Dr Janroj Keles

Biography

Janroj Yilmaz Keles is an Associate Professor in Politics at Middlesex University Law School. He also holds visiting positions as a Senior Fellow at the London School of Economics (LSE) and a Visiting Professor at the University of Kurdistan Hewler. His teaching and research interests encompass globalisation, digital media and the social world, peace and conflict, gender, political violence, ethnicity and nationalism, statelessness, migration, migrant entrepreneurship, international relations, social movements, media and political communication, as well as student employment.

Keles has extensive international education experience, having studied in Turkey, Germany, and the United Kingdom. He received his PhD in Sociology and Communications from Brunel University. His PhD thesis, titled "Media, Diaspora and Conflict: Nationalism and Identity among Kurdish and Turkish Migrants in Europe," is an interdisciplinary and comparative cross-national study based on a sociologically informed analysis of mass communication, national-ethnic identity, multiple belonging, and inter-group relations/conflict within diasporic and transnational settings.

Previously, he worked as a Lecturer in sociology and media studies at the Faculty of Applied Social Sciences, London Metropolitan University, and as an Associate Lecturer in the Department of Media and Cultural Studies at Birkbeck. He also worked at the Working Lives Research Institute, London Metropolitan University, participating in several cross-national and interdisciplinary research projects on migration, visual and work sociology, civic engagement and participation, forced labour, human trafficking, precarious work, labour movements and trade unions, community, identity, ethnicity, racism, and globalization.

During his PhD, Keles was part of a research team exploring 'Legitimising the Discourses of Radicalisation: Political Violence in the New Media Ecology' for the University of Warwick, worked for Harvard University in London on the political participation and religious integration of Muslims in Europe after 9/11, and participated in the MIGSYS research project (Professor Russell King) to examine the growing diversity of migrant types, nationalities, ethnicities, cultures, languages, and motivations, especially in "super-diversity" within urban settings such as London.

Teaching

Keles is module leader of  UG Dissertation, Digital Media and the Social World and Sociology and Social Change and Societies from Global Perspectives and International Relations of the Middle East and North Africa as well as Migration Theories and Approaches (MA), and co-module leader of Politics of Globalization (MA). He supervises both MA and PhD students.

Keles employs student-centered, inclusive, and critical pedagogies combined with interactive learning activities. This approach aims to raise students' interest in learning, help them present their ideas convincingly, and communicate their understanding effectively. One of his former students, now a journalist, stated, "You benefitted me greatly through your teaching and insight into global and Middle Eastern affairs. The interdisciplinary knowledge gained from your studies and personal experience provided us with a well-rounded, impactful, and balanced understanding of the topics at hand. Your encouragement to record our insights and views through blogging also contributed to my current occupation as a journalist and political analyst."

Doctoral supervision 

 1. DoS of Khasro Ajgahi: The successful para-diplomacy of Sub-State Actors: The case of Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq

2.  DoS of Haider Alkhateeb: Deconstructing the political construction of Sectarianism in Iraq: the role of violence in its imposition and perpetuation.

3. DoS of Aein Khezri: Terrorism from the Perspective of Shia Muslim

4. DoS of Abdulrahman Rashed: New Media & Global Terrorism; the Cyber Battle Space (Completed March 2021)

5. Second Supervisor of Mohammed Salman Khan: Governance beyond government: the role of Batkhela Bazaar in improving governance in the Malakand Region (Pakistan) ( Nov 2014 – Completed).

6. External supervisor of Shwan Wasim : Kurdish Journalism Cultures; Shifting boundaries of privacy understanding in the professional role perceptions of journalists (Nottingham Trent University) (April 2015- August 2017- Completed).