Apply
People

Berna Turam

Professor of Sociology and International Affairs

Berna Turam, Professor of Sociology at Northeastern University, has an abiding interest in conducting research on state-society interaction, including the interplay between violent borders of security regimes and irregular border-crossers. She is the author of Between Islam and the State: The Politics of Engagement (Stanford University Press, 2007) and Gaining Freedoms: Claiming Space in Istanbul and Berlin (Stanford University Press, 2015), and the editor of Secular State and Religious Society: Two Forces at Play in Turkey (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012). Turam was the recipient of Fulbright Research scholarship in 2021-22, Max Planck fellowship in 2018 and, Erasmus fellowship at Cosmopolis 4CITIES in Brussels in 2017. She wrote several articles in journals including Political Geography, International Journal of Urban and Regional Studies, Journal of Urban Affairs, Journal of Democracy, Nations and Nationalism and British Journal of Sociology. Her forthcoming book, The Geopolitics of Fear: From Security to Solidarity at Europe’s Racial Borders (Stanford University Press, 2025) is based on 7 years of ethnography conducted in the EU’s securitized external Southern borders with the Middle East and North Africa. Having traced border resistance against Europe’s racial border regime from the East to the Central Mediterranean, Turam reveals and analyzes the dialectics between top-down securitization sustained by fear and bottom-up resistance empowered by the sense of safety and local trust. The ethnography contextualizes how historically and geographically situated emotions, which she qualifies as geopolitical, interrupt and guide the interplay between racial security and (pro)migrant resistance. Disclosing how safe places are carved out in border cities, she argues that refugees and migrants became catalysts of transformation from violence and insecurity to peaceful native-migrant solidarity in the two marginalized peripheries of Europe, Greece and Sicily.

View CV
  • 2021- . Advisory Board member, Middle East Law and Governance
  • 2021-2022. Fulbright Scholar
  • 2019.  Visiting Professor, University of Trento, Italy
  • 2018.  Max Planck Fellowship, Gottingen-Germany
  • 2017.  Erasmus Fellowship, Vrje University, Cosmopolis 4CITIES, Brussels
  • 2016.  Dahrendorf Fellowship at LSE, European Studies (Spring-summer), London
  • 2016-17.  Humanities Center Fellowship Residency, “Inclusions,” Northeastern University
  • 2014-21.  Editorial Board, Signs
  • 2013-21.  Editorial Board, Turkish Review
  • 2013.  Best Article award by International Journal of Urban and Regional Research
  • 2010-13. Editorial Board, IJMES, International Journal of Middle East Politics (by Cambridge University Press)

 

Books:

  • The Geopolitics of Fear: From Security to Solidarity at Europe’s Racial Borders (Stanford University Press, 2025).
  • Gaining Freedoms: Claiming Space in Istanbul and Berlin (Stanford University Press, 2015).
  • Secular State and Religious Society: Two Forces at Play in Turkey (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012).
  • Turkiye’de Islam ve Devlet: Demokrasi, Etkilesim, Donusum. (Istanbul: Bilgi Universitesi Yayinlari., 2011).
    (Turkish translation of Between Islam and the State.)
  • “Secular Muslims?” Special issue,  Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, 29:3 (co-edited with Monica Ringer, 2009).
  • Between Islam and the State: The Politics of Engagement (Stanford University Press, 2007).

Selected Articles:

  • 2024. ““The Geopolitics of Fear: Pro-refugee Resistance against Europe’s Racial Security” Political Geography.https://authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S0962-6298(23)00225-1 (published online in 2023).
  • 2021. “Turkey’s Final exam on Freedom: Boğazici University Fights the Authoritarian Regime,” Social Research: An International Quarterly, 88 (2): 587-618. Project MUSE muse.jhu.edu/article/836669.
  • 2021. “Refugees in the Borderlands: Safe Places versus Securitization in Athens-Greece,” Journal of Urban Affairs, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07352166.2021.1925128.
  • 2019. “The Contested City as a Bulwark against Populism: How Resilient is Istanbul?” In Weinstein, L. (Ed.) Spotlight:Political Geographies of Right-Wing Populism. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 43 (5).
  • 2017. “Split City, Divided State in Turkey” Contemporary Islam, 11(2), 185-199.
  • 2015. “Gulenology.” American Interest, March issue.
  • 2013. “Primacy of Space in Politics: Bargaining Space, Power and Freedom in an Istanbul neighborhood,” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research: 37 (2). (awarded best article by IJURR)
  • 2012. “Turkey Under AKP: Are Rights and Liberties Safe?” Journal of Democracy, 23 (1), January issue.
  • 2008. “Turkish Women Divided by Politics: Secular Activism versus Islamic Non- defiance” International Feminist Journal of Politics, 10 (4).
  • 2004. “The Politics of engagement between Islam and the state: ambivalences of civil society” British Journal of Sociology, vol. 55(2)
    • Reprinted in Shahram Akbarzadeh (ed) 2006. Islam and Globalization. Routledge
  • 2004. “A bargain between the secular state and Turkish Islam: politics of ethnicity in Kazakhstan”, Nations and Nationalism, vol.10 (3).

Related Schools & Departments

Related Research Centers

Courses

Course catalog

  • Borders and Racial Security

    INTL 3350

    Presents a comprehensive overview of governance of borders across the world. Addresses the disconnect and tension between the concept of a world without borders and the post–September 11 realities of increased border securitization. Explores the link between securitized borders and racism by unpacking the concept of racial security. Critically examines how borders are used to treat various groups and people differently, and introduces an intersectional analysis of race, ethnicity, gender, and class. Explores the geopolitics of securitized borders, border cities, and bordering practices beyond material border zones. Analyzes cross-border activities, transnational human rights activism, and freedom of mobility.

  • Cities in a Global Context

    INTL 3200

    Examines the roots of the urbanization process, major ways of thinking about it, and the development of world cities and megacities. The twenty-first century will be a century in which urbanism is a central problem and opportunity. Considers the economic, political, cultural, and environmental dimensions of urbanism across the globe. Includes specific case studies from around the world. Encourages students to develop a knowledge of particular cities in order to examine the key themes of the course.

  • International Migration

    SOCL 7229

    Offers an in-depth critical sociological inquiry into international migration across the world. Addresses the disconnect and tension between the international agreements (principles of international law and legal definitions) and actual experiences and everyday practices of human mobility across borders on the ground. By critically examining how irregular migration has been racialized, securitized, and criminalized in the age of the war on terror, this seminar engages an intersectional analysis of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, and class. Uses ethnographies, case studies, documentaries, and comparative analysis to analyze a wide range of issues from integration, inclusion/exclusion, and racialization of migrants to promigrant movements and native-migrant solidarity.

Related Topics