Hayal Akarsu

Hayal Akarsu is Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Utrecht University. Previously, she was a Junior Research Fellow in the Crown Center for Middle East Studies and Lecturer in Anthropology at Brandeis University. She obtained her PhD in 2018 from the School of Anthropology at the University of Arizona, and her MA in 2012 from Near Eastern Studies at New York University (NYU). From her current book project on police reforms to her ongoing research on digital policing and environmental crimes, Akarsu explores how various imaginations of risk and threat securitize and police different realms of social and natural life. As a co-opted member of the current EASA Executive Committee, she has been instrumental in developing the EASA Mentoring Program and actively contributes to EASA’s Working Group on Human Rights and Academic Freedom, working towards making EASA a more inclusive space. If elected, she aims to continue building upon these initiatives to further strengthen EASA’s commitment to inclusivity, critical thinking, anthropological ethics, and academic freedom.