Dr Zeynep Kaya (she/her)

School of Sociological Studies, Politics and International Relations

Lecturer in International Relations

Zeynep Kaya Headshot
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z.kaya@sheffield.ac.uk
D24, Elmfield Building

Full contact details

Dr Zeynep Kaya
School of Sociological Studies, Politics and International Relations
D24
Elmfield Building
Northumberland Road
Sheffield
S10 2TU
Profile

Dr Zeynep Kaya joined the School in 2021, having previously worked at the LSE and SOAS. She holds a PhD in International Relations from the LSE. Her main research areas involve borderlands, territoriality, conflict, peace, political legitimacy and gender.

Zeynep is also an Academic Associate at Pembroke College, University of Cambridge and a Visiting Fellow at the LSE. She co-edits of I.B. Tauris-Bloomsbury’s book series on Kurdish studies and co-convenes Kurdish Studies with the LSE Middle East Centre. 

Qualifications

Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy (since 2014)

Research interests

Zeynep specialises in nationalism, territoriality and self-determination in the borderlands with a focus on Kurdish politics through a historical sociological approach, as well as on gender in the Middle East with a policy and impact focus. Her research explores the transformation of political authority and the persistent agency of groups often marginalised in state-centric histories, specifically the Kurdish nationalists and women in the Middle East. This agenda not only speaks to fundamental IR debates on sovereignty, self-determination and gender but also enables contemporary policy-relevant analysis. 

Zeynep's monograph Mapping Kurdistan: Territory, Self-Determination and Nationalism was published by the Cambridge University Press in 2020. She has published peer reviewed articles in Democratization, Third World Quarterly, Ethnopolitics and Middle East Policy. 

Publications

Books

  • Kaya ZN (2020) Mapping Kurdistan : territory, self-determination and nationalism. Cambridge University Press.

Edited books

  • (Ed.) (2025) Governance of Resistance in North and East Syria: The Experience of Rojava..

Journal articles

  • Kaya Z (2026) . Third World Quarterly.
  • Whiting M & Kaya ZN (2021) . Democratization, 28(4), 821-839.
  • Kaya Z (2020) . Conflict, Security & Development, 20(5), 631-652.
  • Kaya ZN & Whiting M (2019) . Ethnopolitics, 18(1), 92-106.
  • Kaya Z & Whiting M (2017) . Middle East Policy, 24(1), 79-91.
  • Kaya Z & Keranen O (2015) . Ethnopolitics, 14(5), 505-512.

Book chapters

  • Kaya Z & Lowe R (2025) Introduction (pp. 1-20).
  • Kaya Z (2022) Kürdistan'ın Haritalandırılması ve Algılanması In Işık A, Kılıçaslan G, HiroÄŸlu B, Sağır K & Kurt Ç (Ed.), Kürtler ve Cumhuriyet (pp. 199-208). Ankara: Dipnot Yayınları.
  • Tezcür GM, Kaya ZN & Sevdeen BM (2021) In Tezcür GM (Ed.), Kurds and Yezidis in the Middle East: Shifting Identities, Borders, and the Experiences of Minority Communities (pp. 77-96). London: I.B. Tauris, Bloomsbury.
  • Kaya ZN (2021) In Tezcür GM (Ed.), Kurds and Yezidis in the Middle East: Shifting Identities, Borders, and the Experiences of Minority Communities (pp. 115-132). London: I.B. Tauris, Bloomsbury.
  • Kaya ZN & Whiting M (2019) In Özerdem A & Whiting M (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Turkish Politics (pp. 231-241). Abingdon, Oxon.: Routledge (Taylor & Francis).
  • Kaya Z & Lowe R (2017) The curious question of the PYD-PKK relationship In Stansfield G & Shareef M (Ed.), The Kurdish Question Revisited Oxford University Press

Reports

  • Kaya Z, Makki Hammadi I & Tabbasam E (2022) Listening to women's rights organisations: the UK's gender and WPS practice in Iraq
  • Kaya ZN & Makki I (2021) Women and peace in Iraq : opportunities, challenges and prospects for a better future
  • Kaya Z (2020)
  • Kaya Z & Bond H (2019) Women, Peace and Security and Displacement in the Middle East
  • Kaya ZN & Luchtenberg KN (2018) Displacement and women's economic empowerment : voices of displaced women in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq
  • Kaya ZN (2016) Women, Peace and Security in Iraq : Iraq's National Action Plan to implement Resolution 1325
  • Whiting M & Kaya ZN (2016) Tackling radicalism in Turkey

Working papers

  • Kaya Z (2019) Iraq's Yazidis and ISIS : the causes and consequences of sexual violence in conflict.
  • Dodge T, Kaya Z, Luchtenberg K, Mathieu-Comtois S, Saleh B, van den Toorn CM, Turpin-King A & Watkins J (2018) Iraq synthesis paper : understanding the drivers of conflict in Iraq. Conflict Research Programme.
  • Kaya ZN (2018) Resilience policy and internally displaced women in Iraq : an unintentionally flawed approach. LSE Women, Peace and Security Working Paper Series, 13.
  • Kaya ZN (2017) Gender and statehood in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. LSE Middle East Centre Paper Series, 18.
Research group

British International Studies Association

Grants

HEIF Knowledge and Exchange & Impact Fund, £27,062, UK's policy in global context, X/182394, 2023
HEIF Knowledge Exchange & Impact Fund, £26,0508, UK's gender practice in aid and security, X/175155, 2022
British Academy, £5,000, Post-conflict emergency rule as a tool of everyday government in Turkey, NAFR1180137, 2020-2021
KEI Fund (LSE), £45.560, Displacement and WPS in Iraq, 1-RME-3997, 2017-2019
GRRI Collaboration Grant, £24,000, Victimhood, survival and societal transformation among the Yezidis in Iraq, 262164UCF, 2017-2019
DFID, UK Government £6,035,000 (named lead researcher, personal allocation £110,383) Conflict Research Programme, 204428, 2017-2020
British Council Researcher Links, £29,367, Displacement, social welfare and human security in Turkey: challenges and prospects, RLWK6-261840247, 2018-2019
Emirates Foundation, £90,000, Complexity of humanitarian response to internal displacement in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, 2016-2018
IGA-Rockefeller Fund, £206,773 (personal allocation £58,986, Disaster and displacement: the resilience of women, 2016-2017
Emirates Foundation, £99, 308, International actors and women’s rights in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, 2013-2016

Teaching activities

Zeynep currently teaches:
SPR117 The World's Wicked Problems
SPR453 Debating International Relations

Professional activities and memberships

Co-Founder and Co-Editor of Kurdish Studies Book Series I.B. Tauris-Bloomsbury
Co-Convenor of the Kurdish Studies Events Series, LSE Middle East Centre
Academic Associate, Pembroke College, University of Cambridge
Visiting Fellow, Middle East Centre, LSE
Member of the UK Government Women Peace Security Cross Whitehall Working Group 
Member of the UK Gov FCDO Gender Challenge Board
Specialist Adviser, UK Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee (2017-2018)

PhD Supervision

I would be interested in supervising doctoral research projects looking at

  • borders
  • nationalism
  • Kurdish politics
  • non-state actors
  • gender
  • international politics of the Middle East