Dr. Besim Zirh is currently an Assistant Professor in the Sociology Department at Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara, Turkey.  His areas of research and interest include Transnational Social Movements, Transnational Identities, Religion and Minorities in Turkey, Anthropology of Death and Anthropology of Religion. Dr. Zirh gave public lectures in January 2015 at St. Thomas University.

He received his Ph.D. in Anthropology from University College London (UCL) in London, United Kingdom.  His Ph.D. research concerned the transnational funeral practices of the Turkish Alevi diaspora in Europe (the Alevis are Turkey’s largest religious minority).  He has previously been a visiting researcher at Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany, at Oslo University in Oslo, Norway, and at the University of Ljublijana in Ljublijana, Slovenia.

Dr. Zırh’s schedule:

a.) Several guest lectures in:

•          Sociology (SOCI 3223 A Globalization and Gender – Understanding Transnational Households and Motherhood),
•          Sociology (SOCI 3033 A Research Strategies– Doing Anthropology at Home: Researching Alevi Turks as Non-Alevi),
•          Gerontology (GERO 2273 A Death and Dying – Transnational funeral practices)
•          Political Science (POLS 1603 B Global Politics – The tension between trans nationality and the nation-state)
•          History (HIST-2553-B (9911) History of the Islamic World – Minorities in Ottoman Empire and Oral History)

 

b.) A public talk sponsored by GISI, Sociology Department, and  IWH (Institute for World History), Ted Daigle Auditorium, January 28th, Wednesday 7 – 9:30, TBA

c.) Visits to Atlantic Centre for Qualitative Research and Analysis (ACQRA)

Click here for the media release at St. Thomas University and also to check out Dr. Zirh’s official schedule of lectures

Attached below is Dr. Besim Zırh’s curriculum vitae :