Harun Ercan

Harun Ercan’s research examines the intersections of state power, criminalization, violence, race, and illicit economies in comparative and global perspective. He is currently completing a book manuscript on counterrevolution, racialization, and criminal networks in modern Turkey. Ercan’s work has appeared in Democratization, South Atlantic Quarterly, and Dialectical Anthropology. At Hamilton, he will teach courses on the sociology of elites, crime and inequality, political sociology, and global carceral regimes. His teaching encourages students to connect sociological theory to contemporary social and political issues from a global perspective through comparative and historical analysis. Ercan previously taught at Hobart and William Smith Colleges and Kenyon College.

Research Interests

Counterinsurgency, racialization, criminal networks, Turkish politics, Kurdish movement, authoritarianism, political sociology

Distinctions

• Graduate Student Excellence Award in Teaching, SUNY Binghamton (2023)
• Nesar Ahmad Memorial Scholarship, The Fernand Braudel Center, Binghamton University (2023)
• The Anibal Quijano Research Fellowship, Sociology Department, Binghamton University (2022)
• Dissertation Writing Fellowship, Sociology Department, Binghamton University (2021–2022)
• The Graduate School Student Excellence Award in Research, SUNY Binghamton (2021)
•  The Clifford C. Clogg Scholarship, University of Michigan, ICPSR (2020)
• International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP), U.S. Mission to the OSCE (2017)
• Turkish Fulbright Commission Opportunity Grant (2009)

Selected Publications

• "Permissive Prejudice in Localized Authoritarian Consolidation: Evidence from Turkey's Municipalities." Democratization 31(8), 1912–1936 (May 2024) [co-authored with Lisel Hintz]
• "Authoritarianism from Above and Below: Exclusive Nationalism and the Turkish-Kurdish Conflict." The Commentaries 1, No.1: 75-83 (April 2021)
• "Is Hope More Precious Than Victory? Failed Peace Process and the Urban Warfare in the Kurdish Region of Turkey." South Atlantic Quarterly, Vol. 118, Issue 1, 111-127 (January 2019)
• "Talking to the Ontological Other: Armed Struggle and the Negotiations between the Turkish State and the PKK." Dialectical Anthropology, Volume 37, Number 1, pp. 113-122 (March 2013)

Appointed to the Faculty

2026

Educational Background

Ph.D., State University of New York at Binghamton
M.A., State University of New York at Binghamton
Master, Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey
B.A., Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey

Dissertation

Selective Hegemony: Counterinsurgency, Racialization, and Criminal Networks in Turkey