Dr. Gülay Kilicaslan

Q1. Who are you?

I am a political sociologist holding a PhD from the Department of Sociology at York University, Canada. My dissertation examines the impacts of forced displacement on the dynamics of political mobilisation in the context of Kurdish contentious politics. My writings on Kurdish forced migrants, Kurdish political movements, migrant agency, decolonial feminisms, gender-based online violence and digital feminist activism have appeared in scholarly edited books and journals.

Q2. What was your motivation for applying for the FFVT fellowship? Why Germany?

My future research project comparatively explores the resettlement experiences of Yezidi genocide survivors and their community mobilisation strategies in Germany and Canada. The FFVT fellowship and BICC offer a great opportunity to further develop my future research project, explore the German migration context more, and connect with scholars of forced migration and refugee studies for future collaborations.

Q3. What do you expect from the fellowship?

I expect to exchange ideas and research experiences, as well as share knowledge with experts in forced migration and refugee studies engaged in the FFVT network. Thus, I will contribute to the FFVT’s project objectives of expanding academic collaborations, promoting transnational networking as well as supporting an evidence-based research approach to the forced migration ecosystem in Germany.

Q4. What is the focus of your work, and what is innovative about it? / What are your planned outcomes and activities for the fellowship period? And how do they relate to your FFVT hosting institution/ the FFVT cooperation project?

In my research, I focus on the interplay between forced displacement and the dynamics of political mobilisation in colonial contexts. I am currently developing a cross-national comparative project that investigates the resettlement processes of Yazidi newcomer communities who are genocide survivors in Canada and Germany. For the fellowship period, I aim to develop my project further and conduct preliminary fieldwork about the resettlement system in Germany and connect with the Yezidi migrant community of Germany.