Call out for assistance for research on Kurds in the UK

Research on Kurds in the UK

Ms Shadi Hessami, a PhD student at SOAS, supervised by Professor Annabelle Sreberny, is looking for Kurdish research participants in London to interview for her research project on the socio-political and socio-cultural impacts of Kurdish media on Kurdish diaspora. .

Her interviews would be as informal as possible and all information would be used solely for the purpose of my research. All information would be kept entirely anonymous and strictly confidential.

We, KSSO support and promote research on, about or by Kurdish peoples and would really appreciate if you could participate in this important research or help to find some participants for the above mentioned research project.

If you have any queries about the research, please contact:

Shadi Hessami, PhD student, SOAS
Telephone: 07747 755 477
Email: shadihessami@yahoo.co.uk

Brief introduction of the research

Impact of Kurdish media on Kurd in the UK

The aim of research is to examine Kurdish media consumption among those Kurds whose countries of origin are Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and possibly Syria. This reseach studies the role and the possible impact of Kurdish media on Kurdish identity and the way it has been express among different generations of Kurds in London. It is a cross-examination of varities elements, the obvious one is that it considers Kurds from different countries, in which Kurds originally reside.

The method I have chosen, mainly is focus-group interviewing. That is here that I would like to ask you to help me to gather some Kurdish people to form a group(s) to have a maximum two-hour discussion.

Aiming at having 6 different groups for my research, I would be great if you could help me with ideally 2 separate groups, each with following characteristics:

Having ideally 6 to 10 individuals in each group (less than 6 is also fine)

Age group from 16 to 55

Preferably to have a mix of those from Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Syria

Preferably to have mix of women and men

Preferably one group with same age group and generation, and one group with mix of different generations

Ideally it would be mix of professionals and people from all walks of life

They all have to be able to communicate, i.e. all able to speak Kurdish or all able to speak English

I can’t emphasise enough that how much your help is appreciated, and how much this research rely on your contribution

Images of working lives: Experiences of Kurdish migrants in London

Photo Exhibition

Organized by Working Lives Research Institute, London Metropolitan University

Date: Friday 16th- 23rd July 2010 ( Exhibition opening reception 5pm on Friday 16th July 2010)

Venue: RenkArt Centre, 86 Stoke Newington High Street, Stoke Newington N16 7PA

Images of working lives is an exhibition held as part of an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded research project conducted by Working Lives Research Institute, London Metropolitan University to highlight the working conditions of an ‘invisible’ community, Kurdish Diaspora, in London.

The study focused on minority ethnic workers who experienced difficulties at work and how they developed strategies to solve work related problems including racism, discrimination, bullying, exclusion and isolation. We chose three different minority ethnic communities- locally based ethnic groups, Kurds in Hackney, South Asian in Ealing and Black Caribbeans in Lambeth- in London to enable us to compare and contrast a whole range of different issues. We interviewed total of 185 workers – 100 individually and 88 in 16 focus groups and 64 interviews with ‘key respondents’ who were officials from trade unions, advice agencies and community groups.

Our research team will give brief information on our research findings on the working condition of the Kurdish workers and their strategies to solve work related problems and difficulties.

The exhibition illustrates different experiences of the Kurdish Diaspora in the context of ethnicity, identity, belonging, community and working lives. The audience is invited to take a closer look at the migrants’ life experiences reflected to the lens of photo journalist Jim Hodson, Ümit Avcu and Kurdish photographers’ group RenkArt including Döndü Demir, Erdogan Guccuk, Bektaþ Arif, Alper Taþçý as well as locally based Kurdish photographer Ümit Avcu.

Research team: Dr Jane Holgate (Principal investigator), Janroj Keles, Dr Leena Kumarappan and Professor Anna Pollert.

For further information please contact Dr Jane Holgate or Janroj Keles

j.holgate@londonmet.ac.uk or j.keles@londonmet.ac.uk

This research project is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and is being undertakeby the Working Lives Research Institute, London Metropolitan University.
For further information about our research please visit our website
http://www.workinglives.org/research-themes/wlri-project-websites/$-emraw/emraw_home.cfm

If you are interested in learning Kurdish Kurmanji, please apply now. SOAS language centre need 5 people to start a Kurdish class. If 5 students cannot be found then SOAS will not be able to offer this course.

