Omar Sirri

University of Toronto, Political Sciences

2022 Co-Winner (Social Sciences)

Scarecrows of the State: An Ethnography of Security Checkpoints in Contemporary Baghdad

Omar Sirri’s beautifully written dissertation shows how routine and mundane interactions at checkpoints between security personnel and residents of Baghdad serve to construct and maintain state authority in post-invasion Iraq. He draws on a wide variety of social scientific theories and approaches to inform his ethnography of how police and soldiers, officials, and residents understand what they are doing. The analysis opens doors for future studies on urban security and on how state power manifests itself and is constructed through social interactions and affective attachments.

 

The dissertation was completed at the University of Toronto in the Department of Political Science under the supervision of Anver Emon & Courtney Jung

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