- 1 St Giles, Oxford, OX1 3JS, UK
- Transnationalism, Ethnomethodology, Anthropology of space, Turkey (Anthropology), Diaspora Politics, Community Events and Festivals, and 20 moreSocial Sciences, Gender, Political Science, Sociology, Religion and Politics, Modern Turkey, Immigration, Islam in Europe, Urban Studies, Urban Anthropology, Institutions, Islam, Diaspora Studies, Anthropology of Religion, Migration Studies, Anthropology, Turkish politics, Masculinities, Islam in Turkey, and Social and Cultural Anthropologyedit
- I am a cultural anthropologist whose research spans labor migration, urban studies, religion, and masculinity. For my... moreI am a cultural anthropologist whose research spans labor migration, urban studies, religion, and masculinity. For my dissertation research, I studied the Turkish community in Strasbourg, focusing on men’s night lives, and exploring the moral tenets of male socialization primarily in three domains: work, home, and the outside. As part of this research, I worked at a döner kebab shop, and socialized with Turkish men in their workspaces and after work in their homes, mosque associations, coffeehouses, and migrant-populated neighborhoods (quartiers), as well as their automobiles, joining my interlocutors for car rides to various venues in Strasbourg, France, its German neighbor, Kehl, and other cities in the Franco-German borderland. I have also collaborated with a Strasbourg-based documentarist to produce an ethnographic documentary on migrant socialization in Koenigshoffen, aka “quartier Istanbul,” a neighborhood in Strasbourg (KHF 2018). I am currently working on a book manuscript and academic articles based on this research.
Following my PhD (WUSTL 2019), I moved to Germany as a Volkswagen Stiftung postdoctoral fellow (University of Göttingen 2019/2020). Starting April 2021, I have taken on a postdoctoral researcher position at the Fairwork project, joining a team of scholars to explore working conditions in platform work/the gig economy in Germany. I am also a visiting researcher of the “Globalization, Work, and Production” research group at the WZB/Berlin Social Science Center.edit - John Bowenedit
Where do Muslim Turkish men who live in Strasbourg go after work? What are the kinds of places they socialize? Is it home? Is it the mosque? Or is it elsewhere, like coffeehouses, or wherever the car takes them in Strasbourg, and beyond,... more
Where do Muslim Turkish men who live in Strasbourg go after work? What are the kinds of places they socialize? Is it home? Is it the mosque? Or is it elsewhere, like coffeehouses, or wherever the car takes them in Strasbourg, and beyond, such as nightclubs, drinking alleys, bistro-casinos and brothels in Kehl and other neighboring German cities? And if it is the latter, and it rarely should be, as the imams would warn the pupils attending religious conversation circles, and the Friday sermons, how do these men justify their presence in these spaces? How do they reflect on their moral transgressions, and come to terms with them?
This dissertation is a collection of stories of Muslim Turkish men in Strasbourg who sin. And repent. And then, sin again. The men whose stories I recount are not much different than other men of faith in that they live their lives fearing an authority: God/Allah. Almost all of them are cognizant that the eternal rewards they will get in Cennet, that is, the Heaven, outcompete the luxuries they can enjoy in this world. And that means that they would have to suffer now in order to find comfort in the afterworld. Yet, the desires of the mortal body are often times too hard to tame. And that is not only because the joys in life are too tempting. It is true that the youth want to “live life.” That piety can wait. And sins are to be committed in their journey to old age. But it is also that the intimacies and respect my interlocutors seek at work, at home, or even at the mosque, are sometimes simply lacking. Hence, they situate themselves in venues where they attain the fulfillment that they seek. The caveat, however, is that these venues are often inviting of sins. Even a place as seemingly innocuous as the coffeehouse can encourage activities that are condoned such as cigarette smoking, or illicit and therefore forbidden, such as alcohol consumption. Or a night that starts at a place like a coffeehouse can lead to a night out with friends to bars, nightclubs, casinos or brothels, all of which are a short car ride away. So, should these men simply refrain from visiting these places? Some do. But for many others, such limits on the self are futile. This dissertation is written with the intention of exploring such men’s lives, and to provide an account of their moral failures, that is, their failures to be/come better Muslims, and their struggles amidst these failures.
