Second International Conference on Kurdish Studies
‘The Kurds and Kurdistan: Considering Continuity and Change’
University of Exeter, 6-8 September 2012
CONFERENCE PANEL LIST Updated 31st August version 12
THURSDAY 6 SEPTEMBER
PLENARY SESSION: Welcome and Keynote addresses
Dr. Andrea Fischer-Tahir (Centre for Modern Oriental Studies, Berlin)
Prof Zeynep Gambetti (Boğazici University, Istanbul) '’Kurdish Studies as a discursive field: questions,
actors, and rules’'
PANEL 1: “Translocal knowledge circulation and political change in contemporary Kurdistan”
Convened by Dr. Andrea Fischer-Tahir
Chair : Dr. Clémence Scalbert Yücel
Presenter and affiliation
Thomas Schmidinger
University of Vienna
Presentation title
"Knowledge circulation through academic exchange"
Eva Savelsberg
European Centre for Kurdish
Studies, Berlin
"Elect your mukhtar! Arguments for a shift in promoting
democratic change trough knowledge circulation – the example
of the Syrian-Kurdish youth movement”
Karin Mlodoch
Centre for Modern Oriental
Studies, Berlin
"‘Thinking outside our own pain’ – Women Anfal survivors from
the Germyan area, Kurdistan-Iraq, in exchange with German
memorial sites on the victims of the Nazi-regime and the
Holocaust"
PANEL 2: “The Kurdish Issue: Barrier or Key to Democratization?"
Convened by David Romano
Presenter and affiliation
David Romano
Department of Political Science
Missouri State University
Presentation title
The Iraqi Kurdish view on federalism: Iraq's last best hope for
democracy
Mehmet Gurses
Florida Atlantic University
Ethnic Kin: An Obstacle or Opportunity for Peace?
Rob Lowe
Middle East Centre, London School
of Economics
“The turmoil in Syria fand uncertain change for the Kurds”
PANEL 3: Linguistics I
Convened by Salih Akin
Presenter and affiliation
Moslih A. Saeid
University of Duhok, Kurdistan
Presentation title
Language Change and the Process of Lexicon Borrowing in
Kurdish
Katharina Brizic
Austrian Academy of Sciences
Kurdish in Vienna: Change as the Only Continuity
Salih Akin
University of Rouen
A Survey of the Kurdish Dialect Continuum
PANEL 4. Anthropology
Chair: Eva Savelsberg
Presenter and affiliation
Veronica Buffon
University of Exeter
Presentation title
A gender perspective on traditional healing practices and
biomedicine: changes and continuities in Diyarbakır province
Ulrike Flader
University of Manchester
Everyday Resistance Practices among the Kurdish Population in
Turkey
Izaddin Rasool
Bangor University, Wales
Female Suicide in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq
PANEL 5. History
Chair: to be confirmed
Presenter and affiliation
Djene Bajalan
St. Antony’s College, University of
Oxford
Presentation title
The Kurdish münevver and the ‘Young Turk’ Revolution of 1908:
The Apogee of ‘Kurdish Ottomanism’
Metin Atmaca
Freiburg University
Centralizing the Periphery of the Empire: Tanzimat and the case
of Baban Emirate
Hassan Ghazi
Independent researcher
Kurdistan Mission
PANEL 6: Linguistics II
Convened by Salih Akin
Presenter and affiliation
Ergin Opengin
University of Paris III, France and
University of Bamberg, Germany
Presentation title
Person Marking in Central Kurdish: Person, Role and Other
Factors In Clitic/ Affix Interactions
To be Confirmed
Kurdish in Iran: A Case of Restricted and Controlled Tolerance"
Yazgül Şimsek
Potsdam Universität / Germany
"Evidence for the Category “Word” In Kurdish Writing of
Kurdish-Turkish-German Trilingual Children in Germany
PANEL 7: Law and Society
Chair to be confirmed
Presenter and affiliation
Latif Tas
Queen Mary, University of London
Presentation title
Kurdish customary law in practise
Derya Bayir
Queen Mary, University of London
Representations of the ‘Kurds’ by the Turkish Judiciary
Fuat Dundar
Institut Français d'Etudes
Anatoliennes
How to Measure Ethnic and Civic Nationalism: The Kurdish Case
PANEL 8: Politics in Turkey
Chair to be confirmed
Presenter and affiliation
Salima Tasdemir
University of Exeter
Presentation title
Kurdish Women’s Political Activism in Turkey: Feminization of
pro-Kurdish Party Politics?
