I am a social and political geographer, and a member of the Institute for Migration Research and Intercultural Studies (IMIS) and the Institute for Geography at Osnabrück University since 2021.

I have completed my doctoral studies at the Graduate Center, City University of New York in June 2021 with a dissertation on the topic of “Displacing the border: Refugees, law, and geography in Turkey”. My dissertation analyzed the policies and practices through which Turkey (re-)constructs the border at different geographic scales to control the mobility and distribution of refugees within and across its territory. My research interests include borders, geographic migration research, geographies of bordering and containment, spaces of racism, urban geography, legal geography, as well as the geographies of memory, and critical cartography.

I am part of the local coordination team of the EuMIGS Double-Degree Program, as well as the deputy coordinator of the EuMIGS Erasmus+ Cooperation Partnership (www.eumigs.eu)

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Ich bin Sozial- und Politikgeograph und seit 2021 Mitglied des Instituts für Migrationsforschung und Interkulturelle Studien (IMIS) und des Instituts für Geographie der Universität Osnabrück.

Ich habe mein Promotion am Graduate Center, City University of New York im Juni 2021 mit einer Dissertation zum Thema „Displacing the border: Refugees, law, and geography in Turkey“ (Juni 2021) abgeschlossen. In meiner Dissertation untersuchte ich die Politiken und Praktiken, mit denen die Türkei die Grenze auf verschiedenen geografischen Ebenen (re)konstruiert, um die Mobilität und Verteilung von Geflüchteten zu kontrollieren.

Meine Forschungsinteressen sind Grenzen und Grenzregime, geographische Migrationsforschung, politische Geographien der Migration, Geographien des Rassismus, Stadtforschung, legal geography, Erinnerungspolitik, und kritisiche Kartographie.

Ich bin der lokale Koordinator des EuMIGS Double-Degree-Programms sowie der stellvertretende Koordinator der EuMIGS Erasmus+ Kooperationspartnerschaft (www.eumigs.eu)

Publications

Scharrer, T., Lambert, L., Millar, S., Pekşen, M., & Laakkonen, V. (2024). Contested future-making incontainment: Temporalities, infrastructures and agency. Comparative Migration Studies, 12(1), 54. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40878-024-00413-z

Kubiak, D., & Pekşen, M. (2024). Defending Democracy is an Ongoing Task (No. 26/2; Germany Brief). Istanbul Bilgi University - European Institute. https://eu.bilgi.edu.tr/media/files/GB_26_TR.pdf

Brahm E., Ferstl, J., Pekşen, M. (2023). DeZIMinute #14: Die Dokumentation rassistischer Gewalt in Deutschland: Warum Angaben über ihr Ausmaß so unterschiedlich sind. https://www.dezim-institut.de/publikationen/publikation-detail/rassistische-gewalt-in-deutschland/

Balistreri A., Pekşen, M. (2023) Borders, territory, and the Republic of Turkey. Diyar: Zeitschrift für Osmanistik, Türkei- und Nahostforschung / Journal of Ottoman, Turkish and Middle Eastern Studies, 4(2), 189–209. https://doi.org/10.5771/2625-9842-2023-2-189

Müller, A., Pekşen M., Kubiak, D., Brahm, E. Gencal K., Pabst, R. (2023). Rassistisch motivierte Anschläge und ihre sozialräumliche Wirkmächtigkeit: Zur Konstitution von Räumen der Migrationsgesellscahft. In “Polarisierte Welten” – Verhandlungsband zum 41. Kongress der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie 2022, 1–11. https://publikationen.soziologie.de/index.php/kongressband_2022/article/view/1658

Pekşen, M. (2023). Refugee Illegality: Governing Refugees via Rescaling Borders in Turkey. Journal of Refugee Studies, 36/4, 897-916. https://doi.org/10.1093/jrs/fead050

Peksen, M. (2021) Displacing the border: Refugees, law, and geography in Turkey. Graduate Center, City University of New York. Available upon request.

Peksen, M. (2013) A Conceptual discussion on forced migration: A case study of displacement of Kurds in Turkey during 1990s. Diemen: AMB Press.

Presentations (selection)

2024. “Maps, anti-racism, and the documentation of racist and right-wing violence in Germany”. Department Colloquium – Department of Sociology and Human Geography - Paris-Lodron-Universität-Salzburg. Salzburg, Austria. June 6.

2024. “Displacing the border: Refugees, law, and geography in Turkey”. Dissertation Workshop. Paris-Lodron-Universität-Salzburg. Salzburg, Austria. June 5.

2024. “Maps as archives of the present: Mapping of right-wing violence in Germany”. Neue Kulturgeographie 2024. Münster. May 25.

2023. “Mapping right-wing violence in Germany”. Jahrestagung des AK Geographische Migrationsforschung 2023. Osnabrück. November 24.

2023. "Institutional memory of refugee mobility governance in Turkey". Turkologentag 2023. Vienna. September 21.

2023. "Smugglers, rescuers, informers: Negotiations of bordering by local residents in a coastal town in Turkey". IMISCOE Annual Conference 2023, Warsaw. July 7.

2023. "Memorialization of racial violence: Thirty years after the arson attack in Solingen". Osnabrücker Geographisches Kolloquium. June 7.

2023. "Spaces of migration society. On the socio-spatial effects of racially motivated attacks in cities". DeZIM-FG Wednesday. February 22. (with Kübra Gencal, Daniel Kubiak, and Anna-Lisa Müller)

2022. "Internal borders, illegality, and deportation". Social Justice, Cities, Citizenship Research Group, University of Leeds. November 23

2021. “Production of refugee illegality”. New Directions in Law and Society. Center for Justice, Law, and Societies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. October 9.

2021. “Future-making while waiting for resettlement in Turkey”. 18th IMISCOE Annual Conference. July 8.

2021. “Reluctant border agents: The contested role of transportation workers in refugee mobility governance in Turkey”. 4th CeMig Migration Lab – Socio-legal Perspectives on Borders. University of Göttingen, January 22.

2020. “Double rescaling: City as a confinement space for refugees in Turkey”. 4th International Conference for Carceral Geography. Brussels, December 15.

2019. “Travel documents, vehicles, and drivers: Governing large-scale refugee mobility in Turkey”. Governing Migration Beyond ‘Fortress Europe’, Cambridge, UK. September 17. 

2019. “Displacing the border: New spaces and actors of governing refugee mobility in Turkey”. American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting, Washington D.C. April 3.

2017. "The EU-Turkey deal: Can Turkey solve Europe's refugee reception crisis?" EES Student Research Day, CUNY, April 7.