This dissertation is a collection of stories of Muslim Turkish men in Strasbourg who sin. And repent. And then, sin again. The men whose stories I recount are not much different than other men of faith in that they live their lives fearing an authority: God/Allah. Almost all of them are cognizant that the eternal rewards they will get in Cennet, that is, the Heaven, outcompete the luxuries they can enjoy in this world. And that means that they would have to suffer now in order to find comfort in the afterworld. Yet, the desires of the mortal body are often times too hard to tame. And that is not only because the joys in life are too tempting. It is true that the youth want to “live life.” That piety can wait. And sins are to be committed in their journey to old age. But it is also that the intimacies and respect my interlocutors seek at work, at home, or even at the mosque, are sometimes simply lacking. Hence, they situate themselves in venues where they attain the fulfillment that they seek. The caveat, however, is that these venues are often inviting of sins. Even a place as seemingly innocuous as the coffeehouse can encourage activities that are condoned such as cigarette smoking, or illicit and therefore forbidden, such as alcohol consumption. Or a night that starts at a place like a coffeehouse can lead to a night out with friends to bars, nightclubs, casinos or brothels, all of which are a short car ride away. So, should these men simply refrain from visiting these places? Some do. But for many others, such limits on the self are futile. This dissertation is written with the intention of exploring such men’s lives, and to provide an account of their moral failures, that is, their failures to be/come better Muslims, and their struggles amidst these failures.
Research Interests: Religion, Cultural Geography, Gender Studies, Recreation & Leisure Studies, Turkey, and 11 moreIslamic Studies, Masculinities, Migration Studies, France, Ethnography of urban spaces, Turkish Studies, Anthropology of ethics and morality, Germany, Geography of Religion, Morality, and Borders and Borderlands
Migrant workers have served as the foundation for Germany’s rapid economic growth in the postwar years, but the benefits of that growth have not been evenly distributed. Today, precarious workers are pushing back against Germany’s... more
Migrant workers have served as the foundation for Germany’s rapid economic growth in the postwar years, but the benefits of that growth have not been evenly distributed. Today, precarious workers are pushing back against Germany’s exclusionary economic system.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Geographical space is more than a Cartesian plane where actors move across coordinates. It has a moral weight that renders each move subject to moral discourse. Yet, rarely does this premise prevent people from exploring spaces that are... more
Geographical space is more than a Cartesian plane where actors move across coordinates. It has a moral weight that renders each move subject to moral discourse. Yet, rarely does this premise prevent people from exploring spaces that are associated with anything wrong or bad. In fact, we continue to find people in places where they should not be, and doing things that are not just communally shunned but also personally acknowledged to be wrong or bad. Why is that the case? This paper draws on my ethnography on Turkish men who live in Strasbourg and socialize in its German neighbor, Kehl, to examine the role of space in the production of moral and masculine dispositions and practices. Approaching the Strasbourg-Kehl border as a moral boundary, I examine how crossing the border to Kehl constitutes an integral part of the journey that my interlocutors take in constructing their moral and masculine selves. In this journey, spatial transgressions are not diverted but embraced, and confronted. These transgressions also produce anxieties—mistakes which in moments of self-reflection lead to regrets. In such moments, two logics come into play: consequentialism and blame. The first builds on Islamic notions of fallibility and nefs, while the latter brings Kehl into the picture as a moral alibi—a space that takes blame for sins. The latter also helps others in the community who fail to prevent men from going to Kehl and transgressing moral boundaries to transpose culpability. In conclusion, I emphasize the need to consider the making and maintenance of masculinities and moralities in conjunction with the lived environments where such identities are formed and performed.
Research Interests:
As we speak of COVID-19 as the prime culprit of deaths on the job, we tend to forget that workers—essential and not—have been sick and dying all along.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The responses of the Directorate of Religious Affairs in Turkey to the COVID-19 pandemic need to be considered under a critical light—not as evidence of the rigid boundaries of a religious system, but a testimony to the political nature... more
The responses of the Directorate of Religious Affairs in Turkey to the COVID-19 pandemic need to be considered under a critical light—not as evidence of the rigid boundaries of a religious system, but a testimony to the political nature of such conversations.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This article examines dominant discourses on motherhood in Turkey in light of a puzzling case, which involves women who bear children out of wedlock. Drawing on ongoing political discussions on the Turkish family structure that are rooted... more
This article examines dominant discourses on motherhood in Turkey in light of a puzzling case, which involves women who bear children out of wedlock. Drawing on ongoing political discussions on the Turkish family structure that are rooted in a specific understanding of Islam and gender, and exploring the legal and practical difficulties surrounding birth registration, marriage, and abortion, we ask what constitutes «legitimate» and «illegitimate» modes of relationship between men and women in Turkey, and show how women who give birth out of wedlock are treated as an «empty category» that does not exist in Turkish society.
