiec an extremely strange and bizarre text. Indeed, it includes many incredible and even fantastic episodes. It is therefore not surprising that this source is treated as the least reliable of all chronicles in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Ruthenia and Samogitia. Scholars have never provided a satisfactory answer for why the Bychowiec stories are so confusing, diverse, and convoluted. Yet for those who are interested in how identities and memories were shaped, the Chronicle of Bychowiec is a true “gold mine.” The chronicle’s stories provide intriguing case studies for studying the social process of memory formation in the sixteenth-century Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It is a genuine memory palace, inhabited by vivid images and linked to specific locations across the entire grand duchy. The research will consider the most extraordinary sites of memory in the Chronicle of Bychowiec by relying on social memory theory as an explanatory tool for the research of chronicle-writing in the sixteenth-century Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The first step in approaching the memories of the Chronicle of Bychowiec will be to specify whose memories they were. Having established the milieux (societies) of memory in the Chronicle of Bychowiec, the lieux (sites or places) of memory will be visited. The primary aim is to document how memories were created and preserved, and the role of mnemonic techniques in the process. The research’s argument is that it was the aim of the chronicle’s composer(s) to create strong memories of Lithuania’s past, which would help form new identities within dominant aristocratic groups at the head of the Gastolds and the Duke of Halshany (Golsaniensis in Latin) by linking them to key figures of the past, legitimizing Lithuania’s territorial acquisitions in Eastern Europe and providing explanations for the grand duchy’s current politics. An English-language translation of the Chronicle of Bychowiec will accompany the research.  

Fellow 05/2025
Feminist Agency Amidst the Anti-Gender Era: A Comprehensive Study of the Current State of Gender Studies at Universities in Turkey ⎮ Dr. Demet Bolat

This project investigates the current state of gender studies in Turkey in the context of a growing anti-gender movement, which has formed a broad patriarchal coalition targeting not only feminists and LGBTQ rights activists but also the very concept of gender itself. Especially since 2019, universities have become central sites of political, discursive, and epistemological backlash, increasingly reshaped by anti-genderist interventions. Through in-depth interviews with gender studies scholars working in metropolitan, provincial, and Kurdish-region universities, the study examines how anti-genderism interacts with diverse geopolitical dynamics and is manifest under varying institutional conditions. A second group of interviewees comprises scholars affiliated with prominent independent and university-based journals specializing in gender studies. By engaging with these scholars, the project also explores alternative modes of feminist knowledge production and academic agency under hostile conditions.

Fellow 05/2025
Evaluation of Natural Hazards prompted due to Active Tectonics in the Badakhshan using Seismic Geomorphic Analysis ⎮ Dr. Khadijeh Mohammadi

The Badakhshan region, located in northeastern Afghanistan and Tajikistan, is continually exposed to natural hazards such as earthquakes, landslides, and other geomorphic processes due to its active tectonic activities and unique geographical position. This research aims to evaluate the natural hazards arising from active tectonics in this area through the application of seismic and geomorphic analysis methods. This study encompasses data collection from field surveys, analysis of satellite imagery, and the use of remote sensing techniques to identify and analyze geomorphic patterns associated with tectonic activities. By assessing changes in landforms and fracture patterns resulting from past earthquakes, the objective is to elucidate the relationships between tectonics and natural hazards and to develop hazard maps for vulnerable areas. The findings of this study could contribute to a deeper understanding of natural hazards in Badakhshan and lead to the development of crisis management strategies and resilience against these hazards. Moreover, this research will serve as a scientific foundation for policymakers and planners in efforts to mitigate the impacts of natural hazards in this region.

Fellow 04/2025
Exploring the Possibilities and Obstacles of Economic Development in Afghanistan⎮ Dr. Sayed Mohammad Firozi

This study seeks to identify the key socio-cultural barriers and capacities that shape economic development in Afghanistan and to explore how social and economic factors influence the country’s development trajectory. Conducted within an interpretive paradigm using a qualitative approach and grounded theory methodology, the study has collected data through semi-structured interviews with 24 experts and professionals in the field. Purposive sampling continued until theoretical saturation was reached. The data have been analyzed through a three-stage coding process (open, axial, and selective coding). To ensure rigor, Creswell and Miller’s eight-step validation strategies have been applied. The three-stage coding process has yielded 276 concepts, 36 subcategories, and 10 main categories. The barriers to economic development have been categorized into three groups: causal conditions, contextual conditions, and intervening conditions. Finally, the study has identified strategies and socio-cultural opportunities for fostering economic development, including the following: promoting a development-oriented discourse, cultivating a development-friendly culture, embracing role models, identifying development patterns, recognizing the economic potential within local culture, strengthening cultural values that support development, reconciling tradition and modernity, and leveraging social capital in economic activities. It is argued that sustainable economic development in Afghanistan cannot be achieved without addressing its socio-cultural foundations. Shifting prevailing beliefs, rethinking the roles of tradition and modernity, and crafting indigenous development discourses are essential for the success of economic policies. This study underscores the importance of linking development planning with a deep understanding of Afghanistan’s unique social and cultural context.

