缅北禁地

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Staff Profile

Dr Deniz Yonucu

Senior Lecturer

  • Personal Website:
Background

I received my Ph.D. in Social Anthropology from Cornell University, USA. I hold MA degrees in Social Sciences from the University of Chicago and in Anthropology from Cornell University. My research and teaching interests lie at the intersection of anthropology, political theory, law & society studies, and urban studies. More specifically, my work focuses on the processes of criminalisation, counterinsurgency, policing and surveillance, class and urban marginality, racism, resistance and abolitionist practices of the oppressed, and colonialism. My perspective has been shaped by living, studying, working, and conducting research across multiple continents (from Berlin and Munich to Istanbul, from London and 缅北禁地 to Ithaca, Chicago, and New York).

I am a fellow of the Higher Education Academy, Advance HE.

My research has been funded by more than 10 institutions across a variety of countries, including the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Newton Fund, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the Einstein Foundation, the DAAD, Salt Foundation, and Cornell University.

My first book,  Cornell University Press, 2022) is awarded the 2023  by the Critical Urban Anthropology Section of the American Anthropological Association. has appeared at American Ethnologist, Cultures and Conflicts, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Sociologia Urbane e Rurale, PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review, Politics and Rights Review, New Perspectives on Turkey, Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies, Surveillance & Society, AllegraNet, The Choice, Journal of Ottoman and Turkish Studies, Napoli Monitor, Lundi Matin, City & Society (Book Forum, 4 reviews and author response).

My research has demonstrable real-world impact, informing international human rights policy and asylum decision-making. I have contributed to expert meetings on racism and securitisation organised by the Anti-Racial Discrimination Section of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. My research on racism against Alevis in Turkey has been incorporated into the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ 2025 General Country Report on Turkey, directly informing asylum policy for citizens of Turkey.

My work has appeared in various leading peer-reviewed journals, including , ,  , , PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review, and .

Most of my academic work is available on my academia page: 

Beyond my academic work, I write literary fiction exploring contemporary social issues. My short stories are published or forthcoming at and Asymptote.

I also in English, Turkish, and German and , including DW, Germany’s international broadcaster, and France24 to discuss politics and human rights issues.

I am co-founder and co-convenor of the European Association for Social Anthropologists’  Between 2021 and 2024, I was Directions Section co-editor of the . My experience helped me develop the skills to help others improve their writing. I am also a host on  podcast where I interview authors on topics related to policing, surveillance, carcerality, and securitisation and cofounder of the

At 缅北禁地, I co-convened the Conflict, Peace, and Security Research Group and am a member of the Power, Space, Politics, and Middle East Research Groups.

Before joining 缅北禁地 in 2021, I worked as a DAAD Visiting Assistant Professor (W2) in Anthropology at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München and held postdoctoral positions at the Center for Technology and Society at the Technical University of Berlin, the Zentrum Moderner Orient, and the Forum Transregionale Studien, Berlin. In 2015, I was a visiting scholar at the European Institute of the LSE. 

I accept PhD students who would like to conduct research on urban marginality, crime, security, policing, abolition, surveillance, racism, political violence, memory, and resistance.

 

Selected Recent Works

 "Radical possibilities and abolitionist practices: lessons from resistance and world-building in Istanbul and Northern Kurdistan." 1-12 (Early View)

“Anthropology of Crime”. In . 2025.

“Counterinsurgency in Turkey: Coloniality of Paramilitary Forces and Provocative Counterorganisation”. In The Making of Paramilitarism in Turkey (pp. 23-36). Routledge, 2025.

"Police Ethnography, Abolition, Rancière and Political Theology",, 2025.

“Sectarianism as Racism: The Collective Punishment of Alevi Communities in Turkey”, , 65(3), pp.47-68., 2024.

"The sticky-stalker state subject: surveillance of dissent in Turkey." In  pp. 41-58. Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland, 2024.

"Racism and policing beyond North America." Political and Legal Anthropology Review 46, no. 1 (2023): 112-113. (with Caroline Mary Parker)

 “Inspirational Hauntings and a Fearless Spirit of Resistance: Negotiating the Undercover Police Surveillance of Racialized Spaces in Istanbul”  (64) no. 4 (2023), 359–379.

Police, provocation, politics: Counterinsurgency in Istanbul. , 2022.

 “Counterinsurgency in Istanbul: Provocative Counterorganization, Violent Interpellation and Sectarian Fears” . 49 no. 5 (2022), 896-914.