Research Interests:
As the market for Islamically permissible (halal) products expands, so do critical discourses on the production and consumption of halal in Europe. In France, one of Europe’s largest and fast growing halal markets, while some fear a halal... more
As the market for Islamically permissible (halal) products expands, so do critical discourses on the production and consumption of halal in Europe. In France, one of Europe’s largest and fast growing halal markets, while some fear a halal takeover of the French foodscape, others question the authenticity of the products stamped with halal signs. This paper writes against both discourses by exploring the meaning halal takes beyond the sign. It examines how halal attains its meaning as a product of a complex relationship of trust. In describing this relationship, it draws on accounts provided by members of the Turkish community in Strasbourg, France and examines the decision-making process through which Muslim Turks navigate the European foodscape and access halal products. Rather than being driven by alarmist calls, the paper urges to revisit and learn from the ways Muslims negotiate halal in a field long shaped by uncertainty and doubt.
Research Interests:
Work, it appeared, played a role in how men socialized. What did a working migrant man’s eyes see? How did he experience the city? When a Turkish man asked me to help him in his döner kebab shop (snack döner), I accepted the offer right... more
Work, it appeared, played a role in how men socialized. What did a working migrant man’s eyes see? How did he experience the city? When a Turkish man asked me to help him in his döner kebab shop (snack döner), I accepted the offer right away.
Research Interests:
Bu makalede, 2014 yılının yaz aylarında Kayseri’de gerçekleştirdiğim saha ça- lışması ışığında bir konumsallık tasavvuru sunmayı amaçlıyorum. Araştırmam, toplumun tetkikinin konumsallık tartışmalarından soyutlanarak... more
Bu makalede, 2014 yılının yaz aylarında Kayseri’de gerçekleştirdiğim saha ça- lışması ışığında bir konumsallık tasavvuru sunmayı amaçlıyorum. Araştırmam, toplumun tetkikinin konumsallık tartışmalarından soyutlanarak incelemeyeceğini ortaya koyuyor. Konumsallık üzerine düşünümsel bir pratik yerli antropologun sahayı ve çalıştığı toplulukları daha yakından anlaması adına önemli bir fırsat sunuyor. Bu doğrultuda makalenin ilk bölümünde, Kayseri ve köyleri üzerine genel izlenimlerimi paylaşıyorum. Son yarım yüzyıl içerisinde göç sonucu hızlı bir değişim geçiren Kayseri ve köylerinin, insanların yaşantısını ve yaklaşımla- rını ne şekilde etkilediğini anlamaya çalışıyorum. Makalenin ikinci bölümünde ise gündemi belirleyen iki tartışmanın—Cumhurbaşkanlığı Seçimleri ve İsrail’in Gazze harekâtı—insanlarla olan etkileşimime yansımalarını ele alıyorum. Köy kahvesinde akşamları gerçekleştirdiğim sohbetlere odaklanarak, bu iki olay üze- riden sahadaki konumsallığımın hangi yönleriyle tartışmaya açıldığını masaya yatırıyorum.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This chapter, written by four graduate students, introduces and critically evaluates the research methods of shadowing. Discussing their current and future fieldwork about different facets of Muslims lives in European cities (Strasbourg,... more
This chapter, written by four graduate students, introduces and critically evaluates the research methods of shadowing. Discussing their current and future fieldwork about different facets of Muslims lives in European cities (Strasbourg, Amsterdam, Barcelona, and Milan). Oguz Alyanak, Sherria Ayuandini, Guillermo Martin-Saiz, and Lauren Crossland-Marr introduce their concrete research questions and how shadowing was a helpful research tool for collecting data for their projects. They discuss brief experiences they made while shadowing and explain aspects of the data they gathered while also pointing to potential issues and limitations with shadowing.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Extant literature on gossip is vast. Since the earlier days of discussion on the topic, which divided anthropologists over functionalist and methodological individualist camps (Gluckman, 1963; Paine, 1967; Gilmore, 1978), there have been... more
Extant literature on gossip is vast. Since the earlier days of discussion on the topic, which divided anthropologists over functionalist and methodological individualist camps (Gluckman, 1963; Paine, 1967; Gilmore, 1978), there have been calls for clarification of the term. In this paper, we operationalize gossip as “the fear of what they say”. Our approach to gossip reflects communal dynamics among the populations we study, Turks in Amsterdam and Strasbourg, where the fear of what other people might say (“elalem ne der?”) constitutes a reality that shapes how one acts. As we take gossip as an effective controlling mechanism that works through fear, we also delve into the larger anxieties that are argued to threaten the communities in which we conduct our ethnographic fieldwork. One such anxiety emanates from the possibilities of sexual exploration that life in Amsterdam and Strasbourg brings. In both cities, the fear of young (and sometimes old and married) men and women “fooling around” puts the youth under the spotlight as potential candidates for misdemeanor.
