London's Kurdish and Turkish communities

The Centre for Turkey Studies (CTS) is organised a event. The subject is 'London's Kurdish and Turkish communities.  

How do they relate to Britain and to Turkey?' featuring Dr Ipek Demir and Dr Dogus Simsek. Dr Ipek Demir is Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Leicester. Dr Dogus Simsek works at Regent’s University London and carries out research on transnational migration at the Regent’s Centre for Transnational Studies.

Tuesday 4th of June 2013, between 7PM and 9PM, in Committee Room 9, House of Commons, Westminster.

This CTS Westminster Forum event is kindly hosted by Andy Love, the Labour and Co-operative Party Member of Parliament for Edmonton. 

Dr Ipek Demir

is Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Leicester. Before joining Leicester she taught social sciences at the Universities of Sussex, Cambridge, and Open University. Dr Demir received her BA from Siyasal Bilgiler Fakultesi, University of Ankara. After the completion of her PhD from the University of Sussex, she won an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship and held it at the University of Cambridge. Her work is focused on the translation of ideas, practices, cultures, ethno-political identity, transnationalism and diaspora studies. Currently she is on an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) fellowship, examining how ethno-political identity is represented and translated by Kurds (of Turkey) in London. She has given numerous invited talks and has over ten peer-reviewed international publications. They include 'Humbling Turkishness: Undoing the Strategies of Exclusion and Inclusion of Turkish Modernity', Journal of Historical Sociology (forthcoming 2014); 'Battling with Memleket in London: the Kurdish Diaspora's Engagement with Turkey', Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies (2012); 'Lost in Translation? Try Second Language Learning: Understanding Movements of Ideas and Practices across Time and Space', Journal of Historical Sociology (2011); 'On the Representation of 'Others' at Europe's Borders: The Case of Iraqi Kurds', Journal of Contemporary European Studies (2010) (with Welat Zeydanlioglu); 1968 in Retrospect: History, Theory, Alterity, Palgrave Macmillan (2009)(with Gurminder K. Bhambra).

Dr Dogus Simsek

works at Regent’s University London and carries out research on transnational migration at the Regent’s Centre for Transnational Studies. She received her BA in Media and Communication Systems from Istanbul Bilgi University, an MA in Cultural Studies from Goldsmiths College, University of London, and a PhD in Sociology from City University London in 2012. Before coming to Regent’s University London, she lectured in Sociology at City University London and also carried out research on Turkish and Kurdish migrants in London. Her research interests broadly cover transnationalism, diaspora, racism, ethnicity and identity. She has published research papers and presented her research at over 20 international and national conferences. Her publications include ‘Transnational Communities & Conflict Policies’ (2010, with H. Miall and A. Orrnert); The Challenge of Transnationalism to Government Policy in Britain: The Positive Outcomes of Generating Bonding Social Capital’ (2008, with D. Hadjigeorgiou); ‘The Creative Lives of Kurdish, Turkish and Turkish- Cypriot Youth in London’ (2012); “Inclusion’ and ‘Exclusion’: Transnational Experiences of Turkish and Kurdish Youth in London” (forthcoming 2013). She has also published a piece in the Guardian on the 2011 London Riots.