Zeynel Gül, PhD
2023 B2F Scholar
Pronouns: He/Him
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About
Zeynel Gül is a Bridge to Faculty postdoctoral scholar at the Department of Anthropology at UIC. Gül has recently completed his doctoral studies in cultural anthropology at Johns Hopkins University where he has specialized in medical anthropology, anthropology of law, and science and technology studies.
Gül’s book manuscript, tentatively titled Silicosis Trails: Law, Medicine, and the Corrosion of the Laboring Body in Turkey, chronicles the stories of patients with silicosis – a chronic lung disease caused by inhalation of dust particles at the workplace. Silicosis Trails ethnographically explores how a state-led expansion of access to medical care for workers in Turkey shapes health litigation in courts, revealing the intertwining of law and healthcare governance in producing uncertainties in the medical field regarding diagnosis and predictions of the severity and course of the disease. Gül’s research recasts anthropological understandings of disease ontology and patient experience by investigating the embeddedness of law and governance in the production of medical knowledge.
During the first two years of the COVID-19 crisis, Gül joined a multi-country research team to study the pandemic’s financial and health-related challenges for working class households. At Johns Hopkins, Gül taught courses on environmental toxicity and medical anthropology. Before joining UIC, Gül also completed the certificate program at the Environmental and Occupational Health at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.