Emrah Karakuş

Dr. Emrah Karakuş is a Research Fellow in Gender and Human Rights at the London School of Economics (LSE). His interdisciplinary work bridges cultural anthropology, critical security studies, and gender/queer studies, focusing on the modern Middle East. He explores affective politics, queer intimacy, and political violence among Kurdish communities, particularly in Turkey. His current book project, Queer Debt, examines notions of debt and repayment in Kurdish queer/trans lifeworlds.

Education: Ph.D. in Sociocultural Anthropology from the University of Arizona (with minors in Gender & Women’s Studies and Geography), MSc in Security Studies from University College London (as a Jean Monnet Scholar), and BA in International Relations from Istanbul Kültür University. He also studied Peace & Conflict Studies at Malmö University as an Erasmus student.

Research Interests: Karakuş investigates how Kurdish queer/trans individuals navigate state violence, intimacy, and survival through frameworks like queer of color critique and transnational feminism. His work highlights the intersection of affect, security, and debt in marginalized communities.

Publications: Recent articles analyze Kurdish queer counterinsurgency, soundscapes in Kurdish queer identity, and the political economy of sex work in Kurdish Turkey. His work contributes to debates on decolonial methodologies and queer theory.

Awards/Grants: His fieldwork was supported by the Wenner-Gren Foundation. No explicit awards listed.

Advising/Grants: No advisees mentioned. His research is funded by institutional grants (e.g., Wenner-Gren Foundation).

Labs/Teams: Collaborates with scholars in Middle Eastern studies and gender/queer theory, though specific lab affiliations are not detailed.