Birgul Kutan
Birgul Kutan
Affiliation: University of Sussex
Project Role: Country facilitator for Syria/Turkey

Dr Birgul Kutan is Researcher at the University of Sussex. She has a PhD in Geography and two MAs (one in human geography, one in international development) from the University of Bristol. She is a political geographer and ethnographer with expertise in contemporary politics and social movements in Turkey. Birgul’s work primarily focuses on the crucial role non-state actors play in social change. Major themes in her work include notions of democracy and human rights, nation state, social movements, prefigurative politics, gender politics and struggles, decoloniality, knowledge production and construction of new futures, especially in relations to social movements constructing new paradigms towards creating new political societies around the world. She has recently completed research on a major ESRC funded project exploring ‘Learning and Knowledge Production in the Struggle for Peace with Social Justice’ in Turkey, Colombia, South Africa and Nepal. Dr Kutan led the research on the HDK (Peoples Democratic Congress).