Fellow 02/2025
The Contribution of Media Production and Distribution to the Public Sphere in Mexico (1870–1970) ⎮ Dr. Carlos Gerardo Zúñiga Nieto

Since 2000, two hundred journalists have been killed in Mexico. The impact of violence and various forms of inequality on Mexican journalists has been studied by scholars in the fields of communication, political science, anthropology, sociology, and history. These studies have shown how low salaries, limited decision-making authority within organizations, and precarious (part-time) employment contracts can lead to a decreased sense of autonomy among journalists in Mexico. My ongoing research examines how in an earlier time, 1870–1970, news workers in the vital final link in the chain of media production and distribution shaped Mexico’s public sphere through communication strategies such as the oral distribution of proclamations, their role as city criers, and their participation in the dissemination and adoption of edicts and shouting news events. This project uses records from the judicial archive of Mexico City’s Youth Tribunal, documents from Mexico’s Confidential Department, the archives of the newspaper vendors union, newspapers, and novels. My research reveals the encounters of newspaper vendors with violence and death during the transition from an authoritarian rule, amidst revolutionary turmoil, and throughout the establishment of a single-party corporatist regime. The actions of newspaper vendors, both individually and collectively, in the streets, newspapers, radio, and television, influenced the development and expansion of the public sphere. This project contributes to the historiography of childhood, labor, emotions, capitalism, civil society, modern state communication, and journalism in Latin America.

Short-term fellow, Spring 2025
Investigating Economic Policies, Administrative Strategies, and Religious Diversity in Punjab (1799–1849) ⎮ N.N.

This research investigates the economic dynamics of Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s rule in Punjab (1799–1849) within the framework of a Persianate economy. The project challenges prevailing narratives that characterize Ranjit Singh’s administration as a plundering economy, instead arguing for a structured economic system driven by regular taxation, agrarian revenues, and trade expansion. The study examines Ranjit Singh’s military, economic policies, and administrative strategies, particularly his implementation of public accounting reforms under Diwan Bhavani Das. It also explores religious diversity under his rule, assessing whether his governance fostered inclusivity or was driven by sectarian interests. Utilizing Persian Khalsa Darbar records—many previously unexamined—the research contributes to the historiography of the Sikh Empire, offering new insights into its economic and political structures. This study also aims to translate and analyze these historical records, enriching contemporary understanding of pre-colonial South Asian economic history.

Fellow 01/2025
Developing a Phenomenology of Post-Risk Society Characterized by Post-Truth, Post-Historicity, and Corroded Time ⎮ N.N.

A research agenda is stated for a new field of phenomenology, which can be labeled as “the phenomenology of post-risk society.” It focuses, firstly, on the phenomenon of post-historicity (in 1952, A. Gehlen coined the term post-histoire). The need to constantly look back at what has already happened does not bring liberation from the past, but rather speaks of the absence of the present, the Jetztzeit (cf. “Benjamin’s angel of history“), which forces humans to unite with each other based on the principle of “us vs. them.” As a result, we are no longer “contemporaries to ourselves,” because we have no language to describe what is happening to us. We speak a borrowed language or use the old vocabulary of hate. At this stage, the world entered a new phase—that of post-truth or the privatization of meanings (the phenomenon of linguistic erosion). Secondly, our post-historicity is also marked by the phenomenon of corroded time: the feeling that the future is disappearing is increasingly capturing us. René Char identified this feeling immediately after the Second World War. Does it not all imply the total collapse of the common world?

Fellow 12/2024
Community Theater and Women’s Rights Activities in Afghanistan ⎮ Marzia Hassan Zada

This research explores the intersection of community theater and women’s rights activities in Herat, Afghanistan, highlighting theater as a platform for social change and personal expression. Established in 1883, the “Herat Theater Association” has a rich storytelling tradition that reflects Afghan culture. Following the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, opportunities for artistic expression re-emerged, enabling women to participate actively in theater despite societal restrictions. The study reveals how Afghan women used theater to voice their experiences and advocate for change within their communities. Through workshops organized by international entities, many young women developed skills in acting, directing, and playwriting. Despite challenges such as limited resources and societal opposition, these artists produced impactful performances addressing such issues as family violence and women’s rights. This research underscores theater’s transformative power as a means for Afghan women to reclaim their voices amidst ongoing struggles for recognition and equality while advocating for supportive spaces where these narratives can flourish.

Short-term fellow, Winter 2023/2024
Challenges Facing the Women, Life, Freedom Movement in Iran ⎮ N.N.

This research project explores the complexities surrounding the Women, Life, Freedom revolution in Iran, particularly focusing on the marginalized voices of various minority groups. Following the tragic death of Mahsa Amini, this revolution has illuminated the historical silencing of these communities within a regime that has long presented itself as a mosaic of diversity. By employing Michel Foucault’s discourse theory, the study investigates how power dynamics shape societal narratives and influence perceptions between distinct ethnic and cultural factions in Iran. It aims to identify and analyze the narratives of these minorities, revealing their social impact and interactions. Ultimately, this research underscores how the Iranian political framework’s treatment of “others” complicates efforts toward comprehensive representation in revolutionary discourse. Through this examination, an understanding emerges of why, despite significant sacrifices, achieving an inclusive voice remains a significant challenge within Iran’s socio-political landscape.

