Sociology Talks: "Zainab’s Traffic: Moving Saints, Selves, and Others across Borders"

Short Bio

Emrah Yıldız is a sociocultural anthropologist of cross-border mobility and region formation, and author of Zainab’s Traffic: Moving Saints, Selves, and Others across Borders (University of California Press, 2024). Editor of “kaçak | qaçax | قاچاق : Fugitive Forms of Bureaucracy and Economy across Southwest Asia” (Journal of Cultural Economy 17(2) 2024) and co-editor of “Resistance Everywhere”: The Gezi Protests and Dissident Visions of Turkey (JadMag 1(4) 2014), Yıldız published research articles on saint visitation and mobility in Islam; contraband commerce and currencies under sanctions; and queer asylum, borders and their territorial states with Cultural Anthropology, d i f f e r e n c e s, Journal of Cultural Economy, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, International Journal of Middle East Studies, and Toplum ve Bilim. His short-form analyses, translations, and interviews featured in Asoo, Bianet, Counterpunch, and Jadaliyya. Yıldız works as assistant professor of anthropology and Middle East and North African studies at Northwestern University, where he serves as faculty board member for the Keyman Modern Turkish Studies Program, and founding co-convener of the Colloquium for Global Iran Studies (CoGIS). He is the

2024-2025 Global Horizons Junior Fellow at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study.