“Urban Vigilantism: A study of Anti-terror Law, Politics, and Policing in Istanbul”. , 42 no. 3 (2018): 408-422.

 "The Absent Present Law: An Ethnographic Study of Legal Violence in Turkey”. , 27 no 6 (2018): 716-733.






 

 

Research

My first book,  (Cornell University Press, 2022), provides an ethnographically grounded analysis of the tension between policing and politics and presents a counterintuitive analysis of policing, focusing particular attention on the incitement of counterviolence and perpetual conflict by the state security apparatus. Rather than focusing on counterinsurgency’s strategies for producing docile and compliant citizens, I focus on the provocative aspects of policing. I argue in the book that counterinsurgency is a permanent and preventive war on politics. Engaging also with the literatures on political subjectivities, urban marginality, urban violence, racism and coloniality, memory, and resistance the book sheds light on the world-building practices of the oppressed and fearless resistance that is informed by what I call .

 

Teaching

Both my research and teaching are guided by my commitment to interdisciplinary and decolonial approaches to pressing social issues. My teaching philosophy is based on the development of critical thinking skills and helping students hone their ability to denaturalize social relations through explorations of the structures and patterns that have shaped our historical present.


Before joining 缅北禁地, I taught at various universities including the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, the Free University of Berlin, Cornell University, and Bosphorus University.


Selected Teaching Experience

 

缅北禁地 (2021-):

Perpetual Wars: Crime, Policing and (In)Security (MA)

Security: Politics, Space, and Society (MA)

Critical Approaches to Security and Policing (BA)

Crime and Inequalities (BA)

 

Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (2018-2020):

Decolonizing Anthropology (BA)

The Anthropology of Policing (BA&MA)

The Anthropology of Crime (BA &MA)

The Anthropology of Law (BA & MA)

Critical Approaches to the Violence in the Middle East (BA)

 

Free University of Berlin (2017- 2018):

Urban Anthropology (MA)

 The Anthropology of Human Rights (MA)

 

Sabanci University (2014)

The Anthropology of the State (BA & MA)

 

Bosphorus University (2010-2014)

Introduction to Sociology (BA)

Society and State (BA)

  


Publications

  • Articles

    • Yonucu D. . Justice, Power, Resistance 2026, epub ahead of print.
    • Yonucu D. . Race & Class 2024, 63(3), 47-68.
    • Yonucu D. . City & Society 2024, 36(1), 5-6.
    • Yonucu D. . City & Society 2024, 36(3), 141-145.
    • Yonucu D. . Current Anthropology 2023, 64(4), 359-473.
    • Yonucu D. . British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 2022, 49(5), 896-914.
    • Yonucu D, Suciyan T. . Critical Times 2020, 3(2), 300-311.
    • Yonucu D. . International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 2018, 42(3), 408-422.
    • Yonucu D. . Social & Legal Studies 2018, 27(6), 716-733.
    • Yonucu Deniz. Şehir, egemenlik ve çatışma mekânları. Toplum ve Bilim 2018, 146, 62-71. In Preparation.
    • Yonucu D. . Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law 2018, 50(3), 356-357.
    • Yonucu D. . Birikim 2014, 297, 29-37.
    • Yonucu Deniz. Capitalism, desperation and urgency. Red Thread 2011, 3, 1-10.
    • Yonucu Deniz. A Story of a Squatter Neighborhood: From the place of the" dangerous classes" to the" place of danger". Berkeley Journal of Sociology 2008, 52, 50-72.

  • Authored Book

    • Yonucu D. . Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2022.

