Dr. Ibrahim Emre Yanik is a sociologist working in the fields of migration, border studies and family sociology. He received his BA in Sociology from Boğaziçi University and completed his MA degrees in Sociology at Marmara University and Syracuse University. In 2025, he earned his PhD from the Department of Sociology at Syracuse University with a dissertation titled “Stranded in Transit: Migrants’ Borderland Experiences En Route to Europe.” His doctoral research examines migrants’ prolonged states of waiting in Istanbul on their way to Europe, analyzing their borderland experiences through the concepts of “protracted transit” and “social surplus,” and exploring how externalized border regimes produce immobilization as well as new forms of subjectivity and agency. His research interests include migration, border studies, family sociology, political sociology and health inequalities.

Yanik’s work spans a wide range of topics, from community experiences of Muslims re-entering society after incarceration to the ways vaccine hesitancy in digital public spheres intersects with polarization and socio-economic inequalities. His articles have appeared in journals such as Justice, Opportunities, and Rehabilitation and PLOS ONE, and he has contributed a book chapter on European border regimes and security walls in Turkey, discussing sovereignty, the nation-state and border externalization, in the Routledge Handbook of European Borderlands. His research has been supported by awards and grants including the Roscoe Martin Fund, the Goekjian/Center for European Studies Research Grant, and the Manfred Stanley Memorial Graduate Scholarship at Syracuse University.