CFD Team Spotlight: Cemile Dincer, Postdoctoral Associate
The Newsletter Team sat down with one of our postdoctoral associates, Cemile Dincer, for an interview about her work, passions, hobbies, and special CFD projects. The transcript of our interview is below.
CFD Team: Tell us a bit about yourself.
I am from Turkey, Ankara. I am a feminist researcher working at the intersections of gender and migration. Although I earned my PhD in sociology from Middle East Technical University in Ankara, my academic background is interdisciplinary, with a bachelor’s degree in economics and a master’s in gender and women’s studies.
Currently, in my postdoctoral research, I investigate Turkey’s deportation regime and the production of women refugees deportability through an intersectional feminist lens. I explore the relationship between deportability and right-wing ideologies, such as racism and anti-gender movements, which are on the rise on a global scale.
CFD Team: What is your role within the Center?
I am a postdoctoral associate at the Center, where I lead my own research project while also contributing to the Center’s research initiatives and activities both in and beyond Turkey.
CFD Team: What experiences most directly led you to your role with the Center?
I have been working on migration and forced displacement for over a decade. My engagement with migration began during my master’s thesis, where I examined the experiences of migrant women domestic workers in Turkey. Later, for my PhD dissertation, I conducted ethnographic research with Iranian refugee women in Turkey who were seeking asylum and awaiting resettlement to the Global North. My research demonstrates that during their waiting in Turkey, refugee women experience multiple forms of gendered violence, including violent encounters with asylum authorities, physical and emotional violence in the small cities they reside, precarious material conditions, labor exploitation, and the constant risk of deportation. However, by locating refugee women’s experiences at the center of knowledge production, my dissertation also shows that women create solidarity and care ties among themselves and find creative ways to navigate the restrictions of the asylum regime.
Over the years, alongside my own research projects, I have contributed as a researcher to numerous studies on migration, borders, asylum, civil society, women’s labor, and gender. However, my engagement with migration, border, and feminist studies extends beyond academia—I have been actively involved in various migrant solidarity and feminist groups, where my scholarly interests are deeply shaped by my activism in feminist and migrant solidarity movements in Turkey and beyond.
This long-standing engagement with forced displacement, both as a researcher and activist, has led to my role with the Center.
CFD Team: Where do you see yourself in five years?
It’s hard to predict where I will be in five years, but I am certain that wherever I am, I will continue conducting research, reading, and writing.
CFD Team: What is your current passion project with the Center you would like to highlight? Why does this project resonate with you?
My primary passion project at the Center is my own research on Turkey’s deportation regime. At a time when deportations have become a key instrument of border governance, I find it crucial to focus on this mechanism, produce knowledge to amplify marginalized voices and challenge the legitimacy of deportation and confinement. Additionally, my research seeks to foster new collaborations between grassroots organizations in Turkey and strengthen transnational activist networks. In this context, we are planning to organize workshops, which is particularly exciting for me to organize, as they will provide a space for collective among various actors -activists, scholars, lawyers- learning and thinking.
Beyond my research, I deeply value the interdisciplinary environment at the Center. This semester, I am especially excited about our work on the Hub Course in preparation for the summer school in Belgrade. The experience of co-teaching with brilliant scholars and engaging with a diverse group of students has been truly inspiring and intellectually stimulating.