Staff Profile
https://denizyonucu.com/about-me
My first book, Police, Provocation, Politics Counterinsurgency in Istanbul (Cornell University Press, 2022), sheds light on counterinsurgency's affect-and-emotion-generating divisive techniques and urban dimensions and shows how counterinsurgent policing strategies work to intervene in the organization of political dissent in a way that both counters existing alignments among dissident populations and prevents emergent ones. It provides an ethnographically grounded analysis of the tension between policing and politics and presents a counterintuitive analysis of policing, focusing particular attention on the incitement of counterviolence and perpetual conflict by the state security apparatus. Rather than focusing on counterinsurgency’s strategies for producing docile and compliant citizens, I focus on the provocative aspects of policing. I argue in the book that counterinsurgency is a permanent and preventive war on politics. Engaging also with the literature on political subjectivities, urban marginality, urban violence, memory, and resistance the book sheds light on the world-building practices of the oppressed and fearless resistance that is informed by what I call inspirational hauntings.
Both my research and teaching are guided by my commitment to interdisciplinary and decolonial approaches to pressing social issues. My teaching philosophy is based on the development of critical thinking skills and helping students hone their ability to denaturalize social relations through explorations of the structures and patterns that have shaped our historical present.
Before joining Newcastle University, I taught at various universities including the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, the Free University of Berlin, Cornell University, and Bosphorus University.
Selected Teaching Experience
Newcastle University (2021-):
Perpetual Wars: Crime, Policing and (In)Security (MA)
Critical Approaches to Security and Policing (BA),
Crime and Inequalities (BA),
Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (2018-2020):
Decolonizing Anthropology (BA)
The Anthropology of Policing (BA&MA)
The Anthropology of Crime (BA &MA)
The Anthropology of Law (BA & MA)
Critical Approaches to the Violence in the Middle East (BA)
Free University of Berlin (2017- 2018):
Urban Anthropology (MA)
The Anthropology of Human Rights (MA)
Sabanci University (2014)
The Anthropology of the State (BA & MA)
Bosphorus University (2010-2014)
Introduction to Sociology (BA)
Society and State (BA)
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Articles
- Yonucu Deniz. Inspirational Hauntings and a Fearless Spirit of Resistance: Negotiating the Undercover Police Surveillance of Racialized Spaces in Istanbul. Current Anthropology 2022. In Press.
- Yonucu D. Counterinsurgency in Istanbul: provocative counterorganization, violent interpellation and sectarian fears. British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 2022, 49(5), 896-914.
- Yonucu D, Suciyan T. From the Ottoman Empire to Post-1923: The Catastrophe as Seen by the Angel of History. Critical Times 2020, 3(2), 300-311.
- Yonucu D. Urban vigilantism: A study of anti‐terror law, politics and policing in Istanbul. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 2018, 42(3), 408-422.
- Yonucu D. The absent present law: An ethnographic study of legal violence in Turkey. Social & Legal Studies 2018, 27(6), 716-733.
- Yonucu Deniz. Şehir, egemenlik ve çatışma mekânları. Toplum ve Bilim 2018, 146, 62-71. In Preparation.
- Yonucu D. Affect in the courtroom: beyond language and performance. Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law 2018, 50(3), 356-357.
- Yonucu D. Kapitalizm, Suçlulaştırma ve Siyaset. Birikim 2014, 297, 29-37.
- Yonucu Deniz. Capitalism, desperation and urgency. Red Thread 2011, 3, 1-10.
- Yonucu Deniz. A Story of a Squatter Neighborhood: From the place of the" dangerous classes" to the" place of danger". Berkeley Journal of Sociology 2008, 52, 50-72.
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Authored Book
- Yonucu Deniz. Police, Provocation, Politics: Counterinsurgency in Istanbul. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2022. In Press.
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Book Chapters
- Yonucu Deniz. “Var-Yok Hukuk: Türkiye'de Hukukun Şiddetinin Etnografik Analizi”. In: Deger, Ozan, ed. Düşmanı Yargılamak. Ankara: Zoe Kitap, 2020, pp.212 – 241.
- Bora T, Yonucu D. State and Civilian Violence Against "Dangerous" Others. In: Özyürek, E; Özpınar, G; Altındiş, E, ed. Authoritarianism and Resistance in Turkey: Conversations on Democratic and Social Challenges. Cham: Springer, 2019, pp.229-235.
- Yonucu D. Türkiye'de Bir Yönetim Biçimi Olarak Mekansal Ayrıştırma: Tehlikeli Mahalleler, Olağanüstü Hal ve Militarist Sınır Çizimi [Spatial Segregation as a Technology of Governance in Turkey: Dangerous Neighborhoods, State of Emergency and Militarized Boundary Drawing]. In: Ayfer Bartu Candan, Cenk Özbay, ed. Yeni İstanbul Çalışmaları: Sınırlar, Mücadeleler, Açılımlar. Istabul: Metis, 2014.
- Yonucu Deniz. European Istanbul and Its Enemies: Istanbul’s Working Class as the Constitutive Outside of the Modern/European Istanbul. In: D. Reuschke; M. Salzbrunn; K. Schönhärl, ed. The Economies of Urban Diversity: Ruhr Area and Istanbul. Palgrave, 2013.
- Gönen Z, Yonucu D. Legitimizing violence and segregation: Neoliberal discourses on crime and criminalization of urban poor populations in Turkey. In: Bourke, A; Dafnos, T; Kip, M, ed. Lumpencity: Discourses of Marginality, Marginalizing Discourses. Red Quill Books, 2011, pp.75-103. In Press.