The researcher has been selected through the Scholars at Risk network and will conduct her studies at the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences in Florence, thanks to the contribution of Regione Toscana and the Associazione Amici della Scuola Normale.

Pisa, 19th february 2020

The Scuola Normale adheres to Scholars at Risk, an international network of institutions with the mission of protecting those scholars whose life or work are at stake in consequence of a direct violation of human rights and freedom of teaching.

The Scuola Normale, within the activities performed as a partner of Scholars at Risk, has commissioned a study to the Kurdish researcher Delal Aydin on behalf of its Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, which is based in Florence.

The scholar, who is originally from Turkey, is a long-time advocate for the rights of the Kurdish people. A political sociologist specialised in social movements, theories of the state, ethnicities and nationalisms, Delal Aydin has obtained her Ph.D. at the State University of New York at Binghamton, where she studied the formation of Kurdish youth movement in the 90s  under the conditions of extreme state violence in Turkey.

Dr Aydin’s research grant has been financed by the Associazione Amici della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa and Regione Toscana. Object of the study is the Kurdish youth movement in the 90s.