Kurdish (Kurmanji) Beginners Course
A one-year course in beginners spoken and written Kurdish, at SOAS Language Centre in London

Duration: This is a one-year course with three 10-week terms

Mode of Attendance: Part Time

Description
The aim of the course is to provide a thorough introduction to contemporary Kurdish. By the end of the course, students will have covered basic grammatical constructions and acquired an essential working vocabulary allowing them to communicate within a limited range of situations in which learners are likely to find themselves. The language is presented together with the cultural context in which it is used so that learners are able to appreciate such things as appropriateness and linguistic etiquette when interaction takes place in the target language.

Method
The course is taught in English and Kurdish with coverage of the four skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing, and a balance between communicative activities, structure practice and grammar. Class size is limited to twelve to allow for close involvement.

Assessment for Course Placement
If you are not a complete beginner, you need to take an assessment in order for SOAS to place you on the course that is the most suitable for your language learning needs.

Fees for this Course
The fee for each ten week term is £255 payable in advance

For further details, including terms and conditions, required materials and how to apply, please visit the following page:

http://www.soas.ac.uk/programmes/prog14152.html

Contacting the SOAS language centre

Visiting address:
22 Russell Square, London WC1 – just around the corner from SOAS main buildings.

Office hours:
Monday to Friday 10am to 6.45pm
Saturday 9.30am to 12.30pm

E-mail: languages@soas.ac.uk
Telephone: UK: 020 7898 4888 World: +44 20 7898 4888
Fax: UK: 020 7898 4889 Int: +44 20 7898 4889
Post: The Courses Secretary, SOAS Language Centre, School of Oriental and African Studies, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London, WC1H 0XG

Project – Professional advice and counseling services for Kurdish women facing gender or honor based violence

Roj Women Association provides professional and culturally sensitive advice as well as individual psychological support for Kurdish women who face gender and honor based violence.

The uniqueness of this project resides in the integral nature of the services provided which unite advice and casework as well as psychological counseling while focusing solely on women’s issues. Another singularity is the fact that our adviser and counselors will be fluent speakers in Kurdish dialects -such as Kurmanci, Zazaki and Sorani-, as well as English speakers, which will allow us to break through user’s isolation.

Time commitment – Three hours per week / 6 to 12 months

Description of the post –

We are recruiting four female volunteers to work with us in providing professional and culturally sensitive advice and psychological support for Kurdish women who face violence. Three (3) volunteers will be working on counseling and one (1) will be working on advice and casework.

As an advice worker you will provide free, impartial and confidential advice to our clients on a wide range of issues (debt, housing, employment, welfare, immigration) including violence against women. You will research individual cases, assess problems and identify possible courses of action, guide clients to decide on the best course of action, mediate on their behalf, refer clients to other sources of help and keep up to date with appropriate legislation and policies.

As a counselor you will help users to explore feelings and emotions related to their experiences with violence. You will establish a relationship of trust and respect with clients, helping them towards a deeper understanding of their problems and to make choices regarding possible ways forward.

What you will be gaining from this position –

Volunteer will gain free training and career development with the support of a training analyst, The training, that would comprise three courses for each volunteer and will be delivered by voluntary sector and/or statutory agencies, aims to provide the students with specialized tools and knowledge to work with victims of domestic violence and in particular with victims of honor based violence and forced marriage. A training analyst will follow up on your work and will act as a mentor.

We can provide valuable working experience that will improve your chances of getting a job and you will receive a letter of recommendation on completion of your volunteering. Voluntary work is unpaid, although travel and lunch expenses are provided.

Essential Skills

• Interest and commitment to women’s rights;
• Willing to gain experience in  counseling and advising victims of violence against women;
• Excellent spoken and written Kurdish (any dialect) and fluent English;
• Graduate or student in final year of Counseling / Psychology / Social Work Degree (applicable to Counselor Volunteer Post)
• Graduate or student in final year of Legal / Advice Studies (applicable to Advice Volunteer Post)
• Excellent interpersonal communication skills;
• A caring, sympathetic and sensitive manner and a non judgmental attitude;
• Ability to cope with stress and emotionally-charged issues;
• Tact and diplomacy to deal with sensitive and confidential information;
• Ability to liaise with other professionals and organizations.

