Eda Farsakoglu

Research Interest

I am a PhD student in the Department of Sociology at Lund University and a junior research fellow at Center for Middle Eastern Studies working within the research project: Migration and Spatial Mobility in the Middle East. Broadly speaking my dissertation project examines the intersections of international migration, gender, and sexuality.  In particular, I focus on the lived experiences of Iranian migrants, who are seeking asylum (based on gender identity and sexual orientation) from and waiting for resettlement to a third Western/Northern country or retrying as rejected asylum seekers in the migratory space of Turkey. To do this, I delve into the interrelated themes of cross-border mobility, belonging (exclusion/inclusion), and identity. In light of these research themes, I aim to unravel the ways in which sexuality and gender shape and organize international refugee migration to and via Turkey. Additionally, I look at how the migration experience itself may mark sexual identities, communities, and politics. My work is empirically grounded in six months of multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork.

My broad research interests include international migration and refugee studies, contemporary Turkey, gender and sexuality and a number of sub-topics of political and cultural sociology including the study of social movements, globalization and transnationalization processes, IPRs, and anti/militarism. My previous work has examined framing processes within the Conscientious Objection Movement in Turkey. I have also participated in various research projects related to intellectual property rights and ideas on originality, the history and evolution of Turkish sociology, and transnationalization in agricultural systems in Turkey. In addition to my academic activities, I am voluntarily working as a translator (English-Turkish-English) for social movement organizations in Sweden and in Turkey.

Academic Background

PhD (2011 -present): Department of Sociology, Lund University, Sweden

MS (2010): School of Global Studies, University of Gothenburg, Sweden (with 
merit-based full scholarship from the Swedish Institute)

MS Thesis: “No One Is Born a Soldier.” Framing Processes within the Conscientious Objection Movement in Turkey: A Case Study

High-Honors BS (2008): Department of Sociology, Middle East Technical University, Turkey