Dr. Beril Ocaklı
Janine Hauer
Online, 16-17.45
In this session of the ETROD series, Beril Ocaklı will take the audience for a deep dive into extractivism and linked socionatural struggles in post-Soviet geographies. Focusing on expanding gold mining in Kyrgyzstan in the last three decades, the talk will present a grounded account of multi-scalar processes and practices that have rushed and resisted the making and mining of gold in the country. During her presentation, Beril will spotlight the value of disciplinary and methodological pluralism in researching sociomaterial agency that undergirds resource extractivism and resistance.
Beril Ocaklı is a development practitioner turned academic, currently principal investigator at the Centre for East European and International Studies, Berlin Germany. As a critical geographer and institutional economist, she studies extractive infrastructures and authoritarian governance in Central Asia and the South Caucasus, including the role that China plays in the region. Beril holds a PhD in Geography from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and has a background in development Studies (MSc at London School of Economics and Political Science) and international economics (BA Corvinus University of Budapest). Before returning to academia, she led transdisciplinary development projects on resource governance on behalf of the German government, the EU and other multilateral organisations.