Biography: Dr. Emrah Karakuş is a sociocultural anthropologist whose research examines affective politics, migration, and the lived experiences of queer and trans communities in conflict zones across the Middle East, with a particular focus on Kurdish and Turkish contexts. He is currently an LSE Fellow in Gender and Human Rights at the London School of Economics and previously held a postdoctoral fellowship at Brandeis University’s Crown Center for Middle East Studies. His book project, Rebel Affections: The Making of a Queer Sacrifice in Kurdish Intimate Frontiers, explores how queer and trans Kurds navigate their lives through notions of debt (bedel), rights, and repayment. Karakuş’s work has been published in leading peer-reviewed journals, including American Ethnologist, Anthropology Today, Kurdish Studies, and Transgender Studies Quarterly.