Erkan Gursel is an ESRC-funded (LISS DTP) joint PhD student at King's College London (Department of Geography) and the University of Hong Kong (Department of Sociology). He holds a BA in Middle Eastern Studies (SOAS), an MSc in Global Migration (UCL), and an MPhil in Sociology (University of Cambridge). His doctoral research examines carceral governance in the aftermath of large-scale disaster, taking the February 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes as a critical juncture from which to examine hazard-induced state violence in politically contentious terrains. Alongside his studies, Erkan has consulted for the Doria Feminist Fund's post-earthquake emergency response, directed the documentary No.910 (2024, Turkey), and continues to teach in UCL's Department of Geography. Beyond his doctoral research, he writes on anti-carceral activism and Turkish diasporic communities, with works published in Jadaliyya, The Funambulist, and Routledge.

Research

Thesis title: "Disaster, crisis, and the contemporary carceral state"

My research sits at the intersection of political sociology and human geography, examining how disaster and forced migration operate dialectically as arenas of authoritarian power within the contemporary nation-state. 

Principal Supervisor: Professor Daanish Mustafa

Secondary Supervisor: Professor Paul Joosse