Projects per year
Personal profile
Research interests
Dr Banu Senay is a social anthropologist. She received her PhD in Anthropology from Macquarie University in 2010. Over the past two decades, her work has contributed to the fields of political anthropology, Turkish studies, diasporas, and anthropology of Islam and Muslim practices. The investigation of the complex links between state-driven projects of modernity and citizens' everyday practices has been a central feature of Dr Senay's research.
Based on two-years of field research in Australia and Europe, her first book Beyond Turkey's Borders: Long-Distance Kemalism, State Politics and the Turkish State (2013) examines the intimate relationship between the political and religious fields of state-sponsored transnationalism, and how the Turkish State seeks to make Islam (as it does in Turkey) into an instrument legitimising its nationalist enterprises beyond its national borders.
Her second monograph, Musical Ethics and Islam (2020), circles around questions about religion and ethics, engaging with important debates in anthropology around skilled learning, pedagogy, and Muslim subjectivity, specifically in relation to Sufi Islam and to one of its most significant dimensions, music. Grounded in phenomenological theory and appreticeship-based fieldwork methodology in the city of Istanbul, this work offers an intimate account of art-based Muslim civil society groups in Turkey and the power of Islam-infused pedagogies to change selves. Her work in this area has been published by numerous journals, including Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Third World Quarterly, Ethnomusicology Forum, European Journal of Cultural Studies, International Journal of Middle East Studies, and Contemporary Islam.
In her current Australian Research Council-funded project, Dr Senay directs focus on the Islamic bureucratic organ of the Turkish state (Diyanet) through an exploration of the embodied Islamic practices that this institution runs in the educational and cultural domains. This is a collaborative study, which comparatively examines the state-sponsored religious fields in Turkey and Indonesia (this leg of the project is led by Professor Julian Millie).
Before joining Macquarie University, Dr Senay held a three-year post-doctoral fellowship (MacArthur Fellowship) in Anthropology at the University of Melbourne.
Research interests
- Islamic bureucracies
- Muslim civil society
- Islamic arts and music
- Ethics
- Skilled learning, pedagogy, apprenticeship
- Diasporic politics
- Citizenship
- Turkish studies
- Middle East
External positions
Post-doctoral Fellow, The University of Melbourne
2011 → 2014
Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
Projects
- 3 Active
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From Reed to Ney: Documenting Musical Craftsmanship and Pedagogy in Turkey
Senay, B., Aslan, U., Harwood, M. & Bilgin, S.
9/09/24 → 9/09/25
Project: Research
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Monash led: Islamic Bureaucracies and Pious Publics in Turkey and Indonesia
Senay, B., Millie, J. & Wang, L.
1/01/20 → 31/12/25
Project: Other
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Revitalizing Islamic Arts: Nationalism, Islamism and Cultural Politics in Contemporary Turkey
1/01/18 → …
Project: Research
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Routledge handbook of Turkey's diasporas
Arkilic, A. (ed.) & Senay, B. (ed.), 2025, London ; New York: Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group. 564 p. (Routledge Handbooks)Research output: Book/Report › Edited Book/Anthology › peer-review
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Turkey's diasporas and diaspora policymaking in flux: an introduction
Arkilic, A. & Senay, B., 2025, Routledge handbook of Turkey's diasporas. Arkilic, A. & Senay, B. (eds.). London ; New York: Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group, p. 1-15 15 p. (Routledge Handbooks).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review
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Turkey's diasporas Down Under: migration to Australia and New Zealand
Senay, B. & Arkilic, A., 2025, Routledge handbook of Turkey's diasporas. Arkilic, A. & Senay, B. (eds.). London ; New York: Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group, p. 528-549 22 p. (Routledge Handbooks).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review
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Turkey's diaspora youth diplomacy
Senay, B. & Arkilic, A., 2025, Routledge handbook of Turkey's diasporas. Arkilic, A. & Senay, B. (eds.). London ; New York: Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group, p. 213-227 15 p. (Routledge Handbooks).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review
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Exemplary masters, exemplary reeds: pedagogies of self-alteration in Sufi music
Şenay, B., 2024, Self-alteration: how people change themselves across cultures. Baldacchino, J-P. & Houston, C. (eds.). New Brunswick, USA: Rutgers University Press, p. 25-40 16 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review
Activities
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Breathing the Divine: Reflections on Music & Spirituality in Contemporary Turkey
Banu Senay (Speaker)
Sept 2021Activity: Talk or presentation › Presentation
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Political participation from abroad
Banu Senay (Speaker)
Mar 2021Activity: Talk or presentation › Invited talk
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‘The Impresario State: Casting and Crafting Leaders and Allies Beyond Turkey’s Borders’
Banu Senay (Speaker)
May 2021Activity: Talk or presentation › Invited talk
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‘Imperfect Reeds, Inexact Notation: A Musical Education in Ambiguity’,
Banu Senay (Speaker)
Mar 2021Activity: Talk or presentation › Invited talk