Research on institutional racism, migration and urban politics
Çağan Varol is a social scientist based in Cologne. His work focuses on institutional racism, migration politics, urban politics and memory politics, with Cologne’s Keupstraße as a central case. After passing the Second State Examination in law, he studied social sciences and political science at the University of Cologne. In June 2026 he defended his doctoral dissertation at Hochschule München. His book Rassifizierte Topographien is due from transcript in December 2026.
Collected here: his research, his essays, reviews and interviews for magazines, and two dossiers: on the NSU complex and on Keupstraße.
Traces how a migrant shopping street in Cologne has been stigmatised since the recruitment stop of 1973, ethnographically and genealogically, following the official and media readings of “Brennpunkte” and “Parallelgesellschaften” and the counter-narratives of the street’s migrant residents.
Hochschule München / PZSGT, not yet published.
In: Rassismus und Soziale Arbeit (Beltz Juventa).
In: Symbolische Ordnung und Rassismuskritik (Springer VS). With Gabriele Fischer and Ali Şirin.
Conversation conducted by Varol with Emre Arslan about Arslan’s book Pax-Rassismus (Campus 2024).
Denmark’s anti-migration policy as a model for German politicians, and its roots in earlier West German strategies.
Critique of the 2024 Birlikte event marking 20 years since the NSU nail-bomb attack in Cologne; politicians staged solidarity while survivors were sidelined.
The NSU’s far-right terror, the failure to investigate it and the struggle over remembering its victims: a focus of his research, writing and memory work since 2011, from observing the inquiry committee in North Rhine-Westphalia to the expert report for a nationwide documentation centre.
The NSU complex dossier
North Rhine-Westphalia state parliament, NSU inquiry committee
A shopping and residential street in Cologne-Mülheim, a little over 400 metres long: how it was described as a problem for fifty years, the nail-bomb attack of 2004, the struggle over remembrance and urban politics – the case of his dissertation and of his book “Rassifizierte Topographien”.
The Keupstraße dossierLines join themes that share entries: the more entries they share, the heavier the line.
Enquiries about research, talks and writing.
Publications and positions, listed at ORCID.