Görkem Aydemir
Anthropology Ph.D. program
Yeat of Entry: Fall 2013.
Advisor: Sarah E. Wagner
Conflict, displacement and mobility, borders, the state, uncertainty, time, materiality, affect, infrastructure, post-Soviet spaces, the Caucasus
My dissertation project, Eventful Things of a “Frozen Conflict:” Contingency, Time, and Materiality in the Contested Periphery of Georgia, explores the temporal and material anatomy of lives under a decades long “frozen conflict” between Georgia and breakaway Abkhazia. With its focus on the Gali district where contested mobilities and uncertainty reconfigure everyday lives of a displaced community, my project investigates the workings of contingency, and people’s temporal and material orientations in navigating long-term uncertainty and political ambivalence. My research has been supported by National Science Foundation, and the Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies.
Published and Working Papers
2021 “Contingent Homes: Mobility and Long-term Conflict in the Contested Periphery of Georgia." Journal of Refugee Studies. Volume 34, Issue 1.
2021 "Uncertainty and Viral Emergencies in the Margins of Georgia." Anthropology News. DOI: 10.14506/AN.1603
2017 “Constructing Lives on the Move: Displacement and Return in the de facto Georgia-Abkhazia Borderland.” In Maintaining Refuge: Anthropological Reflections in Uncertain Times, edited by David Hanes, Jayne Howell and Fethi Keles. Committee on Refugee and Immigrants. AAA.
In preparation “Homes in Decay: Repair, Ruination, and Long-term Displacement in Collective Centers of Georgia”
In preparation “Generative Exhaustions: Time, Contingency, and Stinkbug Infestation in Georgia’s Disputed Borderland”
MA (Anthropology), 2016, George Washington University
MA (Cultural Studies), 2010, Sabanci University
BA (English Literature), 2006, Bogazici University