Ayhan Kaya is a lecturer at the Department of International Relations, and head of the Centres for Migration Research and European Studies at Istanbul Bilgi University. He specializes in Euro-Turks in Germany and France, the Circassian diaspora in Turkey, and the construction and articulation of modern diasporic identities.
He received his PhD and MSc degrees at the University of Warwick. He is author of Sicher in Kreuzberg: Constructing Diasporas, published in two languages, English (Bielefeld: Transkript verlag, 2001) and Turkish (Istanbul: Büke Yayinlari, 2000). He has written various articles on Berlin-Turkish youth cultures, ethnic-based political participation strategies of German-Turks, Berlin-Alevis, historians’ debates in Germany, identity debates, and the Circassian diaspora in Turkey. He translated Ethnic Groups and Boundaries by Fredrik Barth and Citizenship and Social Classes by T. H. Marshall and Tom Bottomore; co-edited the book Issues Without Borders: Migration, Citizenship, Human Rights, Global Justice, Gender and Security (Istanbul, Baglam Publishing House, in Turkish, 2003); and has recently been working on the Circassian diaspora in Turkey in collaboration with the Population Council ME Awards, as well as on ethnicity, globalization, citizenship, diaspora nationalism, international migration, and German-Turks.
He received the Turkish Social Science Association Prize in 2003 and the Turkish Sciences Academy Prize in 2005. He is also a member of the Committee of Experts of the Emigration Countries, Council of Europe.
Information valid as of winter 2012.