Fellow 06/2023
Afghan Women’s Mental Health Since 2021 ⎮ Firooza Omar

This research aims to assess the mental health of Afghan women after the collapse of the Afghan government and to highlight the implications of women’s mental health in the diaspora. The project seeks to identify pathways for addressing mental health challenges and propose viable solutions to improve the well-being of Afghan women. For over four decades, the people of Afghanistan have faced the devastating effects of war and societal upheaval, leading to significant psychological distress. Following the Taliban’s resurgence in August 2021, severe restrictions on women have been imposed, impacting their occupational, educational, and social freedoms. As a result, Afghan women disproportionately experience emotional turmoil and mental health disorders, exacerbated by entrenched cultural norms and ongoing poverty. Restrictions on education and employment have led to rising rates of depression, anxiety, stress, and attempted suicide among women. This research also delineates pathways toward addressing and alleviating mental health issues, aiming to provide solutions for ameliorating the plight of Afghan women.

Fellow 03/2023
Increasing Access to Education for Women in Afghanistan ⎮ Mahnaz Malistany

This research aims to assess the current state of women’s educational rights in Afghanistan and to identify potential ways in which Afghan women can make significant advancements in education and learning. The right to education, enshrined in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is fundamental for all individuals, regardless of gender or background. Education serves as a cornerstone for other human rights and fosters societal progress, reducing violence and crime rates. However, women in Afghanistan have historically faced significant barriers to education due to factors such as war, insecurity, patriarchal ideologies, and the misinterpretation of religious teachings. As a result, Afghan women have been systematically deprived of their civil, political, and economic rights. Ultimately, this research contributes insights into enhancing educational access and opportunities for women in Afghanistan.

Fellow 03/2023
Analyzing Taliban Restrictions on Afghan Girls‘ Education ⎮ Dr. Davood Mohammad Sokhanwar

The study explores the motivations behind the Taliban’s treatment of girls and their strong opposition to girls’ education in Afghanistan, focusing on the two periods of Taliban governance. Employing discourse analysis, the study aims to identify a nodal point and various floating signifiers within the Taliban’s semantic framework regarding education. By utilizing a range of sources—including books, domestic and international articles, and lectures—this research examines the discourse surrounding girls’ education during these two distinct regimes. The significance of this research lies in illuminating the underlying factors contributing to the mistreatment of girls while addressing systemic shortcomings within Afghanistan’s educational landscape. Ultimately, this study seeks to enhance understanding of these critical issues and contribute to ongoing efforts aimed at improving access to education for Afghan girls, highlighting the urgent need for reform in light of current challenges.

Fellow 02/2023
The Role of Warlords and Transitional Justice Policies on Political Stability in Afghanistan ⎮ Hijratullah Safi

This study seeks to explore the internal role of warlords in the collapse of the Afghan Republic in 2021, examining transitional justice policies and their impact on political stability. Using document analysis and expert interviews, the project aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of how these dynamics contributed to the eventual collapse of state institutions. Following over two decades of armed conflict, the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001 brought renewed hope for a better future in Afghanistan, facilitated by the Bonn Agreement that established a new political framework. However, influential warlords, responsible for past atrocities and civil unrest, were integrated into this structure without accountability mechanisms, and so fostering a culture of impunity. The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) highlighted widespread human rights violations in its 2005 report, leading to the Transitional Justice Action Plan aimed at vetting state institutions. Despite these efforts, the Afghan Parliament’s adoption of the General Amnesty Law in 2008 obstructed meaningful implementation, allowing warlords to retain power and undermine governmental authority.

Fellow 11/2022
Documentary Photography Dealing with Identification Documents for Immigrants and Refugees in Iran ⎮ Fatemeh Rezaie

The photographic documentary project investigates the emotional and psychological impact of ID cards on immigrants and refugees in Iran, emphasizing the role of such documents in defining and shaping individual identity. Through a photographic exploration of the lived experiences of those who have faced refugeehood, this project analyzes how ID cards influence access to essential services, employment opportunities, travel, and participation in democratic processes. Additionally, the project examines the implications of ID cards for social identity and feelings of belonging within communities. Drawing on diverse cultural backgrounds, this project aims to enhance understanding of the complex interplay between identity and migration. By highlighting the significance of ID cards, it aims to promote greater empathy and awareness regarding the challenges faced by immigrants and refugees. 

Fellow 11/2022
Depression among Afghan Immigrant Women ⎮ Lida Nazarian

This research examines the prevalence and contributing factors of depression among Afghan immigrant women, addressing a significant research gap in mental health literature for this demographic group. Mental health is defined as self-awareness and the resolution of internal conflicts, which includes emotional and behavioral adaptation. Given the high rates of mood disorders among immigrants, particularly women, this study underscores the urgent need for effective diagnosis and treatment. The research explores social determinants impacting women’s mental health, including marital status, number of children, housing conditions, cultural differences with host communities, language barriers, and strict immigration laws. Using Beck’s Depression Inventory as a diagnostic tool, data is collected through two-stage cluster sampling among Afghan immigrant women. This study aims to identify key factors influencing depression rates and provide actionable recommendations for enhancing mental health resources. Ultimately, it seeks to raise awareness about mental health issues within immigrant populations while advocating for policy changes to support Afghan women in their new environments.

