Osman Balkan
Biographic Data
| ID | 765281 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Osman Balkan |
| GIVEN NAMES | Osman |
| FAMILY NAME | Balkan |
| SIGNATURE | BALKAN O |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Pennsylvania |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4303-3200 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 10 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 40 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 10 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2015 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Response to Anna K. Boucher’s review of Dying Abroad
Haunting Europe
In the last decade, more than 70,000 people have died while attempting to cross an international border. Half of these deaths occurred in the Mediterranean, the world’s deadliest border zone. In response to the alarming number of border deaths, artists and activists have staged various interventions aimed at publicly commemorating the dead while calling attention to the structural violence of militarized borders and racialized membership. This ar…
Dying Abroad
On any given day, the remains of countless deceased migrants are shipped around the world to be buried in ancestral soils. Others are laid to rest in countries of settlement, sometimes in cemeteries established for religious and ethnic minorities, where available. For immigrants and their descendants, perennial questions about the meaning of home and homeland take on a particular gravitas in death. When the boundaries of a nation and its members …
Dying Abroad
The Transnational Afterlives of European Muslims
How do European Muslims navigate death and burial in countries where they face systematic barriers to political inclusion? The authors of this article investigate the complex negotiations surrounding end-of-life decisions for Muslim communities in France and Germany. Drawing on multisited ethnographic research among Algerian and Turkish diasporas in Marseilles and Berlin, they illustrate how burial decisions reflect divergent ideas about citizens…
Bring Out Your Dead
Bring Out Your Dead:Corpses and the Limits of Sovereign Power in James Martel's Unburied Bodies Osman Balkan (bio) James R. Martel. Bodies Unburied: Subversive Corpses and the Authority of the Dead. Amherst, Mass: Amherst College Press, 2018. E-book. In a story recounted by Cicero, Diogenes the Cynic, a philosopher known for his eccentric behavior (he supposedly lived in a barrel near the Athenian Agora and roamed the city with a lantern during d…
Disorder at the Border
Between Civil Society and the State
This article explores the intercultural negotiations around the death and burial of Muslims in Germany. In particular, it examines the mediating role that Muslim undertakers play between immigrant families and the German state. Drawing on an ethnographic study of Turkish funeral homes and the Islamic funeral industry in Berlin, it argues that undertakers’ ability to navigate the regulatory structures of the German bureaucracy and the cultural exp…
Charlie Hebdo and the politics of mourning
This article explores the different forms of mourning that structured the public and political memorialization of the victims and perpetrators of the Paris attacks by analyzing the discourses, ceremonies, and negotiations accompanying their funerals. It argues that political actors employed three distinct strategies of mourning to produce a hierarchy of French subjects organized around a spectrum of grievability. The first strategy, “mourning as …
Burial and Belonging
This article explores the role that funerary practices and burial decisions play in the construction of national and political identities amongst M uslim immigrants in G ermany. Drawing on ethnographic research and interviews with Islamic undertakers, migrant families, and religious leaders in B erlin it argues that the act of burial serves as a powerful means to assert belonging in migratory settings. While local burial laws impact the feasibili…
Burial and Belonging
This article explores the role that funerary practices and burial decisions play in the construction of national and political identities amongst M uslim immigrants in G ermany. Drawing on ethnographic research and interviews with Islamic undertakers, migrant families, and religious leaders in B erlin it argues that the act of burial serves as a powerful means to assert belonging in migratory settings. While local burial laws impact the feasibili…
Between Civil Society and the State
This article explores the intercultural negotiations around the death and burial of Muslims in Germany. In particular, it examines the mediating role that Muslim undertakers play between immigrant families and the German state. Drawing on an ethnographic study of Turkish funeral homes and the Islamic funeral industry in Berlin, it argues that undertakers’ ability to navigate the regulatory structures of the German bureaucracy and the cultural exp…
The Transnational Afterlives of European Muslims
How do European Muslims navigate death and burial in countries where they face systematic barriers to political inclusion? The authors of this article investigate the complex negotiations surrounding end-of-life decisions for Muslim communities in France and Germany. Drawing on multisited ethnographic research among Algerian and Turkish diasporas in Marseilles and Berlin, they illustrate how burial decisions reflect divergent ideas about citizens…
Charlie Hebdo and the politics of mourning
This article explores the different forms of mourning that structured the public and political memorialization of the victims and perpetrators of the Paris attacks by analyzing the discourses, ceremonies, and negotiations accompanying their funerals. It argues that political actors employed three distinct strategies of mourning to produce a hierarchy of French subjects organized around a spectrum of grievability. The first strategy, “mourning as …
Burial and Belonging
This article explores the role that funerary practices and burial decisions play in the construction of national and political identities amongst M uslim immigrants in G ermany. Drawing on ethnographic research and interviews with Islamic undertakers, migrant families, and religious leaders in B erlin it argues that the act of burial serves as a powerful means to assert belonging in migratory settings. While local burial laws impact the feasibili…
Disorder at the Border
Between Civil Society and the State
This article explores the intercultural negotiations around the death and burial of Muslims in Germany. In particular, it examines the mediating role that Muslim undertakers play between immigrant families and the German state. Drawing on an ethnographic study of Turkish funeral homes and the Islamic funeral industry in Berlin, it argues that undertakers’ ability to navigate the regulatory structures of the German bureaucracy and the cultural exp…
Charlie Hebdo and the politics of mourning
This article explores the different forms of mourning that structured the public and political memorialization of the victims and perpetrators of the Paris attacks by analyzing the discourses, ceremonies, and negotiations accompanying their funerals. It argues that political actors employed three distinct strategies of mourning to produce a hierarchy of French subjects organized around a spectrum of grievability. The first strategy, “mourning as …
Bring Out Your Dead
Bring Out Your Dead:Corpses and the Limits of Sovereign Power in James Martel's Unburied Bodies Osman Balkan (bio) James R. Martel. Bodies Unburied: Subversive Corpses and the Authority of the Dead. Amherst, Mass: Amherst College Press, 2018. E-book. In a story recounted by Cicero, Diogenes the Cynic, a philosopher known for his eccentric behavior (he supposedly lived in a barrel near the Athenian Agora and roamed the city with a lantern during d…
The Transnational Afterlives of European Muslims
How do European Muslims navigate death and burial in countries where they face systematic barriers to political inclusion? The authors of this article investigate the complex negotiations surrounding end-of-life decisions for Muslim communities in France and Germany. Drawing on multisited ethnographic research among Algerian and Turkish diasporas in Marseilles and Berlin, they illustrate how burial decisions reflect divergent ideas about citizens…
Dying Abroad
On any given day, the remains of countless deceased migrants are shipped around the world to be buried in ancestral soils. Others are laid to rest in countries of settlement, sometimes in cemeteries established for religious and ethnic minorities, where available. For immigrants and their descendants, perennial questions about the meaning of home and homeland take on a particular gravitas in death. When the boundaries of a nation and its members …
Dying Abroad
Haunting Europe
In the last decade, more than 70,000 people have died while attempting to cross an international border. Half of these deaths occurred in the Mediterranean, the world’s deadliest border zone. In response to the alarming number of border deaths, artists and activists have staged various interventions aimed at publicly commemorating the dead while calling attention to the structural violence of militarized borders and racialized membership. This ar…
Response to Anna K. Boucher’s review of Dying Abroad
Law (7 works) · Politics (7 works) · Political science (6 works) · Sociology (6 works) · Art (4 works) · Law (4 works) · Migration, Refugees, and Integration (4 works) · Aesthetics (3 works) · Gender Studies (3 works) · Anthropology (2 works)