Emrah Yıldız

Emrah Yıldız is a sociocultural anthropologist whose research moves across anthropology of saint visitation in Islam, political economy of currency and commodity trade under sanctions, and geographies of borders and their polities across Southwest Asia. His first book, Traffic in Zainab: Religion, Economy and Polity across Borders (under contract with the University of California Press, Atelier series) synthesizes these areas of scholarship to craft a multi-scalar ethnography of Iranian visitors’ journeys via Turkey to the Sayyida Zainab shrine in Syria. Coeditor of the collection “Resistance Everywhere”: The Gezi Protests and Dissident Visions of Turkey (2014), Yıldız published research articles in Cultural Anthropology, differences, International Journal of Middle East Studies, and Toplum ve Bilim. Emrah works as an assistant professor of anthropology and MENA studies at Northwestern University.

While preparing PhD applications in Fall 2007, Emrah audited Michael’s Islamic City course at NYU. Ever since Michael has been a generous mentor as well as an inspirational intellectual who carries his brilliance with the mantled humility of a dervish, and with his perfect hair.

Festpod conversation was inspired by the photographs on the map of Michael's trajectory.