TAŞ, Birkan

Birkan Taş holds a Ph.D. in Cultural Analysis from the University of Amsterdam and has worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Kassel, where he led the project “Disability and Interdependence: Assistance Dogs,” as well as a fellow at the Institute for Cultural Inquiry (ICI) Berlin.

His research is situated at the intersection of human–animal studies, disability studies, gender and queer theory, and affect theory. He focuses on interdependence, affective labour, and the ethical, emotional, and political dynamics of human–animal interaction.

He has conducted extensive research on autism assistance dogs, examining canine agency, training practices, welfare, and relational labour, and how these challenge conventional understandings of disability, autonomy, care, and species boundaries. He has also taught on intersectionality, gender and queer theory, disability studies, diversity, and human–animal relations.