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During this lunch seminar, Lamia Kocaman will present her research on transnational home-making between Europe and Turkey, focusing on amplifying women’s voices. Her work examines how migrant women actively shape their multiple homes across borders and negotiate multiple belongings. By analyzing both the processes and products of home-making, Kocaman explores how transnational houses challenge traditional, static notions of the home. These houses are both fixed in place and shaped by their connections elsewhere. Using a transnational framework, her research highlights the circulation of spatial knowledge, practices, and aesthetics between European cities (cities of residence Ghent and Stockholm) and Turkish towns (cities of origin: Emirdağ and Kulu). Through in-depth interviews and spatial mapping, Kocaman amplifies the voices of women who often remain underrepresented in architectural and urban studies. Her work intersects architecture, anthropology, and feminism, offering new insights into how migration impacts domestic spaces across borders and landscapes.

Lamia Kocaman is a PhD student in the Department of History, Theory, and Criticism of Architecture at KU Leuven. She is currently working on a dissertation titled Transnational Housing: A Spatial Analysis of the Processes and Products of Migrant Women’s Home-Making Between Europe and Turkey (supervised by Luce Beeckmans).