Research Training Group World Politics RTG 2225
© Jakob Braun / Unsplash
Dr. Yasin Sunca
E-Mail: yasin.sunca@uni-bielefeld.de
Start-Up Project: Radical Peace: Historicising Conflict and Decolonizing Peace-Formation in the Kurdish Political Space
Doctoral Project (completed): The International Constitution of Democratic Confederalism: Lineages of Hegemony and Resistence in the Kurdish Political Space
- Biography
Since 10/2020 Post-Doctoral Researcher (under DFG start-up funding scheme)
Bielefeld University, RTG-2225 'World Politics', Faculty of Sociology, Germany10/2017 - 09/2020 Joint Ph.D. Degree in Political Science and Sociology
Bielefeld University, RTG-2225 'World Politics', Faculty of Sociology, Germany
Ghent University, Department of Conflict and Development Studies, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Belgium03/2018 - 04/2018 Visiting Researcher
EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris, France (In coordination with Prof. Dr. Hamit Bozarslan)09/2012 - 06/2013 Master's degree in Political Science
Université Libre de Bruxelles, Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Belgium- Abstract
The research aims at analyzing the processes and ways in which the Kurdish movement led by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq has worked to build space for its ideological and political claims to be intelligible, operational and effective in local and international realms over the past four decades. This research engages with the PKK sociologically, historically and internationally in order to reveal the causal mechanisms that conditioned the building of such a transnational political space. The term "building political space" is understood as the international relations of the PKK in the making of democratic confederalism, which implies the radical decentralization of neighboring nation-states where the Kurds live and attempts to establish a self-governance model based on direct democracy to ultimately render the nation-state borders meaningless. As an ideological stance and every-day political practice particularly in the Kurdish regions of Turkey, Iraq and Syria, democratic confederalism constitutes a space where the PKK and in/organically related structures are operational. This practice radically challenges both mainstream IR theories and the states-system in the Middle East. By taking up an approach based on the co-constituent role of "global" and "local" in development, this research seeks to understand the role of agency in social and political transformations at global, regional and local levels. The research ultimately aims to contribute in the redefinition of IR beyond state-centrism and it is grounded upon an inter-societal conceptualization of IR over longue durée - international historical sociology.
- Publications
- Sunca, Y. (2021). 'The Revolution in Rojava and the International', in: S. Holtgreve, K. Preuß and M. Albert (eds.), Envisioning the World: Mapping and Making the Global. Bielefeld: transcript, pp. 105-124.
- Sunca, Y. (2020). 'The Bifurcated Trajectory of Nation Formation in Kurdistan: Democratic Confederalism, Nationalism and the Crisis of Capitalist Modernity', Nations and Nationalism. DOI: 10.1111/nana.12609.
- Sunca, Y. (with N. Alici) (2018). 'Constructing Local Critique Universally: An Approach to Peace Studies beyond Eurocentrism', Off-University conference proceedings (Available in Turkish and German).
- Sunca, Y. (2016). Infrastructures for Peace in Turkey. A Mapping Study. Berlin: Berghof Foundation.
- Conferences
- Sunca, Y. (2019). 'The Revolution in Rojava and the International'. Paper presented at the workshop 'Envisioning the Global: Perspectives, Positions, Communities', 21-22 November, Bielefeld University.
- Sunca, Y. (with A. Elmuradov, S. Holtgreve, M. Jacobsen, K. Preuss and G. Vásquez) (2019). Organisation of the RTG workshop 'Envisioning the Global, Engendering Agency: Perspectives, Positions, Communities', 21-22 November, Bielefeld University.
- Sunca, Y. (2019). Participation in the RTG workshop 'Organising Competition & Contestation in World Politics', 24-25 October, Bielefeld University.
- Sunca, Y. (2019). 'Eurocentrism, Nationalism and the Politico-social Structures in South Kurdistan'. Guest lecture at Sulaimani Polytechnic University, 29 September, Iraq.
- Sunca, Y. (2019). 'Global Movement for (Radical) Democracy: The PKK and the new internationalism'. Paper presented at the conference 'Third International Kurdish Studies Conference', 25-26 May, Middlesex University, London, UK.
- Sunca, Y. (2019). 'Rethinking internationalist solidarity: A new internationalism beyond the dichotomies of capitalist modernity'. Paper presented at the Conference 'Autonomy Beyond the Nation-State: Theory, History, Practice', 4 April, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK.
- Sunca, Y. (2019). 'Eurocentrism, the Left and the New Internationalism?. Workshop organised with the Rosa Luxembourg Foundation, 13-14 March, Berlin, Germany.
- Sunca, Y. (with T. Reinhardt) (2019). 'Global Movement for (Radical) Democracy: The PKK and the New Internationalism'. Paper presented at SeSaMO conference 'Italian Middle East Studies Association', 30 January-02 February, Turin, Italy.
- Sunca, Y. (2019). 'The new internationalism and the conditions for a common struggle'. Paper presented at the panel organised by HDK Belgique, 19 January, Belgium.
- Sunca, Y. (2019). Organisation of a guest lecture 'The international construction of nationalism: Societal multiplicity and nation formation', by Dr. Kamran Matin, 15 January, Bielefeld University.
- Sunca, Y. (2018). 'Bifurcated Trajectory of Nation Formation in Kurdistan: Democratic Confederalism, Nationalism and the Crisis of Capitalist Modernity'. Guest lecture at the seminar 'West Asian History', 27 November, Erfurt University, Germany.
- Sunca, Y. (2018). Participation in the RTG workshop 'Balance & Competition in World Politics', 09-10 November, Bielefeld University.
- Sunca, Y. (2018). 'From Sub-strata to Sub-strata: Understanding the Failure of Revolutions'. Paper presented at the workshop 'Imagining Belonging in World Politics: Concepts, Practices and Struggles', 02 October, Bielefeld University.
- Sunca, Y. (with A. Elmuradov, S. Holtgreve, M. Jacobsen, K. Preuss and G. Vásquez) (2018). Organisation of the RTG workshop 'Imagining Belonging in World Politics: Concepts, Practices and Struggles', 01-02 October, Bielefeld University.
- Sunca, Y. (2018). 'Bifurcated Trajectory of Self-determination in Kurdistan: Two Responses to the Global Political Crisis'. Paper presented at the World Congress for Middle Eastern Studies, 16-22 July, Seville, Spain.
- Sunca, Y. (2018). 'Two Responses to the Global Political Crisis: Kurdistan in the Age of Uncertainties'. Paper presented at the ASN European Conference 'Nationalism in Times of Uncertainty', Centre for Southeast European Studies, 04-06 July, University of Graz, Austria.
- Sunca, Y. (2018). 'Democratic Confederalism: Re-imagining Political Space beyond Territorial Nation-State'. Paper presented at the Violence, Space and the Political Conference, 07-09 June, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland.