Biography
Fethi Keles (Ph.D. 2014, Syracuse University) is a cultural anthropologist specializing in the study of forced migration and refugees. With generous support from the Germany-based Die Zeit-Stiftung Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius, he conducted ethnographic research among Bosnian refugee immigrants who relocated to urban United States during and after the Bosnian War (1992-1995). Focusing on Bosnians’ resettlement and integration experiences in diaspora, he examined the effects of conflict-driven dislocation on attitudes toward cultural and political citizenship and the relationship between collective memory and diasporic consciousness. Fethi’s teaching at several institutions of higher education in the United States and his scholarly writings have covered refugee resettlement in the U.S., ethnic/forced migration and refugees in recent times, the relevance of critical anthropology to global phenomena, and conflict analysis, among other topics. He is a co-editor of two back-to-back volumes published by the American Anthropological Association, Maintaining Refuge: Anthropological Reflections in Uncertain Times (2017) and Porous Borders, Invisible Boundaries? Ethnographic Perspectives on the Vicissitudes of Contemporary Migration (2018). His various publications appeared in outlets such as International Journal of Refugee Law, International Migration Review, Nordic Journal of Migration Research, Anthropology News, and City & Society, among others. Fethi had an informal role as a non-resident Postdoctoral Fellow in Global Social Protection within the Transnational Studies Initiative at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University from 2015 to 2017. He completed certificate programs in refugee studies at the Center for Forced Migration Studies at Northwestern University, Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma at the Harvard Medical School, Refugee Studies Centre at Oxford University, and Centre for Refugee Studies at York University. Fethi currently teaches as a part-time instructor in the Department of Anthropology at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. He also has an appointment as a Fellow in the Weatherhead Scholars Program at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University in Fall 2026.