Centre for Kurdish Studies (CKS)

Description

The Centre for Kurdish Studies in Exeter (CKS) is unique outside the Kurdish homelands. Since its founding in 2006, it has played a leading role in research and teaching that focuses on the Kurds and Kurdistan across various disciplines. The Centre is proud to have supervised more than 25 PhDs in Kurdish Studies or closely allied areas; many of these have shifted paradigms in the field and helped to form the vibrant field of research and teaching practice that is Kurdish Studies today.

Initial funding for the centre was provided by the Ibrahim Ahmad Foundation, a charity established by the family of the notable Kurdish politician and poet Ibrahim Ahmad to promote the study of Kurdish language, literature, culture and history. Thanks to this generous support, two Ibrahim Ahmad academic positions (one lectureship and one professorship) have been funded at the University of Exeter. This support to the Centre was augmented with important scholarship funds awarded by the Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). With this the Centre was able to build strong foundations, including a series of scholarships which promoted development of strong research, teaching activities and international networks. CKS now includes three permanently-employed academics and a number of research fellows.

Exeter is the only British university to have developed a strong research focus in the field of Kurdish Studies, including the teaching of Kurmanji and Sorani dialect whenever resources allow. As such, CKS is the leading centre of research in the field in the UK, and one of the global centres of excellence. It has built cooperation with scholars worldwide and aims to develop further this current collaboration and to launch further research initiatives. With its programme of international conferences, workshops and seminars, the Centre also provides a forum for the discussion of topics relevant to Kurdish Studies.

Its focus on Kurdish Studies places the Kurds at the centre of the research and teaching activities of the Centre, and offers a chance to consider Kurdish society, culture and politics holistically in all its complexity and variation, across and within established nation-states and the global diaspora community.

The Centre for Kurdish Studies is physically located in the Institute for Arab and Islamic Studies (IAIS) and is part of the College of Social Sciences and International Studies, the Centre staff and students contribute to this wider education and research environment. This interaction between students and staff from different areas and disciplines is highly valued as strengthening the academic foundations of Kurdish Studies. Indeed, the Centre’s vision is that strong Kurdish Studies can only be built through dialogue with other areas, and with a strong grounding in different academic disciplines. CKS research developed with the merging of staff and students’ interests and by considering both the current state of Kurdish Studies worldwide and the socio-political changes in the areas studied. Kurdish Studies has been growing in the UK around the centre but also in other European countries, the United States of America and the Middle East (in particular Turkey and the Kurdistan region of Iraq).

The social, economic, and political situations of Kurdistan and other areas in which Kurds live have also changed drastically during the last decades. The Kurds are now almost totally autonomous in Northern Iraq, building state institutions and economy. The integration of Kurdistan into the world economy has brought about an economic shift in the region, which has also brought along social change. This is also witnessed in Turkey, which entered liberalism in the 1980s and is now an important economic player in the region. Politically, until the 1980s, Kurds were dominated and contentious players; however, they are now becoming key players in the area. These changes call for renewed research, taking into account the evolution of Kurdish society and the current political environment. Studies of Kurds and Kurdistan also constitute a laboratory for developing new theoretical insights. This is what the Centre proposes to do through partnerships with scholars and institutions around the world.

Staff and student research focuses on the following:

• Ethnicity, domination and resistance
• Memory and Heritage
• Minority Religious Groups (including Yezidis)
• Oral literature
• Conflict Studies

Offers funding

No, this infrastructure does not provide funding.

Founding year

2006

Contact details

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University affiliation(s)

University of Exeter
Streatham Campus
Northcote House
Exeter
EX4 4QJ