In this talk, Nazan Bedirhanoglu reflects on the use of symbols and narratives as building blocks of the Kurdish diasporic identity and share insights about her field research on the Kurdish diaspora in the United States.

Kurds are denied their basic human rights in their home region, divided by Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria, and struggle against the assimilation by their governments. Many Kurds see these governments as colonial powers, and they construct their identity with symbols and narratives defying inner-colonial rhetoric. Bedirhanoglu explores the production and representation of diasporic traditions through the use of these symbols and narratives in the making and recasting of a Kurdish identity away from home.

Nazan Bedirhanoglu is a Freedom Project Post-Doctoral fellow in the Political Science Department at Wellesley College. She is a 2019 Newhouse Center summer faculty fellow.