H. Nese Özgen
Sociology & Anthropology
Sociology and Anthropology of borders; Capital accumulation and negotiation on citizenship on border; Political economy of the borders; State, border and class; Political geography of motherland; Gendered borders
Havva Neşe Özgen, professor of Sociology and Anthropology in Turkey since 2005 (Ege University/TR) graduated in 1993 (Ege University/TR). She taught at Ege University, Galatasaray University, Mimar Sinan University (TR) and Sheffield Hallam University (UK) on qualitative and quantitative research technics and methodologies (Engaged Anthropology), Gender matters, Sociology and Anthropology of borders.
She is the author of Selective Forgetting and Remembering of Social Memory; Van-Özalp and 33 Bullets Incidents (Toplumsal Hafızanın Hatırlama ve Unutma Biçimleri: Van-Özalp ve 33 Kurşun Olayı, Tustav Yayinlari, 2003, 2012, 2nd ed.), and Sociology of the Borders (Sınır Sosyolojisi, Metis Publications Inc., 2023, forthcoming).
H. Neşe Özgen, PhD

Osnabrück University
IMIS
Seminarstraße 19 a/b
49069 Osnabrück
Özgen conducted ethnographic studies in Turkey's southeastern (Iraq, Syria), eastern (Iran), and northeastern Anatolian borders (Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan), as well as western (Bulgarian, Greece) land borders. Between 2000 and 2013 she completed her projects on Azerbaijani-Turkey Border titled Sex Trafficking in Borders granted by TÜBİTAK; on the Iran-Turkey border titled A Border Massacre and Memory of Ethnicity granted by Ege University and TÜBİTAK; an project titled "The Emigrant: Problems of the Identity and Adaptation of Bulgaria-Born Turks After Their Emigration in Turkey” collaborated with New Bulgarian University and Ege University; and on Syria and Iraq-Turkey borders titled The Political Economies in Border Regions as an Accumulation granted by TÜBİTAK and Ege University.
She worked on her research project "Property and Citizenship in an Eastern Anatolian Border Region" at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology (Halle), as part of the Research Group "Caucasian Boundaries and Citizenship from Below" directed by Prof. Lale Yalçn-Heckman (2006-2009). Between 2009 and 2012, she collaborated with Manchester University's Department of Anthropology on research on Greek-Bulgarian and Turkish borders as part of a project funded by ESRC-COST-ISO803 titled "Borders as Sources of Conflicts and Possibilities: On the Delta of Turkey's Borders with Greece and Bulgaria."
She conducted as a researcher in Socio-economic Impact on the Border Between Armenia and Turkey, granted by Hrant Dink Foundation, TÜSİAD and BETAM in 2012. She also worked as a researcher in EUROPEAID /127552/D/SER/TR project, on technical assistance for the Preparation of the Border Surveillance Area Survey in Turkey, “Social Aspects of Changing Management of Border Surveillance Report (SA)” in 2010.
She researched as a visiting scholar University of Macedonia, Department of Balkan, Slavic and Oriental Studies, Thessaloniki/ Greece (2016-2018), and carried her border research from solid borders to solidification of borders (sea/water) through a project titled C18079 "Infrastructure Space and the Future of Migration Management: The EU Hotspots in the Mediterranean Borderscape", a new collaborative project on the refugee hotspots on both sides of the Aegean Sea, funded by the Swiss Network of International Studies (www.snis.ch) during her being as a visiting scholar at Duke University, Cultural Anthropology Department between 2019 and 2021.
Her last research '’Spurring the Khora: Collaborations between NGOs and Women Solidarity Networks in Refugee Camps in Greece’’ aims to understand and discuss the idea of '‘autonomous politics’' by focusing on the prospects and promises of the solidarity and moral economies in the refugee camps as stateless territorialities as a Khôra (χώρα), where refugees who are degraded to the subject of objectification, racialization, and victimization, and stated as res.
