Burcu Özdemir is a PhD candidate in Cultural Anthropology at The Graduate Center, CUNY. Her research is based in Northern Kurdistan (Turkish Kurdistan), exploring the intersections of war, colonialism, large scale developmentalist interventions, and life-making projects. Her dissertation, titled Wounded Ecologies: The Political Life of Water in Northern Kurdistan, traces the processes through which infrastructures and ecologies are coproduced in an ongoing war and the ways in which ecologies enable, extend, and resist enduring violence. Supported by numerous grants, including from the Wenner-Gren Foundation, her work contributes to discussions on environmental justice, colonialism, and resistance. Alongside her research, Burcu has taught extensively at institutions such as Hunter College, Lehman College, and Baruch College, offering courses in cultural anthropology and gender studies.