Dr. Serkan Yolaçan

Biography

Serkan Yolaçan’s research broadly focuses on the interplay of past and present lives of individuals, diasporas, and states. He combines a broad perspective with deep historical understanding, using empirical history and anthropology methodologically to generate geo-historical frames that address questions of human mobility, international order, and social change. His book project, 'Empire Invitation: Peaks Passages Caucasus Worlds', weaves together modern experiences in Turkey, Iran, and Russia through the lens of diasporic communities in the region of Azerbaijan, placing mobile Azeris at the center of three major states and linking them to significant transformations that occurred from constitutional revolutions at the start of the twentieth century to the expansionist agendas of the twenty-first century. Additionally, Yolaçan is exploring a comparative study of millennial messianic movements, examining how embodied authority and eschatological beliefs, along with textual traditions, create invisible forms of sovereignty. His insights contribute to political anthropology, focusing on the figures of the 21st century as strongmen and informal diplomats, thus redefining the understanding of partnerships in bureaucracies, networks, law, trust, and rituals while providing new methodological approaches to the study of populism, authoritarianism, diplomacy, and internationalism.

Research Interests

Courses