- 2017: Freedom for Academia, Annual Report, http://www.freedomforacademia.org/tr/ffa-annual-report-2017-2/
- 2017: “Kapılar, Yollar ve Düğümler Arasında Ömrümüzün Hikâyesi: Mültecilik Nerede Oturur?” (Where Do the Refugees Sit: Our Life Stories beyond Doors, Roads and Knots), in Yol Dergisi, Summer, 2017. https://www.yolsiyasidergi.org/kapilar-yollar-ve-dugumler-arasinda-omrumuzun-hikayesi-multecilik-nerede-oturur-h-nese-ozgen
- 2017: “The Kurdish Issue on the Frontline: Beyond, in Between and Behind the Turkish-Iraqı and Turkish- Syrian Borders”, " www.uni-marburg.de/cnms/studium/arbeitskreise/tuerkei/veranstaltungen/vorlesungsreihe_2017/oezgen
- 2016: "Bir 'Yer' Olarak Vatanın Tarihini Nasıl Yazmalıyız? Aktörler, Zamanlar ve Coğrafyalar" (Writing as Historical Past of Motherlands: Actors, Times and Geographies) speech in Tarih Vakfı, 25th Annual Conferences, Istanbul. tarihvakfi.org.tr/HaberDetay/persembekonusmalarinin26mayistakikonuklarineseozgenvegulaykayacan/7079
- 2015: İstanbul Biennale 2015 http://www.artnews.com/2015/09/02/heres-the-2015-istanbul-biennials-participant-list/ p: C8 106. Neşe Özgen-Kayıp Define / Lost Treasure (initiated by Deniz Gül) Vatan, Mülk, Define ve Hazine Olarak: Beden (Body as Motherland, Property, Treasure and Treasury) http://s3.amazonaws.com/contemporaryartgroup/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/guidebook.pdf
- 2015: “Bir Katliamda Ölümü Anlamak ve Göğüslemek Üzerine” (Confronting to a Massacre: Suruç Massacre by ISIS),Güncel Hukuk Dergisi, August 2015, http://www.guncelhukuk.com.tr/genel/bir-katliamda-olumu-anlamak-ve-goguslemek-uzerine.html..
- 2015: “Devletlerin Katılaşan Sınırları ve Mültecilik “ (On the Solidification of State borders and Refugee Issues), Conference on Savaş Mültecilik ve Felaket Kurbanlarının Kimliklendirilmesi, ATUD and İstanbul Bar Publc. Istanbul, 2016, p:22-28. www.atud.org.tr/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/thg_kitap_5.pdf
- 2014: “Roboski neydi/Çi bû Roboskî?” (What was Roboski? ) in İstenmeyen Çocuklar Roboski Katliamını Hatırlamak ve Hatırlatmak ZAROKÊN NEXWESTÎ Xebata Bîrîranin û Bibîrxistina Komkujiya Roboski. (ed. Müge Tuzcuoğlu) İletişim yay. İstanbul. p: 22-43.
- 2014. “Memorial Reconstruction of Borders as a Political Geography: Case on Armenian’s Lost Treasures in North East Anatolian after 1915”. Borders As The Space of Memory Session . “CONF/CFP- Culture and Memory . 5-7 September. Cultural Studies Assoc. and Bilkent University. Istanbul.
- 2014: “Chapter III – Expert Opinion on the Qualitative Study” in Research on the Socio-Economic Impact of the Turkey-Armenia Border. Hrant Dink Foundation Publ. hrantdink.org/en/hdv-publications/63-reports/333-research-on-the-socio-economic-impact-of-the-turkey-armenia-border
- 2014: Keynote Speech on Sealed Gate: Conference on The Prospects of the Turkey-Armenia Border by Hrant Dink Foundation, 22-23 November, Ankara. http://www.fes-tuerkei.org/media/pdf/Veranstaltungen%202014/SealedGate-englishprogramme.pdf
- 2014: “Komünal Demokrasinin İnşasında Yerel Bilgi: Dayanışma Ekonomisi (Solidarity Economics and Local Knowledge for Commons), Demokratik Modernite: Düşünce ve KURAM DERGİSİ , 2014, no:11, p:42-49. slidex.tips/download/dnce-ve-kuram-dergisi-say-11
- 2014: Sınırı Düşünmek ya da Sınırda Düşünmek” (Thinking of Border or Thinking on Border), Sınır ve Sınır dışı, (eds.) Didem Danış, İbrahim Soysüren, Notabene yay., Istanbul, p:133,143. www.insanokur.org/sinir-ve-sinirdisi-derleyen-ibrahim-soysuren/ www.contemporaryartdaily.com/tag/istanbul/
- 2013. “Construction of the Legitimacy of the State: the Mined Area in Turkey-Syria Border”. Relocating Borders: a comparative approach. Second EastBordNet Conference, 11-13 January 2013. Humboldt University and COST EastBordNet Conference. Berlin/Germany.
