Barzoo Eliassi

I hold a PhD in social work (2010) and serve as an Associate Professor at Linnaeus University where I teach at undergraduate and graduate levels. My research area engages with ethnic relations, social policy, social work, Kurdish and Palestinian diasporas, citizenship and multiculturalism in Middle Eastern and west European societies. Before joining Linnaeus University, I served as postdoc as the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Lund University between 2011-2013 and worked as a researcher at the International Migration Institute at Oxford University in 2014 where I carried out research among Kurdish and Palestinian Diasporas in Sweden and the UK.

I have taught at the The two-year international interdisciplinary Master's programme in Middle Eastern Studies at Lund University and undergraduate and graduate courses within the social work program at Linnaeus University. I worked as program coordinator for the master program in social work, 2019-2021. In 2015, I was approached and offered to be nominated by York University as a Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) for exceptional emerging researchers, acknowledged as having the potential to lead in the field on Migration and Mobilities. On August 2022, I was promoted as full professor in social work at York University, Canada.

I have reviewed:

Research fund application to the The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) in Canada.

Researcher Position within the MWK-Fellows programme of the Max Weber Centre for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies at Max-Weber-Kolleg Erfurt, Germany.

-Lecturer Position

-Promotion to Associate Professorship

-Master Program in Social Work

Moreover, I have functioned as a peer reviewer for more than 27 international academic journals and reviewed book proposals for Routledge, Palgrave, Sage and Ashgate. In addition, I am a member of the editorial boards for the following journal and book series:

Journal of Qualitative Social Work

Education Sciences

International Editorial Advisory Board for Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Studies

The International Editorial Advisory Board for International Institute for The Study of Kurdish Societies (IISKS)
The International Advisory Book for the book series Postcolonial Matter/Materia Postcoloniale, UNIOR

I have also being part of dissertation committees at Lund University, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Malmö University, Mid Sweden University, Uppsala University and Stockholm University. In the same context, I have acted as an opponent at Leicester University, University of Helsinki and Oslo University.

I have co-supervised a doctoral student to completion at Mid Sweden University and currently act as a principal supervisor for two doctoral students at Linnaeus University and as second-supervisor for a doctoral student at Bielefeld University in Germany.

Teaching

Critical Social Work, Youth, Citizenship, Middle Eastern Studies, Migration, Multictulturalism

Research

Social Work, citizenship, migration, Middle Eastern societies, Kurdish and Palestinian refugees and diasporas, multiculturalism, welfare policy, statelessness, politics of belonging, identity formation and youth

My research groups

My ongoing research projects

Project: Global social work and human mobility This EU project's main objective is to consolidate an international and inter-sectorial network of comparative and collaborative research and training on…

My completed research projects

Project: Statelessness and political belonging in a world of nation-states This research project investigates statelessness and political belonging in a world of unequal nation-states and citizenship…

Publications

Chapter in book (Refereed)

Eliassi, B. (2021). Kurdish Diaspora : A Transnational Imagined Community. The Cambridge History of the Kurds. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. 848-868.
Eliassi, B. (2020). Diasporic Narratives of Assimilation and Resistance. The Kurds in the Middle East : Enduring Problems and New Dynamics. London, Lexington Books. 279-304.
Eliassi, B. (2019). Homelessness and statelessness : possibilities and perils. Routledge Handbook of Diaspora Studies. New York, Routledge. 120-128.
Eliassi, B. (2018). Diasporic conceptions of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Routledge Handbook on the Kurds. New York, Routledge. 425-438.
Eliassi, B. (2016). Conceiving Citizenship and Statelessness in the Middle East and Sweden : The Experiences of Kurdish migrants in Sweden. Citizenship, Belonging, and Nation-States in the Twenty-First Century. Palgrave Macmillan. 85-110.
Eliassi, B. (2016). Statelessness and Belonging : The Cases of Kurdish Youth in Sweden. New Dimensions of Diversity in Nordic Culture and Society. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. 174-190.
Eliassi, B. (2015). Making a Kurdistani identity in Diaspora : Kurdish Migrants in Sweden. Diasporas Reimagined : Spaces, Practices and Belonging. Oxford, Oxford University, Oxford Diasporas Program. 45-49.
Eliassi, B. (2012). Political Terrains of Writing Belonging, Memory and Homeland. Emergent Writing Methodologies in Feminist Studies. New York, Routledge. 83-97.
Eliassi, B. (2006). Diskriminerande föreställningar inom socialtjänsten. Den segregerande integrationen : Om social sammanhållning och dess hinder. Stockholm, Fritzes. 251-294.

