Friedrich Püttmann

Friedrich Püttmann is a PhD candidate at the European Institute and an associated researcher at the French Institute for Anatolian Studies (IFEA) in Istanbul.

His thesis investigates the role of religious and ethnic identity in how Turkish citizens relate to Syrian refugees, employing both ethnographic and statistical methods. Friedrich's research interests centre around immigrant integration, identity politics and religion in Turkey, Western Europe and the Balkans. His professional expertise also includes migration and foreign policy.

Prior to starting his PhD, Friedrich worked for two years as a political analyst at think tanks in Berlin and Ankara, and did a traineeship with the Turkey Division of the EU’s diplomatic service (EEAS) in Brussels. He continues to write policy papers for think tanks across Europe and regularly participates in panel discussions on Turkey and migration. In this context, he has also contributed to a research project on EU-Turkey co-operation on migration financed by the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) and a case-study on Syrian refugee integration in Gaziantep (Turkey) for the Council of Urban Initiatives, a joint project by UN Habitat, LSE Cities and UCL's IIPP.

Friedrich holds an MSc in Sociology with distinction from the University of Oxford as well as an MSc in European Studies from the LSE, where he received prizes for best dissertation and best overall performance.

He was educated in Germany and France, and worked as a TV actor during his teenage years, which led him to a one-year volunteer service at a performing arts centre in Kosovo where his film project about unity in diversity was featured on national television. He subsequently read sociology, philosophy and politics as part of a double BA in Liberal Arts at University College Maastricht and University College Freiburg as well as Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, supported by a scholarship from the German National Academic Foundation (Studienstiftung).

Friedrich's doctoral studies are funded by an LSE PhD Studentship and the Hamburg Foundation for the Advancement of Academia and Culture. For his ethnographic fieldwork in Turkey and subsequent nationally representative survey, Friedrich obtained external research grants at a total of €30,000.

Academic Supervisors

Prof Yaprak Gürsoy & Dr Natascha Zaun (Leuphana University of Lüneburg)