Begüm Ergün

I am a sociocultural anthropologist and visual ethnographer who studies how people survive, care for one another, and rebuild their lives in the wake of profound displacement. As a Ph.D. candidate at Boston University, my research follows displaced Syrians in Turkey, exploring how they navigate the estrangement of exile and the bodily toll of displacement.

With a background in sociology and psychology from Koç University in Istanbul, my work sits at the intersection of medical, psychological, and political anthropology. I use documentary filmmaking, sensory ethnography, and in-depth interviews to capture the lived realities of migration. I am actively engaged with academic and solidarity networks across the US, Europe, and the Middle East, including the American Anthropological Association, the Middle East Studies Association, and the Association of Psychologists for Social Solidarity in Turkey.

My research has been generously supported by the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the American Ethnological Society, the Boston University Campagna-Kerven Graduate Fellowship, the BU Center for Innovation in Social Science, and a Society for Psychological Anthropology–Robert Lemelson Foundation Fellowship.