Studying Kurdishness in Turkey: a review of existing research

Knowledge production on marginalized identities is frequently shaped by epistemic violence, which limits both the scope and methodologies of research. One example of this is the case of Kurdish identity in Turkey, where we find that methodological and epistemic problems are evident particularly in social psychological research. To summarize social psychological studies on Kurdishness, Kurdish identity and conflict in Turkey we've conducted a systematic review that includes a total of 63 studies on topics related to Kurdishness. We utilize qualitative content analysis (Schreier, 2012) to address: (1) whether samples in the studies in our review represent Kurds, (2) which topics the studies mostly focus on, (3) how Kurdish identity and Kurds as a group are conceptualized and (4) how the Kurdish issue is conceptualized. We discuss our findings in light of epistemic violence and methodological nationalism and identify the key gaps in the literature and offer a critical, inclusive understanding of the social psychological studies on Kurdish identity and state violence in Turkey.