Dr. Zeynep Kaya joined the Department in May 2021, having previously worked at LSE. She holds a PhD in International Relations from the LSE. Her main research areas involve borderlands, territoriality, conflict, peace, political legitimacy and gender. She has recently published a monograph entitled Mapping Kurdistan: Territory, Self-Determination and Nationalism with Cambridge University Press.

Zeynep is co-editor of I.B. Tauris-Bloomsbury’s book series on Kurdish studies and co-convenor of Kurdish Studies Series with the LSE Middle East Centre. She is also an Academic Associate at Pembroke College, University of Cambridge.
My research adopts an international historical sociology approach to the study of territoriality, borderlands and political legitimacy in the Middle East. I examine how politics related to these concepts change over time in connection with the transformation of international norms in world history. I am particularly interested in understanding non-state political actors (either sub-national or transnational) through situating them within an international context. I specifically focus on the Kurds and other groups in the borderlands of the Ottoman Empire and contemporary states in ex-Ottoman territories.

A second theme of my research is about the interactions between international and non-state actors in relation to peace, conflict and development processes in the Middle East today. I examine contemporary peacebuilding and development policies on gender, minorities and displacement in Iraq and situate this examination within a long-term political and historical international context
Publications
Books

Kaya ZN (2020) Mapping Kurdistan Territory, Self-Determination and Nationalism. Cambridge University Press. View this article in WRRO RIS download Bibtex download

Journal articles

Whiting M & Kaya ZN (2021) Autocratization, permanent emergency rule and local politics: lessons from the Kurds in Turkey. Democratization. View this article in WRRO RIS download Bibtex download
Kaya Z (2020) Sexual violence, identity and gender: ISIS and the Yezidis. Conflict, Security & Development, 20(5), 631-652. View this article in WRRO RIS download Bibtex download
Kaya ZN & Whiting M (2019) The HDP, the AKP and the battle for Turkish democracy. Ethnopolitics, 18(1), 92-106. View this article in WRRO RIS download Bibtex download
Kaya Z & Whiting M (2017) Sowing division: Kurds in the Syrian war. Middle East Policy, 24(1), 79-91. View this article in WRRO RIS download Bibtex download
Kaya Z & Keranen O (2015) Constructing Identity through Symbols by Groups Demanding Self-determination: Bosnian Serbs and Iraqi Kurds. Ethnopolitics, 14(5), 505-512. View this article in WRRO RIS download Bibtex download

Chapters

Kaya Z, Güneş Murat Tezcür GM & Sevdeen BM (2021) Survival, Coexistence, and Autonomy: Yezidi Political Identity after Genocide In Tezcür GM (Ed.), Kurds and Yezidis in the Middle East: Shifting Identities, Borders, and the Experiences of Minority Communities (pp. 77-96). London: I.B. Tauris Bloomsbury. View this article in WRRO RIS download Bibtex download
Kaya Z (2021) Orientalist Views of Kurds and Kurdistan In Tezcür GM (Ed.), Kurds and Yezidis in the Middle East: Shifting Identities, Borders, and the Experiences of Minority Communities London: I.B. Tauris Bloomsbury. View this article in WRRO RIS download Bibtex download
Kaya Z & Whiting M (2020) The Kurdish Question In Whiting M & Özerdem A (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Turkish Politics (pp. 231-241). London: Routledge. View this article in WRRO RIS download Bibtex download
Kaya Z & Lowe R (2017) The curious question of the PYD-PKK relationship In Stansfield G & Shareef M (Ed.), The Kurdish Question Revisited Oxford University Press RIS download Bibtex download
Kaya Z () Women’s Peace Work: Navigating Religious and Tribal Norms in Iraq In Al-Baghdadi N & Zagaria V (Ed.), Spoils of War and Gendered Transformations London: Bloomsbury. RIS download Bibtex download

Reports

Kaya Z, Makki I & Eva T (2022) Listening to Women's Rights Organisations: The UK's Gender and WPS Practice in Iraq RIS download Bibtex download
Kaya Z (2021) Women and Peace in Iraq: Opportunities, Challenges and Prospects for a Better Future View this article in WRRO RIS download Bibtex download
Kaya Z (2020) Feminist Peace and Security in the Middle East and North Africa View this article in WRRO RIS download Bibtex download
Kaya Z & Bond H (2019) Women, Peace and Security and Displacement in the Middle East View this article in WRRO RIS download Bibtex download
Kaya Z & Luchtenberg K (2018) Displacement and women's economic empowerment: voices of displaced women in the Kurdistan region of Iraq View this article in WRRO RIS download Bibtex download
Kaya Z (2016) Women, Peace and Security in Iraq: Iraq's National Action Plan to implement Resolution 1325 View this article in WRRO RIS download Bibtex download
Kaya Z & Whiting M (2016) Tackling radicalism in Turkey View this article in WRRO RIS download Bibtex download

Working papers

Kaya Z (2019) Iraq's Yazidis and ISIS: The Causes and Consequences of Sexual Violence in Conflict. View this article in WRRO RIS download Bibtex download
Kaya Z, Dodge T, Luchtenberg K, Mathieu-Comtois S, Saleh B, van den Toorn C, Turpin-King A & Watkins J (2018) Iraq synthesis paper: understanding the drivers of conflict in Iraq. Conflict Research Programme. View this article in WRRO RIS download Bibtex download
Kaya Z (2018) Resilience policy and internally displaced women in Iraq: an unintentionally flawed approach. LSE Women, Peace and Security Working Paper Series, 13. View this article in WRRO RIS download Bibtex download
Kaya Z (2017) Gender and Statehood in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. LSE Middle East Centre Paper Series, 18. View this article in WRRO RIS download Bibtex download

Grants

HEIF Knowledge Exchange & Impact Fund, £27K: UK's gender practice in aid and security (2022)
NAFR1180137 British Academy, £5K, Post-conflict emergency rule as a tool of everyday government in Turkey (2020-2021)
KEI Fund (LSE), £45K, Displacement and WPS in Iraq (2017-2019)
262164UCF GRRI Collaboration Grant, £24K: Victimhood, survival and societal transformation among the Yezidis in Iraq (2017-2019)
GB-1-- 204428 DFID, £6million (named lead researcher): Conflict Research Programme (2017-2020) led by Mary Kaldor and Alex de Waal
RLWK6-261840247 British Council Researcher Links, £32K: Displacement, social welfare and human security in Turkey: challenges and prospects (2018-2019)
Emirates Foundation, £90K: Complexity of humanitarian response to internal displacement in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (2016-2018)
Rockefeller Fund, £6K: Disaster and displacement: the resilience of women in Iraq and Nepal (2016-2017)
Emirates Foundation, £90K: International actors and women’s rights in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (2013-2016)

Teaching activities

Dr Zeynep Kaya currently teaches:

POL126 World's Wicked Problems
POL242 Tackling World's Wicked Problems
POL6970 Debating International Relations
Professional activities and memberships

Co-Founder and Co-Editor of Kurdish Studies Book Series I.B. Tauris-Bloomsbury
Co-Convenor of the Kurdish Studies Events Series, LSE Middle East Centre
Specialist Adviser, UK Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee (2017-2018)
Fellow of the Higher Education Authority
PhD Supervision

I would be interested in supervising doctoral research projects looking at

borders
nationalism
Kurdish politics
non-state actors
gender
international politics of the Middle East.[1]