Begüm Ergün

Begüm Ergün is a Ph.D. candidate in anthropology and a migration activist with over a decade of grassroots experience in Turkey. She is currently completing her dissertation on the everyday homemaking practices of displaced Syrians living in Istanbul’s urban peripheries. Grounded in multimodal ethnographic fieldwork, Begüm’s research investigates the somatic impacts of political violence, urban marginality, and ongoing disasters. To learn more about Begüm’s research and publications, visit her webpage.

In Spring 2026, Begüm was awarded a summer mini-grant which will support the presentation of her dissertation research at the RC21 (Research Committee on Urban and Regional Development) conference in Vienna, organized by the International Sociological Association. Engaging in broader interdisciplinary dialogues across the social sciences, her presentations will examine how peripheral urban isolation fractures displaced communities’ material relationships with the city, and how the constant anticipation of new disasters creates a temporal suspension that disconnects them from the spaces they inhabit.