Fellow 11/2022
Legal Aspects of the Doha Agreement between the US and the Taliban in 2020 ⎮ Dr. Fawad Poya

The “Doha Agreement” between the United States and the Taliban signed on February 29, 2020, is a peculiar deal with no precedent in history. This study examines the legal aspects of the Doha Agreement in order to examine the treaty obligations arising from different agreements of the US with the Government of Afghanistan and to determine whether a default in respecting such treaty obligations on behalf of the US paved the ground for the collapse of the government in Afghanistan. Building on the discussion above, this study will articulate the issues by addressing three interrelated aspects. First and foremost, it provides a background and dwells on the history of negotiations between the US and the Taliban. Thereafter, it discusses the Doha Agreement and the legal arguments surrounding it. Last, but not least, it draws a conclusive remark by arguing that the US has undermined its treaty obligations not only under the Doha Agreement itself but also under other binding treaties: the US-Afghan Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) and the US-Afghan Strategic Partnership Agreement (SPA).

Fellow 11/2022
100 Afghan Women: A Documentary Photography Project ⎮ N.N.

“100 Afghan Women” is a personal documentary photography project by an Afghan photographer that showcases the lives of Afghan women of different ages, backgrounds, occupations, and lifestyles living inside and outside Afghanistan. In the past, and in the present for the most part, the image of Afghan women presented to the world has been from either a foreigner’s or an Afghan male’s perspective. Initiated in 2017, this long-term project aims to present, from a female Afghan perspective, a broader and deeper view of Afghan women’s experiences. The photographs and stories of the women will create a visual and textual historical record of Afghan women who have lived between the 1960s and the present.

Short-term fellow, Winter 2022–23
Displaced Syrian Adyghe-Abaza Refugees in Istanbul: Transnational Solidarity ⎮ N.N.

This book proposal, funded by a short-term AiE grant*, discusses the transnational solidarity and support efforts developed for the Syrian Adyghe-Abaza (Circassian and Abkhaz-Abazin) refugees in Turkey. The research examines the Syrian Adyghe-Abaza refugees’ contacts with the host societies; their perceptions of discrimination in the labor market, hospitals, schools, and accommodation; and their plans for the future. According to the findings, two Adyghe-Abaza diaspora networks in Turkey with different perspectives were involved in transnational solidarity with Syrian Adyghe-Abaza refugees in Turkey. The largest and most secular network, the Federation of Caucasian Associations, provided humanitarian and financial material, free accommodation, and transport tickets to cities, towns, and villages across Turkey and supported refugees’ return to their homelands in the Caucasus with the funds raised by the network. The network’s help also included finding schools for their children, teaching them Turkish, and helping them find jobs. The second, more conservative network, the World Circassian Solidarity Committee, worked with the ruling government to bring Syrian Adyghe-Abaza refugees to the Nizip II container camp in Gaziantep in 2013. This network’s support for Syrian Adyghe-Abaza refugees outside the camp was limited. The existing competition between the two networks thus both supported and challenged the war-torn Syrian Adyghe-Abaza refugees.
*The original research for the monograph was supported by a 28-month Einstein Fellowship during which the researcher was based at Freie Universität Berlin from 2020 to 2022.

Fellow 01/2022
Intra-Kurdish Conflict in Germany ⎮ N.N.

This research project aims to explore the complexities of intra-Kurdish conflicts through a historical and anthropological lens. The project focuses on Kurdish immigrants from Kurdistan currently residing in Germany, employing ethnographic methods such as interviews, archival consultations, and participant observation. By selecting informants with firsthand experience of intra-Kurdish conflicts dating back to the 1960s, this study seeks to uncover and analyze differing perspectives on these conflicts between local Kurds who remained in Turkey and Diaspora Kurds who migrated abroad. Additionally, the project investigates the intense violence that emerged among various Kurdish factions in Europe during the 1980s, particularly within Germany. Through this comprehensive approach, the research aims to illuminate how intra-Kurdish conflicts have extended and evolved transnationally, contributing valuable insights into the dynamics of ethnic conflict and migration. Ultimately, this project aspires to enhance understanding of the ongoing implications of these historical struggles for contemporary Kurdish identity and solidarity.

Fellow 01/2022
The Epistemic Evaluation of Intuition ⎮ Dr. Manhal Hamdo

This project explores the epistemic evaluation of intuition by critically examining its role in both Western and Middle Eastern philosophical traditions. Intuition has been central to epistemology, with contemporary Western accounts—such as those of George Bealer and Ernest Sosa—emphasizing its reliability and modal ties to truth. However, long before these debates, medieval Arabic and Islamic philosophers such as Avicenna and Ibn Kammuna developed sophisticated theories of intuition (hads) as a source of certain knowledge. Despite these rich traditions, both perspectives share an underlying assumption: that intuition’s epistemic status is best assessed in terms of truth. This project challenges that assumption, arguing that truth is not the appropriate criterion for evaluating intuitions epistemically. Instead, it proposes a justification-based framework that reconceptualizes intuition’s role in knowledge formation. By bridging Western and Middle Eastern epistemological debates, the project offers a novel, cross-traditional perspective on the nature of intuition and its evidential significance.

