Personal profile

Education information

PhD in Migration and Mobility Studies, University of Surrey (UK) - Dissertation

MA in European Studies, Lund University (Sweden) - Thesis

BA in International Relations, Istanbul Bilgi University (Turkey)

Research interests

  • Highly skilled migration
  • Turkish migration in Europe
  • Nordic capitals and migrants
  • Ethnographic research
  • Return migration
  • Second generation
  • Home, identity and belonging
  • Transnationalism
  • Translocality

Research interests

Creative migrants

Citizenship

Migrants in Arts & Culture Sector

Ethnographic documentary making

Sensory methods, visual storytelling

Description of research and teaching

Teaching

At the University of Helsinki, I have created two courses and acted as a lecturer.

  • Migration and Cities (Master's level course), 5 cr., 2023
  • Lifestyle Migration, Mobilities and Identities (Master's level course, co-organised and lectured with Florencia Quesada), 5 cr., 2024

More on research:

Alongside my academic research on diasporas, transnationalism, labour market integration, high skilled migrants, identity, home and belonging, I have been also working as an ethnographic filmmaker with a focus on migrant groups. 

Latest ethnographic film I have written and directed is Arkadaşloch - Nobody's Problem (2022) which depicts the experiences of second-generation Turkish-German migrants' return migration to Turkey and re-invention of their identities through tourism work in Antalya. The documentary can be streamed via: ResearchTV

Supervision

At the University of Helsinki, I am in the PhD thesis committee of two PhD researchers:

- Euridice Hernandez Gomez, "Latin America in Helsinki: Unveilling cultural dialogues and identity navigation in the cities' social infrastructure" (2024- Present)

- Thu Nguyen, "The impact of networks and social capital on the job market experiences of highly skilled Vietnamese migrants in Finland" (2024- Present)

 

Education/Academic qualification

Gerda Henkel Fellow (Postdoc), Turkish Highly-Skilled Migrants' Alternative Diaspora Spaces in Europe, Centre for Advanced Study Sofia (CAS)

1 Mar 020231 Jul 2020

Pontica Magna Returning Fellow (Postdoc), Forced Return Migration and Social Adaptation Processes, New Europe College - NEC - Fundatia Noua Europa

1 Oct 20191 Dec 2019

Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Highly-Skilled Turkish Migrants' Social Networks in Europe beyond the 'Cultures of Rejection', Center for Advanced Studies - South East Europe, University of Rijeka

1 Apr 20191 Sept 2019

Pontica Magna Fellow (Postdoc), Deportation and Self-Actualisation in Homeland, New Europe College - NEC - Fundatia Noua Europa

1 Oct 201731 Jul 2018

Guest Postdoc Research Fellow, University of Leipzig

21 May 201821 Jun 2018

Research Assistant (Part-Time), YMOBILITY, University of Surrey

Apr 2016Sept 2016

Research Assistant, ELITES, Erasmus University Rotterdam Sociology

Oct 2013Feb 2014

Research Assistant (Internship), Euro-Turks Return, Malmö Institute for Studies of Migration, Diversity and Welfare

Sept 2012Sept 2013

Fields of Science

  • 5143 Social and cultural anthropology
  • 5141 Sociology
  • 519 Social and economic geography
  • 5142 Social policy
  • 5144 Social psychology
  • 5171 Political Science

International and National Collaboration

Publications and projects within past five years.