Muhammed Kaya

Muhammed Kaya is a Ph.D. candidate and part of the academic staff at the Department of Anthropology and Cultural Research at the University of Bremen.



He holds his bachelor’s degree from Ankara University and worked in the Turkish Parliament for many years. In 2018, he received asylum in Germany and subsequently received his M.A. degree from Humboldt University at the GeT MA – German Turkish Masters Program in Social Sciences. His research centres on questions of the normalization of states of exception, state authoritarianism, everyday resistance, and social movements. His MA thesis analyzed the Turkish state´s approach to the Kurdish question and focussed on the prohibition of demonstrations and meetings in the Kurdish cities of Van, Hakkari and Dersim, and on Kurdish resistance. His Ph.D. explores “Water Colonialism: Turkey’s Politics of Water Against Rojava”.


As a member of Bremen Natural Cultural Lab, he interested in ecology, ecocide and deforestration in Kurdistan and Turkey.


He is involved in the educational, pedagogical and political projects collaboration with the University of Bremen and the University of Rojava.