Fellow 10/2021
Countering Russian Propaganda about Traditional Roles for Women ⎮ Dr. Tatiana Levina

The narrative of reduced roles for women within Russian society, limited to the confines of traditional motherhood, raises crucial questions about their influence within state politics. Illustratively, only one of the 21 ministers in the Russian government is a woman. Against this backdrop, my research project aims to dissect the mechanisms employed in propaganda dissemination, their impact on public consciousness, and the parallels they share with Leninist-Stalinist ideologies during the USSR era. By drawing on insights from gender studies, political science, the history of philosophy, and feminist philosophy, the project analyzes the prevailing ideological landscape in Russia, juxtaposed with counterstrategies aimed at its subversion. This research serves as a natural extension of the researcher’s previous activism within the university environment and the study of women researchers and dissidents from the Soviet era, whose wisdom and struggles continue to illuminate the path in our contemporary journey.

Fellow 09/2021
Understanding Causes and Dynamics of Revolutions: The Myanmar Spring Revolution ⎮ N.N.

This research project investigates the Myanmar Spring Revolution, sparked by the February 1, 2021, military coup that overthrew the National League for Democracy government, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, after its landslide win in the 2020 elections. The junta, under Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, detained leaders and halted Myanmar’s democratic transition, begun in 2011 under a military-drafted constitution reserving significant power for the military. The revolution initially sought the release of detainees and restoration of democracy but soon demanded the military’s removal from politics and a new constitution. It employs civil disobedience, protests, a parallel civilian government, and a social punishment campaign against military affiliates. Despite over 400 deaths and 3,000 detentions by March 2021, Myanmar Spring uses such platforms as Facebook and Signal for mobilization. Framing it as a revolution per Goldstone’s definition—mass mobilization and non-institutionalized actions for regime change—this project explores the revolution’s causes and tactics amid global democratic decline. Using contentious politics theories (political process, resource mobilization, framing), the study draws on fieldwork in Myanmar from December 2020 to June 2021, Burmese materials, and access to key stakeholders of the revolution.

Fellow 09/2021
Intersectional Antigypsyism, Reclaiming Memories and Narratives – Romani LGBTI Lived Experiences and Movements in Europe ⎮ Dr. Dezso Mate

This research critically examines Roma LGBTI human rights violations and movements through the concept of intersectional antigypsyism, exploring shared lived experiences. The interdisciplinary study aims to deepen the understanding of various manifestations of intersectional antigypsyism within scientific discourse. It studies Romani LGBTI individuals’ experiences through feminist, decolonial, and queer perspectives. The central question investigates how Romani LGBTI people confront and resist intersectional antigypsyism and human rights violations, including hate crimes, internalization, public shaming, and scapegoating both from the majority society and within their own communities. The research includes narratives from fifty Romani LGBTI individuals and feminists across Europe and beyond. It highlights resilience through intergenerational emancipation while addressing the phenomena that shape their identities. This study provides an insider-outsider perspective on Romani experiences with academic antigypsyism, which have influenced their social realities and access to knowledge production. Ultimately, the findings aim to reclaim Romani memories and narratives by integrating them into academic discussions on generational resilience and recognition in the context of ongoing struggles for human rights.

Fellow 12/2020
Deindustrialization and the Origins of the Armed Conflict in Donbas ⎮ Dr. Alexandr Osipian

The origins of the armed conflict in Donbas cannot be properly examined in isolation from the global trends of past decades. Deindustrialization of the old industrial regions is among the most important outcomes of globalization in both the Western world and post-communist Eastern Europe. The comparative approach will contribute to a better understanding of the ongoing conflict in Donbas by scholars, media, and politicians. The inclusion of Donbas in the long line of Rust Belts affected by deindustrialization will move the conflict’s origins into the field of rational explanation. The conflict should not be considered through irrelevant categories of ethnicity or language drawn on from the war in Yugoslavia. Beyond the doubtless Russian interference, the ground for the social unrest in Donbas in the spring of 2014 was well prepared and had much in common with the unresolved problems of Rust Belts elsewhere.

Fellow 12/2020
Engaging with Paradigm(s) of Decoloniality/De-colonizability: Constructing a Dialogic Encounter between Frantz Fanon and Malek Bennabi ⎮ N.N.

This research broadly concerns the intellectual history of decolonization within a South-South comparative framework. It takes as its case study the writings of Malek Bennabi (1905–1973) and Franz Fanon (1925–1961) as two contemporary philosophers who were grappling with the problems of colonization and its effects on nations and people during the same period. By investigating the convergences and divergences in their thought, this project reconstructs the epistemological, social, and political foundations of their projects for decolonization in the context of late colonial Algeria. By mapping out the historical contingencies and events that formed their political landscape and shaped their intellectual projects, the project establishes parallel/intersecting ideational flows in transdisciplinary terms. This is a necessary step to examine different forms of worldmaking and to reimagine both the past and future for a more nuanced understanding of the complexities of the present.

