The Architecture, Culture & Tectonics Research Group warmly invites you to attend their Seminar on Wednesday 7th July 2023 at 13pm in Room B38, Lenton Firs House

Precarity of refugees: The case of Basmane-Izmir, Turkey

Guest speaker: S.Bahar Drinkwater, B.Arch MUrbDes, PhD

Abstract

Over the last decade, the precarity of refugees and temporary migrants and its associated ambiguities is an increasing focus of scholarly inquiry and policy debate. In particular, the Syrian conflict since 2011 has led to dramatic refugee crises especially in terms of the number of people displaced into neighbouring countries, including Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq, with Turkey hosting the largest refugee population in the world.

Within Turkey, Syrian refugees are concentrated in camps, border towns, major cities and particular urban neighbourhoods. The Basmane neighbourhood, an old inner city quarter of İzmir, Turkey, is a special case, and we directly observe and detail various dimensions of the precarity of Syrian immigrants there at the apex of the refugee flow, and assess how temporary migration affected İzmir's permanent residents. Focusing on physical and social transformations in Basmane, we concentrate on the intra-relationships among place, refugees, and locals and seek to contribute to the debate of how (un)settled situations of refugees produce differential pathways for adaptation and experiences of precarity. The research indicates that socio-spatial dynamics in Basmane contributes to the adaptation of refugees and affects their precarity as the hub for temporary immigrants in İzmir.

 

Bio 

I offer over 15 years of multidisciplinary experience in architectural education and research including architecture, urban design and planning. I hold a PhD in Architecture and Built Environment (Nottingham, 2012), PhD qualification in City Planning (Izmir, 2008), M.Sc. in Urban Design (Izmir, 2006) and a Bachelor’s in Architecture (Izmir, 2002).  

I am currently working as an associate staff at UCL, The Bartlett School of Planning and also as a design tutor at London South Bank University. I have been teaching online master courses at Izmir University of Economics since 2018 and working on publishing my individual research papers. I have also been a research associate at Cambridge Architectural research since 2015. 

I worked as a part‐time lecturer in the University of Nottingham, Department of Architecture, co‐teaching History of Architecture 1 and 3 during the Fall 2021semester. I worked full-time as an assistant professor in the Izmir University of Economics, Department of Architecture (2013‐2017). I had experience of teaching at different levels from 1st years to master students including supervision of the students at each level. I was the head of the Department of Architecture and the head of the Graduate Studies in Architecture for between 2014-2016 during which I managed many administrative duties, student‐centred and teaching issues including designing and managing the curriculum. I worked as a part-time design tutor in the University of Nottingham between 2009-2012 and taught design studio and architectural research methods courses.