It has been three years that the local imam of Karakaya [Black Rock] was assigned to this highland village of Kayseri by the Diyanet, Turkey’s Directorate of Religious Affairs. What brought him to Kayseri in the first place was his... more
It has been three years that the local imam of Karakaya [Black Rock] was assigned to this highland village of Kayseri by the Diyanet, Turkey’s Directorate of Religious Affairs. What brought him to Kayseri in the first place was his graduate studies in the faculty of theology at Erciyes University. Himself a native of Adana, a Mediterranean city that is only a few hours driving away, coming to Kayseri was not a game changer. In the past three decades, Kayseri, a city that was once the hub of out-migration, has become a city in-migration that attracted population from the neighboring Central Anatolian cities. What he did not digest easily was his appointment to Karakaya, a village with two mosques and a barely any congregation to fill one. As one of Kayseri’s main villages of outmigration, the village was empty for the majority of the year.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
In October 2010, the French TV channel Canal + aired an episode on the “halal” market in France. Based on various visits to abattoirs, restaurants and interviews with butchers and customers, the investigators argued that the “halal”... more
In October 2010, the French TV channel Canal + aired an episode on the “halal” market in France. Based on various visits to abattoirs, restaurants and interviews with butchers and customers, the investigators argued that the “halal” market in France is flooded with “faux-halal” products. In this paper, I explore how debates on "faux-halal" are experienced among members of the Turkish immigrant community in Strasbourg. Based on interviews with owners of butcher shops, supermarkets and restaurants, as well as imams and the congregation at mosque associations, I argue that the question of “faux-halal” does not constitute as big of a problem for the Turkish immigrants in Strasbourg as the Canal + episode portrays. Focusing on the local level, the paper shows how individuals have devised alternative ways of negotiating halal, which enables them to rely less on certification, and more on interpersonal relations.
Research Interests:
The trope goes that love knows no bounds. For Mehmet and Hatice, the main actors of the following story, the bounds, however, are hard to ignore. For one, they live in different countries, which means that they get see each other only one... more
The trope goes that love knows no bounds. For Mehmet and Hatice, the main actors of the following story, the bounds, however, are hard to ignore. For one, they live in different countries, which means that they get see each other only one month per year, granted that Hatice’s parents return to the homeland to spend the summer vacation. Their relationship however faces another obstacle, which is harder to overcome. The rigid boundaries of social institutions—in particular, gender and honor—that shape male-female interactions in rural Turkey make it almost impossible for Mehmet and Hatice to be even present in the same physical space.
This paper is based on a love story that not only connects Turkey and France, but also transgresses cultural norms that shape social relations in a rural Central Anatolian village. I am interested in how the village youth—consisting of male and female members of the community aged 18 to 25—situate themselves in a highly regulated social space and create opportunities to communicate with each other. In my case, what makes this village unique is that it has traditionally been a hub for outmigration to urban centers in Turkey as well as Europe, and continues to serve this purpose today. Based on participant observation and interviews with married and unmarried youth of both genders as well as their parents, I hope to illustrate how gender and honor code are interpreted and negotiated on an everyday basis. The relationship between Mehmet and Hatice provides a good starting point to talk about these larger questions.
