Dr Zeynep Kaya (she/her)
School of Sociological Studies, Politics and International Relations
Lecturer in International Relations
+44 114 222 1669
Full contact details
School of Sociological Studies, Politics and International Relations
Elmfield Building
Northumberland Road
Sheffield
S10 2TU
- Profile
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Dr Zeynep Kaya joined the Department in May 2021, having previously worked at LSE. She holds a PhD in International Relations from the LSE. Her main research areas involve borderlands, territoriality, conflict, peace, political legitimacy and gender. She has recently published a monograph entitled Mapping Kurdistan: Territory, Self-Determination and Nationalism with Cambridge University Press.
Zeynep is co-editor of I.B. Tauris-Bloomsbury’s book series on Kurdish studies and co-convenor of Kurdish Studies Series with the LSE Middle East Centre. She is also an Academic Associate at Pembroke College, University of Cambridge.
- Research interests
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My research adopts an international historical sociology approach to the study of territoriality, borderlands and political legitimacy in the Middle East. I examine how politics related to these concepts change over time in connection with the transformation of international norms in world history. I am particularly interested in understanding non-state political actors (either sub-national or transnational) through situating them within an international context. I specifically focus on the Kurds and other groups in the borderlands of the Ottoman Empire and contemporary states in ex-Ottoman territories.
A second theme of my research is about the interactions between international and non-state actors in relation to peace, conflict and development processes in the Middle East today. I examine contemporary peacebuilding and development policies on gender, minorities and displacement in Iraq and situate this examination within a long-term political and historical international context.
- Publications
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Books
- Mapping Kurdistan : territory, self-determination and nationalism. Cambridge University Press. View this article in WRRO
Journal articles
- Autocratization, permanent emergency rule and local politics: lessons from the Kurds in Turkey. Democratization, 28(4), 821-839.
- Sexual violence, identity and gender: ISIS and the Yezidis. Conflict, Security & Development, 20(5), 631-652.
- The HDP, the AKP and the battle for Turkish democracy. Ethnopolitics, 18(1), 92-106.
- Sowing division: Kurds in the Syrian war. Middle East Policy, 24(1), 79-91.
- Constructing identity through symbols by groups demanding self-determination : Bosnian Serbs and Iraqi Kurds. Ethnopolitics, 14(5), 505-512. View this article in WRRO
Book chapters
- Survival, coexistence, and autonomy : Yezidi political identity after genocide In Tezcür GM (Ed.), Kurds and Yezidis in the Middle East: Shifting Identities, Borders, and the Experiences of Minority Communities (pp. 77-96). London: I.B. Tauris, Bloomsbury. View this article in WRRO
- Orientalist views of Kurds and Kurdistan In Tezcür GM (Ed.), Kurds and Yezidis in the Middle East: Shifting Identities, Borders, and the Experiences of Minority Communities (pp. 115-132). London: I.B. Tauris, Bloomsbury. View this article in WRRO
- The Kurdish question In Özerdem A & Whiting M (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Turkish Politics (pp. 231-241). Abingdon, Oxon.: Routledge (Taylor & Francis). View this article in WRRO
- The curious question of the PYD-PKK relationship In Stansfield G & Shareef M (Ed.), The Kurdish Question Revisited Oxford University Press
- Women’s peace work: navigating religious and tribal norms in Iraq In Al-Baghdadi N & Zagaria V (Ed.), Spoils of War and Gendered Transformations in the Middle East and North Africa: Remodelling Society after 2011 London: I.B. Tauris, Bloomsbury. View this article in WRRO
Reports
- Listening to women's rights organisations: the UK's gender and WPS practice in Iraq View this article in WRRO
- Women and peace in Iraq : opportunities, challenges and prospects for a better future View this article in WRRO
- Feminist peace and security in the Middle East and North Africa View this article in WRRO
- Women, Peace and Security and Displacement in the Middle East View this article in WRRO
- Displacement and women's economic empowerment : voices of displaced women in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq View this article in WRRO
- Women, Peace and Security in Iraq : Iraq's National Action Plan to implement Resolution 1325 View this article in WRRO
- Tackling radicalism in Turkey View this article in WRRO
Working papers
- Iraq's Yazidis and ISIS : the causes and consequences of sexual violence in conflict. View this article in WRRO
- Iraq synthesis paper : understanding the drivers of conflict in Iraq. Conflict Research Programme. View this article in WRRO
- Resilience policy and internally displaced women in Iraq : an unintentionally flawed approach. LSE Women, Peace and Security Working Paper Series, 13. View this article in WRRO
- Gender and statehood in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. LSE Middle East Centre Paper Series, 18. View this article in WRRO
- Mapping Kurdistan : territory, self-determination and nationalism. Cambridge University Press. View this article in WRRO
- Grants
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- HEIF Knowledge Exchange & Impact Fund, £27K: UK's gender practice in aid and security (2022)
- NAFR1180137 British Academy, £5K, Post-conflict emergency rule as a tool of everyday government in Turkey (2020-2021)
- KEI Fund (LSE), £45K, Displacement and WPS in Iraq (2017-2019)
- 262164UCF GRRI Collaboration Grant, £24K: Victimhood, survival and societal transformation among the Yezidis in Iraq (2017-2019)
- GB-1-- 204428 DFID, £6million (named lead researcher): Conflict Research Programme (2017-2020) led by Mary Kaldor and Alex de Waal
- RLWK6-261840247 British Council Researcher Links, £32K: Displacement, social welfare and human security in Turkey: challenges and prospects (2018-2019)
- Emirates Foundation, £90K: Complexity of humanitarian response to internal displacement in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (2016-2018)
- Rockefeller Fund, £6K: Disaster and displacement: the resilience of women in Iraq and Nepal (2016-2017)
- Emirates Foundation, £90K: International actors and women’s rights in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (2013-2016)
- Teaching activities
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Dr Zeynep Kaya currently teaches:
- POL126 World's Wicked Problems
- POL242 Tackling World's Wicked Problems
- POL6970 Debating International Relations
- Professional activities and memberships
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- Co-Founder and Co-Editor of Kurdish Studies Book Series I.B. Tauris-Bloomsbury
- Co-Convenor of the Kurdish Studies Events Series, LSE Middle East Centre
- Specialist Adviser, UK Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee (2017-2018)
- Fellow of the Higher Education Authority
- PhD Supervision
I would be interested in supervising doctoral research projects looking at
- borders
- nationalism
- Kurdish politics
- non-state actors
- gender
- international politics of the Middle East