The organization

Roj Women is a small charity based in Hackney, London, that works for Kurdish women’s rights both in London and overseas. Our role is to provide ways for Kurdish women to recognize their needs and rights and to empower them.

Closing Date Please submit CV and cover letter by 1^st September 2010

Virginia Lopez Calvo

Projects and Fundraising Coordinator

rojwomen@googlemail.com

Roj Women Association
65 Downham Road, London, N1 5EH

Speaker: Ms. Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman of Kurdistan Regional Government’s High Representative to the UK

Chair: Dr. Konrad Hirschler, Senior Lecturer in the History of the Near and Middle East, SOAS

Date/time: 20^th March 2010 at 5:00pm

Venue: G2, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (SOAS) Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG

Organised by Kurdish Studies and Students Organisation (KSSO) and Kurdish Society at SOAS (KSSOAS)

Seminar Abstract

In the 1980s, the people of Kurdistan in Iraq were under chemical bombardment, thousands of villages were being destroyed and the people were being massacred in their thousands by Saddam Hussein’s regime. Today the people of the Kurdistan Region live in a peaceful and stable environment, the number of universities has increased from one in 1991 to more than 10 today with more on the way, thousands of villages have been rebuilt and infrastructure projects undertaken. As well as having their own regional government, the Kurds hold key positions in the federal government in Baghdad. These achievements cannot be underestimated in the context of Iraq and the Middle East, however, the path has not been smooth and there are uncertainties that lie ahead of the Kurdistan Regional Government.

Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman, the Kurdistan Regional Government’s High Representative to the UK, will discuss the challenges ahead.

The well known Kurdish stand up comedian Murat Batgi will perform in Lodnon on June 4th and 5th  at the ART ZONE.

KSSO   promotes and strongly recommends  you   this unmissssable stand-up comedy.

Venue: THE ART ZONE

54-56 The Market Square, Edmonton Green  London N9 0TZ

Date and time: 4th and 5th June 2010 @ 19:30

Organised by Ipek Demir (Leicester University)

For further details, see here.

This symposium will provide a forum for reflecting and discussing ‘diaspora’ by focusing on the case of Kurds from Turkey. Since the late-1980s there has been a significant migration of Kurds from Turkey to the various countries in Western Europe. Even though Kurds from Turkey make up a significant proportion of London’s ethnic minority population, they constitute an ‘invisible’ diasporic community, both in terms of the current ethnicity debates in the UK and in diaspora studies. The papers will consider theoretical and political dimensions as well as discuss current empirical work.

Speakers:
Dr Umut Erel, RCUK Academic Fellow, Open University
Janroj Keles, London Metropolitan University
Dr Ibrahim Sirkeci, European Business School, London
Latif Tas, Queen Mary, University of London
Dr Issa Tozun, London Metropolitan University
Dr Ipek Demir, University of Leicester

The symposium is free for all BSA members and those at the University of Leicester. For all others, there is a charge of £10 payable on the day. As places are limited, if you would like to attend, please register by e-mailing (before May 1^st 2010) Ipek Demir (id34 AT le.ac.uk) and stating your institutional affiliation.

Understanding Diaspora: The Case of Kurds in London

BSA Theory Study Group Symposium, organised in association with

the Department of Sociology, University of Leicester

14 May 2010, University of Leicester

Programme:

10.30 -11.00: Registration (tea and coffee)

11.00 -13.00: ‘Diasporic Experiences’

• Dr Umut Erel, RCUK Academic Fellow, Open University
  ‘Kurdish Migrant Mothers in London’
• Janroj Keles, London Metropolitan University
  ‘Community, Network and Ethnic Politics of Migrants in London: The Case of Kurds’
• Dr Issa Tozun, London Metropolitan University
  ‘Educating Children of Kurdish Origin in Britain’

13.00 – 2.15: Lunch

2.15 – 4.15: ‘Diaspora, Identity and Belonging’

• Latif Tas, Queen Mary, University of London
  ‘Kurds in the UK: Legal Pluralism and Dispute Resolution in the Diaspora’
• Dr Ibrahim Sirkeci, European Business School, London
  ‘Diasporas from Turkey: Transnational space between the Turkish and Kurdish’
• Dr Ipek Demir, University of Leicester
  ‘Battling with Homeland’

4.15 – 5.00: Wrap up Session (tea and coffee)

Date and Time: Sunday, 7 February 2010, @7:00pm

Venue: The Wheatsheaf, at 129 High St, Oxford, OX1 4DF

Ticket prices are £6 (£4 concs).