This paper is based on a love story that not only connects Turkey and France, but also transgresses cultural norms that shape social relations in a rural Central Anatolian village. I am interested in how the village youth—consisting of male and female members of the community aged 18 to 25—situate themselves in a highly regulated social space and create opportunities to communicate with each other. In my case, what makes this village unique is that it has traditionally been a hub for outmigration to urban centers in Turkey as well as Europe, and continues to serve this purpose today. Based on participant observation and interviews with married and unmarried youth of both genders as well as their parents, I hope to illustrate how gender and honor code are interpreted and negotiated on an everyday basis. The relationship between Mehmet and Hatice provides a good starting point to talk about these larger questions.
Research Interests:
This paper traces the life narrative of Cemal Bey, a Turkish-American entrepreneur who walks us through processes of institutionalization among Turkish immigrants in North America, and introduces us to an emergent Islamic network known as... more
This paper traces the life narrative of Cemal Bey, a Turkish-American entrepreneur who walks us through processes of institutionalization among Turkish immigrants in North America, and introduces us to an emergent Islamic network known as hizmet. Cemal Bey’s coming to the U.S over thirty year ago follows him joining an already existing community center in town and leading it, and later on becoming member of the regional Chamber of Commerce. In early 1990s, he gets introduced to a transnational religious movement, which facilitates his subsequent switch to a new community center in which he argues to have found like-minded individuals pursuing a common goal (dava). This network, which provides a narrative that embraces neo-liberalism, secularism, radical social movements, minority politics and interfaith dialogue, as well as Islam, also represents a mélange that becomes highly sought after in American politics after the September 11 attacks. Hence, hizmet becomes a well-marketed and rapidly consumed commodity by Turkish and American publics in North America.
However, hizmet’s emergence also comes at the expense of other institutions representative of Turkey in North America. The rise of hizmet affiliated institutions engender vocal resistance among those whose capacity to control the narrative is limited by the introduction of competitive actors. Cemal Bey’s story, therefore presents a window to analyze the ongoing clash over the semantic space of religion and the homeland between old and new actors. My research, which is based on ethnographic research conducted on two Turkish American institutions in a Midwest/North American town, provides snapshots from this clash.
However, hizmet’s emergence also comes at the expense of other institutions representative of Turkey in North America. The rise of hizmet affiliated institutions engender vocal resistance among those whose capacity to control the narrative is limited by the introduction of competitive actors. Cemal Bey’s story, therefore presents a window to analyze the ongoing clash over the semantic space of religion and the homeland between old and new actors. My research, which is based on ethnographic research conducted on two Turkish American institutions in a Midwest/North American town, provides snapshots from this clash.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Find it absurd. Find it irrational. But while those infuriated with Nike in the United States were busy cutting out the swooshes from their Nike apparel and setting them on fire, some in Turkey have been smashing iPhones to protest US... more
Find it absurd. Find it irrational. But while those infuriated with Nike in the United States were busy cutting out the swooshes from their Nike apparel and setting them on fire, some in Turkey have been smashing iPhones to protest US President Donald Trump, and calling for a new world order.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
For Nuriye, Semih and many other brave souls who choose to carry on…
Research Interests:
For Nuriye, Semih and many other brave souls who choose to carry on…
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The appointment of a controversial new rector to Boğaziçi University is typical of the president’s poor leadership
Research Interests:
Despite the state’s attempts to know and manage, there remain illegible elements, as exemplified by the people who support the No campaign or the women who join the Women’s Rally.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
It is easy for states to ratify all the necessary conventions and take all the necessary legal steps in outlawing child marriages. However, it is the very social system that produces child brides that should be put under investigation.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Could a tripod and a cellphone bring down a government that millions occupying the streets in 2013's Gezi Park protests and an intricate network of infiltrators, known as FETÖ, failed to do in the 15 July 2016 coup attempt? For the... more
Could a tripod and a cellphone bring down a government that millions occupying the streets in 2013's Gezi Park protests and an intricate network of infiltrators, known as FETÖ, failed to do in the 15 July 2016 coup attempt? For the Turkish mafia boss, Sedat Peker, the answer is a resounding yes.