  • Book Chapters

    • Yonucu D. . In: Di Ronco A; Selmini R, ed. Criminalisation of Dissent in Times of Crisis. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2025.
    • Yonucu D. . In: Yalçınkaya, A, ed. Aleviler ve Cumhuriyet. Ankara: Dipnot Yayınları, 2025, pp.147-164.
    • Yonucu D. . In: Isik A; Has O, ed. The Making of Paramilitary Violence in Turkey. Routledge, 2025. In Press.
    • Yonucu D. . In: Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Anthropology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2025.
    • Yonucu D. . In: Yücesoy, F; Çavdar, O; Aslan, S, ed. Sosyal Bilimler Perspektifinden Aleviler ve Alevilik –2. Istanbul: Utopya Yayinevi, 2024, pp.219-231.
    • Yonucu D. . In: Cem Özatalay, ed. Toplumsal Yapı Türkiye'de Eşitsizlik, Tahakküm, Değişim. Istanbul: Iletisim, 2024, pp.404-421.
    • Yonucu D, Yanik A. . In: Ozvaris H, ed. Adalet Atlasi. Istanbul: Iletisim, 2023, pp.75-89.
    • Yonucu Deniz. “Var-Yok Hukuk: Türkiye'de Hukukun Şiddetinin Etnografik Analizi”. In: Deger, Ozan, ed. Düşmanı Yargılamak. Ankara: Zoe Kitap, 2020, pp.212 – 241.
    • Bora T, Yonucu D. . In: Özyürek, E; Özpınar, G; Altındiş, E, ed. Authoritarianism and Resistance in Turkey: Conversations on Democratic and Social Challenges. Cham: Springer, 2019, pp.229-235.
    • Yonucu D. . In: Ayfer Bartu Candan, Cenk Özbay, ed. Yeni İstanbul Çalışmaları: Sınırlar, Mücadeleler, Açılımlar. Istabul: Metis, 2014.
    • Yonucu Deniz. European Istanbul and Its Enemies: Istanbul’s Working Class as the Constitutive Outside of the Modern/European Istanbul. In: D. Reuschke; ‎M. Salzbrunn; ‎K. Schönhärl, ed. The Economies of Urban Diversity: Ruhr Area and Istanbul. Palgrave, 2013.
    • Gönen Z, Yonucu D. Legitimizing violence and segregation: Neoliberal discourses on crime and criminalization of urban poor populations in Turkey. In: Bourke, A; Dafnos, T; Kip, M, ed. Lumpencity: Discourses of Marginality, Marginalizing Discourses. Red Quill Books, 2011, pp.75-103. In Press.

  • Creative Writing

    • Yonucu D. . Asymptote 2026. Asymptote Journal. In Press.
    • Yonucu D. . Anthropology and Humanism 2026. 51(1), e70078.

  • Editorials

    • Parker CM, Yonucu D. . PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review 2024, 47(2), 283-284.
    • Yonucu D, Parker C. . PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review 2024, 47(1), 88-89.
    • Yonucu D, Parker CM. . Political and Legal Anthropology Review 2023, 46(1), 112-113.
    • Parker CM, Yonucu D. . Political and Legal Anthropology Review 2023, 46(2), 264-265.
    • Parker CM, Yonucu D, Curtis J. Introducing Directions Section. Political and Legal Anthropology Review 2022, 45(1). In Preparation.

  • Online Publications

    • Yonucu D, Schamberger K. . PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review, 2025. Available at: .
    • Celik A, Yonucu D. . PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review, 2025. Available at: .
    • Yonucu D, Peacock V, Steenberg R, Verdery K. . PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review, 2024. Available at: .
    • Yonucu D. . Society and Space: Society and Space, 2024. Available at: .
    • Cooper AE, Yonucu D. . Association for Political and Legal Anthropology (APLA), 2023. Available at: .
    • Yonucu D, Parker CM. . Hoboken: Political and Legal Anthropology Review, 2023. Available at: .
    • Yonucu D. . BirGün Pazar, 2023. Available at: .
    • Yonucu D. . Urban Violence Research Network Blog, 2022. Available at: .
    • Yonucu D. . Urban History Association, 2022. Available at: .
    • Yonucu D. Turkey’s United Front Against Kurds and Democracy. 2017. Available at: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/turkey-s-united-front-against-kurds-and-democracy/.
    • Yonucu D. Colonial Envy and the Success of the Kurdish Political Struggle. 2017. Available at: https://politicalandlegalanthro.org/2017/05/11/colonial-envy-and-the-unbearable-success-of-the-kurdish-political-struggle/.
    • Yonucu D. United in Nationalism: Notes on the Aftermath of the Failed Coup Attempt in Turkey. jadaliyya, 2016. Available at: https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/33659.
    • Evren E, Yonucu D. Turkey’s War and Struggle of Its Academics. ZMO Bulletin, 2016. Available at: https://www.academia.edu/26221539/Turkey_s_War_and_the_Struggle_of_its_Academics. In Preparation.

  • Reviews

    • Yonucu D. . Current Anthropology 2025, 66(1), 64-65.
    • Yonucu D. . Allegralab 2021.