Report (Refereed)

Eliassi, B. (2015). Narratives of statelessness and political belonging among Kurdish diasporas in Sweden and the UK. Oxford, International Migration Institute, Oxford University. 38.

Article in journal (Other academic)

Eliassi, B. (2014). Nationalism, Cosmopolitanism and Statelessness : An interview with Craig Calhoun. Kurdish Studies journal. 3 (1). 61-74.
Status: Published
Eliassi, B. (2014). La Diaspora Kurde en Suède. Hommes & Migrations. (1307). 144--149.
Status: Published
Eliassi, B., Andersson, D., Stenberg, L. (2014). Fotbollströjor, terror och tillhörighetspolitik. Idrottsforum.org/Nordic sport science forum. (21 maj).
Status: Published

Conference paper (Other academic)

Eliassi, B. (2015). "Marked" Citizenship and Social Justice in Iran. Inter-ethnic dialogue in Iran.
Eliassi, B. (2006). Integration of Kurdish immigrants in Sweden. .

Chapter in book (Other academic)

Dahlstedt, M., Eliassi, B. (2018). Utanförskapet, förorten och slaget om hemmet. Förortsdrömmar : Ungdomar, utanförskap och viljan till inkludering. Linköping, Linköping University Electronic Press. 23-46.
Eliassi, B. (2010). Ojämlikhetens landskap och västerländska fantastier om räddningsuppdrag i världen. Röster om internationalisering : Några texter som berör internationalisering och socionomutbildning vid Mittuniversitetet, University of Northern British Columbia och Høgskolen i Sør-Trøndelag. Sundsvall, Mid Sweden University. 44-59.

Doctoral thesis, monograph (Other academic)

Eliassi, B. (2010). A stranger in my homeland : The politics of belonging among young people with Kurdish backgrounds in Sweden. Doctoral Thesis. Sundsvall, Mid Sweden University. 260.

Article in journal (Other (popular science, discussion, etc.))

Eliassi, B. (2014). Iranian Consulate and its denial of Kurdish Identity : "Kurds are portrayed as linguistic bastards". Your Middle East. (May 15).
Status: Published
Eliassi, B. (2013). Kurds in the shadow of Iranian Citizenship. Your Middle East.
Status: Published
Eliassi, B. (2013). Privilege and Oppression: The Persian example in the Multiethnic Iran. Your Middle East.
Status: Published
Eliassi, B. (2013). Leftist Intellectuals and the Kurds. Rudaw.
Status: Published
Eliassi, B. (2013). The Politics of Kurdish identity in Turkey. Your Middle East.
Status: Published
Eliassi, B. (2011). Sweden Democrat's Anti-Muslim Hysteria. Open Democracy.
Status: Published
Eliassi, B. (2011). National Conflicts reflected in diaspora : the quest for recognition among Kurdish youth in Sweden. Open Democracy.
Status: Published
Eliassi, B. (2005). Syndabocken bland oss. Mana. 12-13.
Status: Published

Conference paper (Other (popular science, discussion, etc.))

Eliassi, B. (2012). "We Kurds did not come to Sweden to become Swedish but continuing being Kurdish". 2nd Scientific World Kurdish Congress (WKC2012) in Hawler/Erbil, October 11-15, 2012. 16.
Eliassi, B. (2008). När blir man svensk?. Migration and Youth.
Eliassi, B. (2006). Politics of Belonging among Kurdish youth in Sweden. World Congress of Kurdish Studies.

Other (Other (popular science, discussion, etc.))

Ahmadi, F., Andréasson, F., Andreasson, J., Bayati, Z., Bečević, Z., et al. (2019). Remissyttrande över utkast till lagrådsremiss : Förlängning av lagen om tillfälliga begränsningar av möjligheten att få uppehållstillstånd i Sverige (Dnr Ju2019/00509/L7). 8.
Eliassi, B., Elena, F. (2015). How likely is civil war in Turkey?. openDemocracy.
Eliassi, B., Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, E., Buttini, L. (2015). Radici e dinamiche del conflitto tra governo turco e curdi. Voci Globali.