Fellow 05/2020
Counterinsurgency as Governance: Transformative Dynamics in Urban Policing and Political Movements ⎮ N.N.

This research project bridges political theory, socio-legal studies, and urban studies to investigate the complex dynamics of counterinsurgency as a transformative mode of governance. By exploring how counterinsurgency techniques travel across time and space, the project examines their impact on urban policing and grassroots political movements. Rather than focusing primarily on the destructive aspects of counterinsurgency, this work highlights its generative power—tracing how global counterinsurgency strategies fundamentally reshape the landscape of democratic activism and social justice movements. Through this lens, the research explores how these governance techniques simultaneously constrain and reshape collective political agency.

Short-term fellow, Spring 2020 
Power and Inequality: Electrification, Capital, and the Making of Modern Istanbul ⎮ Dr. Nurçin İleri

This research investigates how networks of artifacts, knowledge, labor, and political ideologies surrounding Istanbul’s electrical infrastructure produced new hierarchies and inequalities across institutions, the city’s natural and built environment, and everyday life during the transition from empire to nation-state. It explores how the introduction and expansion of electrical systems were shaped by transnational flows of capital, expertise, and political interests, entrenching power dynamics that reinforced social and economic divisions. By analyzing technology, international capital, ethnicity, labor, gender, citizenship, and material cultures, this study reveals how the supply and use of electrical energy in Istanbul were embedded in broader global processes. Electrical infrastructure not only transformed urban spaces and daily experiences but also became a site of negotiation over access, governance, and modernity. The transition from imperial to national frameworks of energy management reflects deeper tensions between local agency and external influence, shedding light on how technological change was both a tool of state-building and a contested domain. Ultimately, this research situates Istanbul’s electrification within the intersecting histories of the Middle East and Europe, offering an alternative narrative of global capitalism that challenges conventional distinctions between center and periphery in the making of modern infrastructures.

Short-term fellow, Spring 2020
Queering Rights: Navigating Non-Essentialist Politics within the Human Rights Regime ⎮ Dr. Orkun Güner

Considering recent queer engagements with the international human rights regime, this research argues that emerging attempts at queering rights in legal theory have often resulted in framing queer critique into the normativity of human rights. This research critiques this tendency, suggesting that queer engagement with rights can be critical yet (potentially) affirmative. It shows that queer critique, understood as non-essentialist politics, can contribute to contemporary critical human rights studies, their analyses of identity-producing functions of rights, and the praxis made in the name of LGBTI+ rights. In this way, the research engages not only with the subject paradox of the rights discourse but also with queer responses to identity-based rights claims in the light of contemporary struggles for LGBTI+ rights in Turkey since the 2000s. It questions how the arena of rights is deployed as an important space for deploying non-essentialist politics within the ongoing struggles for equal rights and legal recognition.

Short-term fellow, Winter 2019–20
Art and Resistance to Gentrification in the Neoliberal Urban Landscape ⎮ N.N.

The heated analytical and political debates over gentrification and urban change for almost five decades have concentrated on the deepening class polarization of urban housing markets, with much less attention paid to the increasingly sophisticated and creative array of methods used to resist displacement in a policy climate based on market-oriented social policy. Even less attention has been paid to the role and political potential of art in urban resistance and spatial justice movements. Artists and art establishments are identified as the facilitators of regeneration programs, gentrification, and displacement. My edited book project elaborates a critical theory and intersectional methodological framework that examines “the right to the city” while setting up a theoretical and visual analysis of the aesthetic formations that are positive resources for political culture to be visible and to channel subjective dynamics into political participation and empowerment in the urban space. Significantly, this project takes this phenomenon further into analyzing gentrification and urban crises from the perspective of artistic resistance and points to the major shifts in our understanding of urban transformations in the changing neoliberal urban landscape.

Fellow 10/2019
Gender and Masculinities in Migration: Experiences of Afghan Immigrants in Germany ⎮ Dr. Sayed Mahdi Mosawi

This study explores the gendered experiences of Afghan refugees in Germany, focusing on how immigration reconstructs gendered performances, including masculinity, within the new context of settlement. By bridging migration studies and gender studies, the research examines the impacts of migration on immigrants’ gender performances within a host society characterized by distinct cultural norms and gender relations. Utilizing a qualitative methodology, the study draws on in-depth interviews and participant observation with Afghan men and women across various cities and states. The findings provide a critical lens to examine the acculturation framework, addressing its limitations in capturing the fluid and multidimensional ways in which gender is negotiated and performed in exile.
Building on these insights, the research contributed to the development of the “Refugee Routes” course at the University of Duisburg-Essen, incorporating fieldwork findings to deepen academic engagement with refugees’ lived experiences. Furthermore, the study was presented at the European Commission level to highlight the importance of addressing masculinities in policy-making, particularly within migration and integration frameworks.

