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Staff profile

Overview

Dr Bahar Baser

Associate Professor in Middle East Politics

PhD

Affiliations
AffiliationRoom numberTelephone
Associate Professor in Middle East Politics in the School of Government and International AffairsEH109 Elvet Hill House+44 (0) 191 33 40641
Member of the Institute for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies  

Biography

Dr. Bahar Baser joined Durham University's School of Government and International Affairs in 2021. Previously, she was Associate Professor at the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations, Coventry University where she led the "Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation Research Group". Prior to that, she was a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Warwick at the Department of Politics and International Studies between 2012 and 2014.

Dr. Baser completed a PhD in Social and Political Sciences at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. During her PhD, she had the opportunity to work as a Visiting Research Fellow at Humboldt University (Berlin Graduate School of Social Sciences) in Germany, REMESO (Institute for Research on Migration, Ethnicity and Society) in Norrkoping, Sweden and the Instituto de Ciencias Sociais (ICS) in Lisbon, Portugal. 

She is an expert in the area of diaspora studies, peacebuilding and conflict transformation, with a regional focus on the Middle East. She has conducted extensive research on diaspora engagement in peace processes, post-conflict reconstruction and state-building in the Global South. She has published extensively on stateless diaspora activism and mobilisation in Europe with a specific focus on host states’ counterterrorism policies, radicalization of diaspora members and transnationalization of homeland conflicts. 

She is the editor of Kurdish Studies Series published by Lexington Books and the co-editor of Diasporas and Transnationalism Series published by Edinburgh University Press. She is also a senior associate research fellow at the Security Institute for Governance and Leadership in Africa (SIGLA), Stellenbosch University, South Africa and visiting professor at Tampere Peace Research Institute, Tampere University, Finland.

Languages

Turkish, English, Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Azerbaijani, Swedish (Beginner), Kurdish (Beginner)

Research Groups

Institute for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies

Research Projects
2021: PI, British Academy Writing Workshops, “Building Research and Publication Capacity of Emerging Scholars in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq”.
2020: Researcher, Academy of Finland, Research Grant, Diasporas and Transportation of Homeland Conflicts: Inter-group Dynamics and Host Country Responses (Sweden, Finland and UK case studies).
2019: PI, Allan and Nesta Ferguson Trust, Research Grant, Youth, Violence and Conflict Transformation: Exploring mobilisation into violence and the role of youth in peacebuilding (Afghanistan, Iraq, Colombia, Bosnia and Algeria)
2019: Supervisor, Horizon 2020 Marie Curie Fellowship, Dr. Cihan Dizdaroglu, YOUPEACEBUILDER.
2018: PI, Council for the British Research in the Levant (CBRL), Pilot Study Grant, “Diasporic Identity Formation of Kurdish Jews in Israel”.
2018: Co-I, Thomson Reuters Foundation (in collaboration with the Stanley Foundation and Gerda Henkel Stiftung) Uncovering Security Grant.
2018: Co-I, British Academy Newton Mobility Grant, in collaboration with Dr. Henio Hoyo from University of Monterrey, Mexico.
2016: PI, British Academy Newton Fund / National Research Foundation (South Africa) Fellowship, “South African Peace Process: Lessons Learnt for Peace and Reconciliation in Turkey”, Stellenbosch University, South Africa.
2016: PI, Coventry University Pump Prime Funding, “Dynamics of Return Migration to Iraqi Kurdistan: Diaspora Contributions to State-building and post conflict reconstruction”, Coventry, United Kingdom.
2015: PI, Swedish Institute Postdoctoral Research Grant, “The Kurdish Diaspora in Sweden and the Peace Process in Turkey”, Stockholm University, Sweden.
2013: European Union, UK and Turkey Country Representative, INTERACT Project, European University Institute, Migration Policy Center, Italy.
2012: European Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow, “Diasporas and Contested Sovereignty”, University of Warwick, United Kingdom.
2009: European Union, “EU Profiler” Project Assistant, Member of the “Turkey Team”, European University Institute. ( www.euprofiler.com)
2007: wedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Swedish Institute, Project Assistant, “Diasporas and Their Involvement in Peace Processes”, Uppsala University, Sweden.
2005: Open Society Institute, Project Assistant, “Conservatism in Turkey: Family, State, Religion and the West”, Bogazici University, Turkey.
2005: European Union, Project Assistant, “Building a Deliberative Dialogue between Turkish and French Youth”. Bogazici University, Turkey.

Research interests

  • Comparative Politics of the Middle East
  • Diasporas and Transnationalism
  • International Migration
  • Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation
  • Terrorism and Political Violence
  • Ethnic Conflicts
  • Transitional Justice and Memory
  • Institute of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies

Media Contacts

Available for media contact about:

  • Conflict and resolution:
  • Middle East:
  • Citizenship, state and governance:
  • Identity, ethnicity and culture:
  • Policy and politics:
  • Security, territory and boundaries:
  • Government:
  • International politics:
  • Middle eastern and Islamic studies:
  • Terrorism:

Publications

Authored book

Chapter in book

Edited book

  • Shivan, F & Baser, B (2021). Youth Identity, Politics and Change in Contemporary Kurdistan. Transnational Press London.
  • Baser, B, Toivanen, M, Zorlu, B & Duman, Y (2018). Methodological Approaches in Kurdish Studies: Theoretical and Practical Insights from the Field. Lexington Books.
  • Baser, B & Ozturk, A.E. (2017). Authoritarian Politics in Turkey: Elections, Resistance and the AKP. Bloomsbury Publisher.
  • Baser, B & Levin, P (2017). Migration from Turkey to Sweden: Integration, Belonging and Transnational Community. Bloomsbury Publisher.

Edited Journal

  • Baser, Bahar, Ozturk, Ahmet & Taş, Hakki (2022). Middle East Critique: Special Issue on Turkey’s Diasporas. Middle East Critique, 31 (4): Taylor & Francis.

Journal Article

Report

Supervision students

Mr. Abdullah Al-khonaini

Doctoral Research Student

Mr. Mengqi Sun

Doctoral Research Student

Ms. Shorooq Al-zaabi

Doctoral Research Student