Profile

Research Interests

I work in feminist and political geography and research issues related to gender, development, and national and human security. Some of the research questions that drive my work are: 1) How do security and development intersect in the operation of political power in conflict and post-conflict zones? 2) How is the home impacted at the security-development nexus? 3) What do these stories tell us about how individuals experience security and insecurity (particularly as they challenge popular narratives of human and national security)?

Research Projects

Since 2005, I have worked in the predominantly-Kurdish region of Southeast Turkey. In the early 2000’s, the Turkish government began to invest heavily in gendered and socio-economic development in the Southeast region. For a region located at the headwaters of the Tigris and Euphrates, these are efforts to capitalize on one of Turkey’s largest resource, agriculture. More importantly, economic development is defined more and more as the solution to peace building efforts (a relationship underpinning similar such programs in other conflict regions). This turn towards development, alongside a lessened military presence, marks a historic shift in the security imperatives of Turkish policy towards the “Kurdish Question”. Most visible in the urban landscape are programs geared towards women: family planning, literacy, and citizenship education. These have been followed en suite with similar programs sponsored by the local pro-Kurdish government. In effect, Turkish government concerns for national security and Kurdish government concerns over cultural rights – struggles that are ultimately about political belonging and citizenship – are tied to the ability of resident families, particularly women and children, to translate development goals to their home and neighborhood. This process of translation is often fraught with tension and has impact on how individuals experience security in their daily lives (access to resources, experiences with state and domestic violence, etc.). In my research, I examine how these development interventions challenge and uphold political narratives of national belonging (Turkish and Kurdish), how they reconfigure family and community relationships, and what this means for the daily security/insecurity of impacted residents.