An Overview of my Current Projects
The changing relationship between archaeology and anthropology has been a long-term interest of mine, both from the point of view of the methodological and philosophical differences between these two strands of anthropology. Specifically, I have looked at the way the remains of the past are understood in a local village near Çatalhöyük in Turkey.
Throughout my career, I have had an interest in the history of anthropology, and in the intellectual trajectories of specific thinkers within the modern discipline. From one point of view, these explorations may be regarded as the intellectual starting points for my own development as an anthropologist. But from another, they provide a focal point for various articles and essays that I have occasionally published over the years. I give here a selection of such thinkers and their contributions in particular where I have written, or am writing, more widely about them.
From the beginning of the 21st century, I have been observing patterns of small-scale migration from Turkey to Germany and Austria. This project was initially supported by the Humboldt Foundation and the UK Economic and Social Research Council. In 2024, this was further supported by the IFK (Internationales Forschungszentrum Kulturwissenschaften) in Vienna.
For many years, I have been researching politics, state and society in modern Turkey - this began with my doctoral research in the 1980s and remains an interest to me, personally and professionally, to this day.
Throughout the duration of my field research, I have focused on the Turkish Alevi community. Specifically, their distribution, society, spiritual beliefs, and the way that their society is ever-changing alongside the modern world.
One of my main theoretical preoccupations has been the history of anthropology and its emergence in the 20th century in its modern form. This includes both the formation of disciplinary boundaries and the study of specific figures in the disciple. See also my work on Biographical Sketches.