Fellow 08/2019
Tracing the Patterns of Academic Purges: A Historical Analysis of Scholarly Displacement in Turkey ⎮ Dr. Olga Selin Hünler

The history of at-risk academics in Turkey, both within and beyond its borders, remains largely untold. Since the nineteenth century, modernization efforts in higher education have often been accompanied by purges of progressive scholars. Successive governments have framed these authoritarian interventions as reforms, yet they have frequently served to exclude liberal, critical, or dissident academics rather than to enhance the quality of education or scientific inquiry. This research traces this recurring pattern of academic purges and forced mobility from the late Ottoman Empire to contemporary Turkey, analyzing its impact on institutional autonomy, academic freedom, and the social responsibility of scholars. Beginning with the first educational reforms in 1869, the project examines key historical moments, including the 1933 university restructuring, multiple military coups, and the significant decline in academic freedom following the 2016 coup attempt. The most severe crackdown occurred during the post-2016 state of emergency, with long-lasting consequences for Turkey’s higher education landscape. In this research, Academic Freedom Index (AFI) scores are used to demonstrate the fluctuations, particularly the sharp decline after the 1980 and 2016 coups, to reflect the ongoing challenges faced by Turkish academia.

Fellow 03/2019
Women’s Labour Migration from Turkey to Western Europe, 1950s to Present ⎮ Dr. Gülay Toksöz

Women’s migration has long been neglected in research on labour migration from low- to high-income countries. Since the last decades of the twentieth century, growing numbers of women have been migrating for work—referred to as the ‘feminization of migration’. Nonetheless, as family members, women’s mobility is often assumed to be contingent upon that of men. My research focuses on the latter half of the twentieth- and early twenty-first-century women’s labour migration from Turkey and low-income countries to Germany and other Western European countries. It examines the sectors in which women are employed, the conditions under which they work, the forms of organisation they practice, and the struggles they face. This research can thus be considered a contribution to the history of recent migrant women’s labour from a feminist perspective.

Short-term fellow Spring 2019
‘Compound Identities’: Studying Notions of Belonging among the Descendants of Turkish Migrants in Germany and France ⎮ Dr. Ceren Şengül

My current research looks at how ‘compound identities’ are constructed among the descendants of migrants from Turkey, and at the everyday contexts in which notions of belonging are expressed. The concept of ‘compound identities’ encompasses two aspects of identity: intersectionality among social classes and the relevance of the sociological concept of the ‘group’ to discussions about the descendants of Turkish migrants in Germany and France.

Fellow 02/2019
The Politics of Language in Turkey: Turkish Grammar, Linguistic Manipulation, and the Struggle for Language Rights ⎮ N.N.

As a linguist, my research deals with theoretical aspects of Turkish grammar from a synchronic and a diachronic perspective. However, given the centrality of language-related issues to social and political debates in Turkey, I also intervene in discussions about multilingualism, language rights and policies, native language education, and assimilation. This, too, constitutes part of my social responsibility as a scholar. My research and teaching foreground the importance of critical thinking and examine the ways in which Turkish political discourse manipulates our reasoning. This manipulation is achieved by manipulating our cognitive heuristics (i.e. the rules of thumb that guide us when we are thinking about the world) and by taking advantage of our cognitive biases (i.e. the systematic errors in thinking that mislead us).

Fellow 03/2019
On Digitalization, Cultural Omnivorousness, and Appropriation: The Case of Turkish Psychedelic Music ⎮ Dr. Yaprak Melike Uyar

The digital transformation of music mediation has reshaped not only modes of consumption but also the processes through which musical tastes are formed and cultural meanings are ascribed to music. This research examines Turkish psychedelic music through the lenses of digitalization, cultural omnivorousness, and cultural appropriation, critically engaging with the ways in which historical and socio-political contexts influenced global musical exchanges.
Anatolian pop, a hybrid genre that emerged in Turkey in the 1960s, synthesized Anatolian folk traditions with psychedelic rock, soul, funk, and disco. However, following the 1980 military coup, the genre faced suppression, with numerous recordings either destroyed or relegated to obscurity due to heightened political and cultural control. In the twenty-first century, a resurgence of interest in analog sound formats and a broader movement toward reviving local musical traditions have facilitated the reemergence of Turkish popular music from the 1960s and 1970s, generating new spaces for performance and cultural reinterpretation. This revival, driven by both domestic and international actors, has led to the rebranding of Anatolian pop as “Turkish psychedelic” within the global music market, raising critical questions about the politics of representation and commercialized nostalgia. 

Fellow 02/2019
Contemplating Images Today: A Critical Reading of Jacques Rancière’s, Georges Didi-Huberman’s and WJT Mitchell’s Ideas on Image ⎮ Dr. Mehmet Şiray

My project, “Contemplating Images Today: A Critical Reading of Jacques Rancière’s, Georges Didi-Huberman’s, and WJT Mitchell’s Ideas on Image,” aims to critique the distinction between image and truth that has been haunted by the history of western thought. According to Rancière, Didi-Huberman and Mitchell, we need to reconsider the concept of the image today, something that is directly related to the way in which we perceive, feel, and understand the world. The project holds that contemporary images have the potential to make radical changes in our perception of the world. Through concentrating on the afore-mentioned philosophers’ thoughts on the “image,“ the project underlines the idea that the truth of the image does not lie in the fact that it is merely a mask, concealing the truth or distorting it for us, the image also has the possibility of transforming the truth into constituent parts.

