Helen Mackreath

Research Topic:

Landscapes of dispossession: Policing, Property and Labour in Istanbul

Supervisors:

Dr. Ayça Çubukçu (Department of Sociology and LSE Human Rights) and Professor Suzi Hall (Department of Sociology)

Research Interests:

Migration; Postcolonial studies; Critical Race Theory; Human Rights; Urban studies; Political economy; Cultural studies; Ethnography

My Research:

Helen's thesis is an ethnographic account of a few Syrian friends living in Istanbul. From their gaze, she situates Istanbul within a loose carceral landscape, at once grounded within the city streets and situated within a wider geographical landscape. She foregrounds three frames in the city – policing, property and labour – and discusses each as sets of practices and relations which are entangled in wider geographical and temporal practices. Her focus is on the entanglements, multiplicities and frictions of power, but she is also inspired by work on urban sociology and the poetics of the city.

Selected public writing

Helen Mackreath (2023) Incarceration: On Sevgi Soysal’s Dawn, K24

Helen Mackreath (2022) Who is a Revolutionary Subject? The White Review

Helen Mackreath (2022) The Language of the Misfit: On Oğuz Atay’s "The Disconnected", LA Review of Books

Helen Mackreath (2021) The intimate boundaries of Istanbul, MAP Magazine

Helen Mackreath (2020) Threshold of Life: The death of Nadira Kadirova, LA Review of Books

Helen Mackreath (2020) The Intimacies of Violence: Sema Kaygusuz’s Every Fire You Tend, LA Review of Books

Helen Mackreath (2019) Racism and Syrians in Turkey: The Political Economy of Discrimination, Jadaliyya

Selected Interviews

Foundations of Solidarity: A Conversation with Anat Matar, LA Review of Books (February 2023)

Intersections of Anti-Migrant Racism and Misogyny in Turkey: An Interview with Feminist Activist Irem Kayıkçı, Jadaliyya (August 2022)

Foundations of Solidarity: A Conversation with Yasmin El-Rifae, LA Review of Books (June 2022)

Conversation with Aaron Benanav: Automation and the Future of Work, Kıraathane (June 2022)

Conversation with Ben Ehrenreich: Diaries of Hope: Life and Death in Palestine, Kıraathane (May 2022)

Conversation with Philippe Sands: Crimes Against Humanity - Writing and Judging, Kıraathane (April 2022)

Foundations of Solidarity: A Conversation with Zeina Maasri, LA Review of Books (November 2021)

Foundations of Solidarity: A Conversation with Zeynep Gambetti, LA Review of Books (July 2021)