Dr Durukan Imrie-Kuzu's research examines a central paradox of contemporary politics: why ethnic conflicts and identity-based insecurity persist, and sometimes intensify, in contexts where reforms, decentralisation and multiculturalist policies have been introduced in different forms and extents. His work explores how institutional arrangements shape political mobilisation, citizenship practices and demographic anxieties across diverse settings including Kurds from Turkey, Corsicans from France, Madheshis from Nepal and Somalis from Ethiopia. He has a growing interest in how digital governance and biodiversity governance intersect with questions of human security and inequality in an era of transnational mobility and climate change.
At MEC, Durukan is investigating Kurdish responses to Syrian refugee governance in Turkey and its implications for regional security.
Durukan holds a PhD in Politics from the Department of Government, London School of Economics and Political Science. Prior to joining the Middle East Centre, he was Associate Professor of Politics at the Centre for Peace and Security, Coventry University. He is the author of Multiculturalism in Turkey: The Kurds and the State (Cambridge University Press, Middle East Studies Series) and The Andijan Uprising and Uzbekistan: Democracy Stuck Between Religious Fundamentalism and Authoritarianism. He is co-editor of Consociationalism and Power-Sharing in Europe (Palgrave Macmillan, International Political Theory Series), a key reference work in the field. Durukan’s research has appeared in Nations and Nationalism, National Identities, Third World Quarterly, Comparative European Politics, European Review of International Studies, and the Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe.
His research has been supported by the European Commission, British Council, COST Actions, and the Allan & Nesta Ferguson Charitable Trust. He is a regular speaker at international conferences including ISA, ASN, ASEN, BRISMES and ECPR, and his expertise has been sought by media outlets such as CNN International. His expert reports on Kurdish politics and human rights in Turkey have been used as evidence by the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada in asylum and refugee status determination hearings.
A Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK), Durukan also held leadership roles at the Centre for Peace and Security at Coventry University, including Course Director for Global Diversity Governance programmes, Director of Research Excellence, chair of PhD Progression Panels, and Co-lead of the research cluster on Governance, Leadership and Trust. He serves as an academic editor of Nations and Nationalism at LSE and has evaluated research proposals for the Arts and Humanities Research Council, Swiss National Science Foundation, and British International Studies Association.