Gabriele Leone, Ph.D.

Junior Visiting Fellow - Summer Semester 2023

Gabriele Leone is a junior visiting research fellow in the field of excellence and will spend the summer semester 2023 in Graz.
His research focuses on the study of the Turkish Republic and the use of biopolitical practices implemented by the central state in the Kurdish-majority area of south-eastern Anatolia. His research develops by analysing whether and how these biopolitical devices have been put in place, and also questions the relationship with the neighbouring and ever-interacting Europe. The research aims to follow historical developments from the end of the First World War and the implosion of the Ottoman Empire to the most recent events in the Anatolian area. During his stay, he will work on the project

Turkey: Biopolitics and National Identity: What
motivations drive the nation-state to use biopolitical practices understood as biological
extrapolation of the political enemy? What prospects might a possible rapprochement of Turkey
with the EU offer for the Kurdish minority?

His dissertation, which is done at the University of Lapland, is focusing on research in a politicalphilosophical field of investigation aimed at clarifying the power relations between the Turkish nation-state and the unrecognised Kurdish minority. This research aims to fit into the vast literature on the subject that neglects the segment of biopolitical mechanisms and their potential totalitarian effect on Turkish democracy in particular.