Fellow 02/2019
International Cooperation against Anarchism: A Historical Network Analysis (1898–1913) ⎮ Dr. Kadir Yıldırım

In response to the growing number of assassinations and bomb attacks allegedly made by anarchists in the 1890s, the anarchist movement began to be treated as equivalent to terrorism by the ruling authorities. This led to international cooperation among several countries, with meetings held first in Rome in 1898 and then in St. Petersburg in 1904. The participant countries agreed to establish an international network that aimed to share information about the anarchists and make their deportation easier. To this end, surveillance reports containing detailed information about the personal, social, and occupational characteristics of numerous individuals, who were mostly workers, were shared among these countries. Although the historical development and national and international dimensions of the anarchist movement in terms of theory and practice have been widely studied, there is still limited research on the functioning and efficiency of international cooperation against anarchism and its effects on the lives of ordinary workers. By using surveillance reports, intra- and interstate correspondence, and periodicals obtained from Ottoman, German, Austrian, Italian, Swiss, and Dutch archives and assessing them through digital tools such as cluster analysis and social network analysis, this monograph aims to investigate international cooperation against anarchism in a transnational context.

Fellow 04/2018
Recognition as Governance: Armenians, the Turkish State, and the Politics of Post-Genocide Engagement ⎮ Dr. Aras Ergüneş

In the field of political philosophy, my research applies contemporary theories of recognition to post-genocide relations between the state and historically-excluded communities. Of specific interest are the shifting relations between the Turkish state and Armenians in Turkey. The politics of recognition that emerged in the 1990s are shown to have particular relevance for the communities that were displaced and politically functionalised by the state. Under investigation is the way in which this movement responds to the juridical and commemorative demands of Armenians in Turkey today.

Fellow 10/2018
State Violence and the Politics of Emotion: Racialisation, Religious Discrimination, and Identity in Turkey ⎮ N.N.

My research is at the intersection of the history of state violence and the politics of emotions in Turkey. Focusing on what state-sponsored violence destroys and on what it produces, I analyse the role of racialisation and discriminatory religious policies in the construction of collective identities.

Fellow 05/2018
Modernism, Neoliberalism, and the Literary Field in Contemporary Turkey: 2000–2017 ⎮ Dr. Bülent Eken

This project examines literary production in Turkey since 2000, arguing that it has been shaped by a process of global convergence with neoliberal culture. Traditionally, research on modern Turkish literature—like that on modern Turkish history—has been framed by a narrative of modernization, often presented as a traumatic cultural confrontation with the West. This perspective has led many scholars to interpret Turkish literary development through a national, diachronic framework. However, this project contends that the literary production of the past two decades in Turkey cannot be adequately understood within this theoretical framework. This project challenges the dominant critical approach and proposes two new hypotheses. First, it argues that the national, diachronic model should be replaced with a synchronic, global paradigm to analyze post-2000 Turkish literature, given that it emerges as an aesthetic response to the profound social transformations driven by global neoliberal convergence. Second, it suggests that this process of globalization has created a “more homogeneously modernized condition,” marking a new era in which modernization is no longer the central problem or guiding framework.

Fellow 05/2018
Everyday Debt: Global Institutions and the Local Lives of Unemployed Women in Turkey ⎮ Dr. Çağla Diner

This research investigates how certain economic tools have been developed and maintained by global governance institutions, and it traces the impact these tools have on people’s everyday lives. The project focuses on the lives of poor, unemployed women in Turkey. The theoretical premise is that debt entails an economic relationship, as well as social and political ones. Archival and qualitative research reveal the global connections of debt creation in relation to the experiences of women at the local level.

Fellow 02/2018
Yezidi Narratives: Agency and Resistance Through Centuries ⎮ Dr. Zeynep Türkyılmaz

This research project is a longue durée study of Yezidi victimization and their narratives, tracing their manifold manifestations from the 1700s until the 2014 genocide. It serves as a critique of ahistorical and uniform characterizations of Yezidis as an ever-persecuted people. Informed by Foucault’s archaeology of knowledge, which enforces an inquiry into multi-dimensional, multi-linear processes formed by discontinuities, contingencies, and the choices of actors, this project opens up the possibility of dissonant discourses while bringing in complexities of Yezidi agency and actorship. Drawing on extensive archival research and recently published oral testimonies of survivors, this project moves away from portraying Yezidis solely as meek, passive, converted, and persecuted peoples. Instead, it studies them as local rulers and power brokers between empires: armed and resilient individuals who fought back against intrusions from their Sunni neighbors, sometimes initiating attacks while always resisting state attempts to infiltrate matters relating to their identity as well as socio-economic well-being, conscription, and taxation. The project’s focus is on their demands and responses to the introduction of citizenship as well as the redefinition of communal coexistence in their local settings at high-altitude and remote corners of these political entities. In so doing, this research aims to illustrate how Yezidi subjecthood has been reshaped at the intersection of modernizing empires and nation-states.