Tracing State Violence Across Borders

Lina Omran's doctoral research examines how experiences of state violence shape displaced people's understandings of the state, and the social contract across contexts of forced migration. Focusing on Syrians living in Germany and Turkey, she investigates how memories of authoritarian rule, conflict, displacement, and encounters with state institutions continue to influence expectations of governance, protection, and belonging after migration.

Situated at the intersection of Forced Migration Studies, the Anthropology of the State, and Memory Studies, the project explores how refugees navigate relationships with multiple state authorities across origin, transit, and host-country contexts. Rather than viewing displacement as a transition from one state to another, the research conceptualises these experiences as ongoing "state entanglements", in which past and present encounters with different forms of state power remain interconnected over time.

The project employs a comparative qualitative design combining life history interviews and digital ethnography among Syrians in Berlin and Istanbul. By examining how experiences of violence, bureaucracy, legal precarity, and transnational ties shape perceptions of trust, obligation, Inclusion and exclusion, the research seeks to contribute to broader debates on state-society relations, forced migration, and the lived dimensions of the social contract.

Lina received her first MA from the University of Leicester in the UK in contemporary sociology and her second MA from Humboldt University in Berlin in Social science.
 Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Andrea Fleschenberg dos Ramos Pinéu

First Supervisor @BGSMCS: Prof. Dr. Andrea Fleschenberg