The places can be booked either through the following facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=257072437894&ref=mf

or by sending an email to: moonlight_culture@yahoo.com

Kind Regards,

Peyman Heydarian

We as a research team (Dr. Jane Holgate, Dr. Leena Kumarappan and  Janroj Keles from WLRI, London Metropolitan University and Professor Anna Pollert at University of West of England) are doing a research project on ‘Influences of identity, community and social networks on ethnic minority representation at work’ at London Metropolitan University and focusing on Kurdish people in Hackney, Indian people in Ealing and Caribbean people in Lambeth.

We are looking for 20  Kurdish individuals (with different age, gender, education and occupation background) to participate in a focus group and to interpret the social and cultural meanings of 10 photographs of Kurdish everyday life in London including identity, community and work.

We are interesting in how Kurdish people conceptualize their identities and relationships with issues of community, work and social network in London. This ESRC funded research project would like to hear your voice, your opinion and give you an opportunity to understand  the way you feel, interpret, and make sense of your experiences in London through using images of Kurdish people taken by a professional photographer Jim Hodson and  RenkArt.

We only need approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes of your time and we will pay you £20 for your participation.

Date: Friday 13 November 2009

Time: 6:15pm

Venue: SOAS, Room FG08

School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG

Organised by : Kurdish Studies and Students Organisation  at SOAS (KSSO)

Please note: Space is limited to 20 participants, and pre-registration is required! Deadline for registration:  Friday at 11:00 am (13.11.2009).  The discussion will take place in English and Kurdish.

If you would like to consider participating in this project, please mail Janroj Keles  j.keles@londonmet.ac.uk or mc@ksso.org.uk,  Telephone: 07875149068

Working Lives Research Institute, London Metropolitan University

31 Jewry Street, London EC3N 2EY

www.workinglives.org

This research project is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and is being undertaken by the Working Lives Research Institute, London Metropolitan University.

We, at Kurdish Studies and Student Organization (KSSO) are  deeply concerned about  the decision by the Turkish Constitutional Court to close down the only pro-Kurdish party in the Turkish parliment, DTP (Demokratik Toplum Partisi – Democratic Society Party).

Since 1991 numerous pro-Kurdish parties (HEP, ÖZDEP, DEP, DDP, DKP, HADEP) in Turkey have been closed. After the closure of DEP (Demokrasi Partisi – Demoracy Party) on 16 June 1994, DTP was the second pro-Kurdish party to represent the Kurds in the Turkish parliament in 14 years. When DEP was closed down the first prominent female Kurdish member of the Turkish parliament, Leyla Zana, was banned from official political activities and stripped of her immunity. In December 1994, along with four other DEP MPs Zana and her colleagues were arrested and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Now DTP has been closed  and  37 of its members  have been banned from official politics for the next 5 years including the current chairman Ahmet Türk and former chairwomen Aysel Tuğluk. Ironically the list includes Kurdish activists and individuals who were not even members of the DTP, like Leyla Zana and Orhan Miroglu.

Many commentators and political analysts have pointed out that this is not a judicial judgment but a politically motivated decision, which criminalizes the legitimate political representation of the Kurdish citizens in Turkey. Over two and a half million citizens of Turkey who have voted for DTP have been disenfranchised by this decision of the Turkish constitutional court. This decision will negate the optimism and opportunities for a political and peaceful solution for Turkey’s urgent Kurdish question.

The UK Kurdish Studies & Student Organisation is a non-political body that strives to promote greater awareness of the Kurds, their political and cultural situation in the Middle East and as a significant minority community in the UK. We, students and academics at KSSO are concerned about this latest development. By banning the DTP, Turkey has closed democratic and peaceful channels for politically raising the Kurdish issue in Turkey and violated Kurdish rights to be represented in Turkish Parliament.

We urge Members of Parliament (MPs), Members of European Parliament (MEPs), human rights organizations and campaigners, academics and trade unions to send a strong message to the Turkish authorities to solve the Kurdish issue peacefully.

KSSO Management committee

14 December 2009