- 2013: “Sınır ve Sınırda İnsan Olma Hali: Sınırın Yeniden Üretilmesinde Şiddetin Rolü” ( State Violence on Borders and via Borders Beyond Human Rights), TİHGS https://hapistesaglik.com/2013/12/19/turkiyenin-insan-haklari-gundemi-konferansi-20-22-aralik/ December, 2013, e- book.
- 2013:“Politik Bir Coğrafya Olarak Sınırın Belleği: Kuzeydoğu Anadolu’da Ermenilerin Altın Gömüleri (Memorial Reconstruction of Borders as a Political Geography: Case on Armenian’s Lost Treasures in North East Anatolian after 1915), Kültür Araştırmaları Sempozyumu: semp2013.kulturad.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Program-SON-03.09.11.pdf . Mimar Sinan Güzel Sanatlar Üniversitesi. (e-book published).
- 2013: “Hoca Nasreddin İktidarlara karşı: Gezi Direnişi ve Karnaval” (Resistance of Gezi as a Carnavale: Hoca Nasreddin Confronts to Power), 11. Tez, no:0 , p: 62-65.
- 2012: “Sınır: Sınır üzerine konuşmaya başladığımızda, aslında siyaset alanının neredeyse tamamı üzerine konuşabiliriz” (Talking on Refugee and Border via LGBT Citizenship Issue) http://www.stgm.org.tr/tr/icerik/detay/7-homofobi-karsiti-bulusma-program KAOS STGM Refugee WS. May, 2012. Ankara.
- 2011. “Türkiye Cumhuriyeti'nin Kuruluşundan Günümüze; Coğrafya Ders Kitaplarında Vatanın Sonu Gelmez Kurguları” (The Endless Construction of Motherland in Geography Literatures in Turkey) , Toplum ve Bilim AHCI,no: 121, Spring. 2011. neseozgen.net/wp-content/uploads/Cografya_ders_kitaplarinda_vatanin_sonu_gelmez_anlatilari.2010.pdf
- 2010. "Crossing weekly for gambling: Casual housewives' adventures to Bulgaria” COST Action IS0803 Workgroups 2010 WS1: Eastern Peripheries On the Road: Eastern Peripheries in Everyday Border Crossings. 26-27 November 2010. Helsinki. Finland.
- 2008. "Moving Border, Moving Land Deeds: Property and Citizenship in an Eastern Anatolian Border Region", 12-14 Nov. 2008, Workshop on Re-Thinking Citizenship, Max Planck Ins. for Social Anthropology, Halle/Saale-Germany. web.eth.mpg.de/data_export/events/968/1226061679-01.pdf
- 2008, 'The Ideology of Selective Forgetting: How a Political Massacre is Remembered ın Turkey' The 33 Bullets Incident - 2008, (in) The Past as a Resource in the Turkic Speaking World, (ed.) Ildiko Bellér-Hann, Orient Institute- Ergon Verlag: Würzburg, 85-107. neseozgen.net/wp-content/uploads/68.pdf
- 2007, ’Border, State and Aşiret: The Reconstruction of Aşiret as an Ethnic Identity). 'Sınır, Devlet, Aşiret: Aşiretin Etnik Bir Kimlik Olarak Yeniden İnşası', Toplum ve Bilim, no:108, s:239-261. www.kureselkitap.com/urun/81096/dergi/iletisim-yayinlari-dergi/toplum-ve-bilim-sayi-108/ In English, please see. neseozgen.net/wp-content/uploads/67.pdf