Dr. Mert Pekşen

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

Pekşen has completed his 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”. His 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. Pekşens' 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 remembrance, and critical cartography.

Pekşen is also the local coordinator of the EuMIGS Double-Degree Program, as well as the deputy coordinator of the EuMIGS Erasmus+ Cooperation Partnership. To website

Publications

Pekşen, M. (2022). Reluctant border agents: Enlistment of transportation workers in procedures to limit refugee mobilities in Turkey. Citizenship Studies, 1–16. Advance online publication. doi.org/10.1080/13621025.2022.2137945

Peksen, M. (2021) Displacing the border: Refugees, law, and geography in Turkey. Graduate Center, City University of New York. https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/4355/ 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)

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

2021. “Production of Syrian refugee illegality”. Geographies of the Law: Inquiries into the Space-Law Tangle. University of Turin. December 14.

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.

2013. "An analytical approach to displacement of Kurds in Turkey during the 1990s", Forced Migration: Global Perspectives and Practices, UCL Migration Unit Conference, University College London, June 12.