OSMAN BALKAN, PH.D.
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My research focuses on the politics of migration, race, and memory in Europe and the Middle East. 

My first book, Dying Abroad: The Political Afterlives of Migration in Europe was published by Cambridge University Press in 2023 as part of its LSE International Studies Series. Drawing on multi-sited fieldwork conducted in Berlin and Istanbul-- where I worked as an undertaker-- Dying Abroad offers an ethnographic account of migrants' end-of-life dilemmas, vividly illustrating how they are connected to ongoing political struggles over the stakes of citizenship, belonging, and identity in contemporary Europe. 

Distinctions
  • Charles Taylor Book Award (American Political Science Association)
  • ENMISA Distinguished Book Award (International Studies Association) 
  • ​Yale H Ferguson Award (International Studies Association)
  • Alixa Naff Prize in Migration Studies (Honorable Mention)
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Reviews
  • International Migration Review (reviewed by Mirjam Twigt)
  • Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics (reviewed by Aubrey Westfall)
  • Migrations Société (reviewed by Linda Haapajärvi)
  • Political and Legal Anthropology (reviewed by Matthew Canfield and Smoki Musaraj)​
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I am currently at work on a second book project which explores how different countries commemorate and come to terms with acts of political violence and terrorism. Drawing on cases such as the Boston Marathon Bombing, the Charlie Hebdo attacks, a failed military coup in Turkey, and ongoing struggles over the place of colonial and confederate monuments in Europe and the United States, it investigates of public rituals of mourning help shape collective memory and identity. 

My research has been funded and supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Please see my publications
 page for links to my writing. 
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Protestors demonstrating against the burial of Tamerlan Tsarnaev
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