Cengiz Gunes
Open University
Explaining Kurdish Nationalist Mobilisation in Turkey: Hegemony,
Myth and Violence
Naif Bezwan
King`s College London
Mapping the AKP Policy towards Kurdish Identity and
Representation
FRIDAY 7 SEPTEMBER
PANEL 9: Literature
Chair to be confirmed
Presenter and affiliation
Saman Hassan
University of Exeter
Presentation title
A Historical Perspective on Kurdish Women’s Poetry
Ozlem Galip
University of Exeter
Minority Literature: Towards Counter-Hegemonic Discourse
Laurent Mignon
St Antony’s College, University
of Oxford
Redefining Literary History: The Challenge of Kurdish
Multilingualism
PANEL 10: Diaspora
Chair to be confirmed
Presenter and affiliation
Gamze Nazan Bedirhanoglu
State University of New York at
Binghamton/Ankara University
Presentation title
One nation, two Diasporas, multiple Imaginations
Jordi Tejel Gorgas
Department of the Graduate
Institute of International and
Development Studies (Geneva)
Advice from the Past: the KSSE and the “Kurdish revolution”,
1961-1974
Ipek Demir
University of Leicester
Constructing a Diasporic Battle space in London: the Case of
Kurds from Turkey
PANEL 11: Literature II
Chair to be confirmed
Presenter and affiliation
Farangis Ghaderi
University of Exeter
Presentation title
The Emergence of modern Kurdish Poetry: a discursive analysis
Mahroo Rashidirostami
University of Exeter
State Monolingualism and the Linguistic Displacement of Kurdish
Writers: a postcolonial study of Ali-Ashraf Darvishian’s
autobiographical novel Salhaye Abri (Cloudy Years)
PANEL 12: “Religious Minorities and Political Changes in Kurdistan”
Chair: Khanna Omarkhali
Presenter and affiliation
Presentation title
Irene Dulz
European Technology & Training
Centre, Erbil
The Yezidis’ Struggle for Participation in Iraqi Kurdistan
Khanna Omarkhali
Current Changes in the Yezidi System of Transmission of Religious
Knowledge in the Light of Political Developments
Georg-August University,
Göttingen
Michiel Leezenberg
University of Amsterdam
The end of heterodoxy? Political and realignments of the Shabak
and the Kakais in post-Saddam Iraq
Behrooz Chamanara
Iranian studies department,
George August University
Kurdish Shah-name and its religious implications
PANEL 13: Politics and the KRG
Chair to be confirmed
Presenter and affiliation
Arzu Yilmaz
Ankara University / Duhok
University
Presentation title
“Brakuji xılas bu”: An Analysis on KDP-PKK Relations
Zheger Hassan
University of Western Ontario
Using and Abusing History: The Case of Halabja
PANEL 14: Migration and Diaspora
Chair Janroj Keleş
Presenter and affiliation
Janroj Keles
London Metropolitan University
Presentation title
L. Kumarappan
London Metropolitan University
Diaspora, social network and labour market: Precarious Kurdish
workers in London
Mediated homeland politics and transnational ethnic audiences:
The case of Kurdish and Turkish migrants
PANEL 15: Society in the Kurdish Autonomous Region
Chair to be confirmed
Presenter and affiliation
Diane E. King
University of Kentucky
Presentation title
Interrogating Politicking in the Kurdistan Region
Umut Yildirim
Sabanci University, Istanbul
The Noble Savage Overthrown: Limits of Urban Multiculturalism?
Krzystof Lalik
Jagiellonian University, Poland
Development of Educational Policy of Authorities of the Kurdistan
Region of Iraq
SATURDAY 8 SEPTEMBER
PANEL 16: The Politics of Change
Chair to be confirmed
Presenter and affiliation
Presentation title
Cemal Ozkahraman
University of Exeter
“Social Development” of Southeastern Anatolia Project: A
Significant Element in Turkish Security?
Ismail Erdem
University of London
Understanding the changing institutional contexts and the
endogenous dynamics of the nation-building process in Iraqi
Kurdistan
Jason E. Strakes
G. Tsereteli Institute of Oriental
Studies, Ilia State University
Beyond the Arab-Kurd Dichotomy: Competitive State–Building
Strategies in the Republic of Iraq 1970-2010
PANEL 17: Culture and Change
Chair to be confirmed
Presenter and affiliation
Sabir Birot
University of Leeds
Presentation title
Translation and Ideology: a Study of the Kurdish Media
Parvaneh Rezaee & Sue-San
Ghahremani Ghajar
Al-Zahra University
“Kurdish the Language of Grandparents Stories, Losing its Place
to English and Persian, Languages of Young Generation”
PLENARY SESSION
SUMMING UP