Pelin Çakir is a PhD candidate at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, health and psychology doctoral program.

She is a researcher, activist and practitioner who works across the fields connected to mobility, resistance, vulnerability, care, and queer-feminism. She has an interdisciplinary academic background in political sciences (B.A, Bogazici University, 2012), sociology (M.A., University of Amsterdam, University of Deusto, University of Osnabrück, 2015), social work (AA, Istanbul University, 2021) with extensions to anthropology, psychology and cultural studies.

Her research approach builds on counter-hegemonic knowledge production, decolonial and feminist theories, narrative and co-creative methods. In the past, she has worked with local and international civil society organizations in the fields of human rights, migration, and gender. She has written for cultural magazines in Turkey and acted as an editor and content producer for HarekAct (blog reporting on the Turkish-EU border regime). She has also given talks and workshops on topics around social movements, border regimes, collective care, and feminist self-defense.

Her Master’s thesis examined the ideas of childhood, vulnerability and resilience through the “life history” narratives of young Afghans in Turkey. Her most recent research titled “Learning from the Pandemic: Artistic Freedom & Mobility Beyond the Covid Crisis” is published by ifa and Martin Roth Initiative in January 2022. As a doctoral candidate, her current research focuses on collective care practices that help people to maintain resistance in the face of trauma, political violence, and crises.

• Mobility
• Vulnerability
• Collective Care
• Social Movements
• Queer/Feminist Theory