Frozen assets: Posthumous politics and the governance of bodies discovered on the Greece-Turkey border.

This thesis investigates the governance of migratory movements by focussing on the international politics of identifying, investigating, returning, and burying human remains on border between Greece and Turkey. Through ethnographic fieldwork in a forensic examiner's office and collaborative research with a migrant rights collective, the thesis seeks to analyse the micro-processes surrounding such governance: the claims, counter-claims, and disputes over national sovereignty and states' responsibilities. Empirically, the research first explores the data infrastructures that support identification, repatriation and burial and locates the blind spots in such data. It does this through close examination and digitisation of the archive of the Alexandroupolis University Hospital, which to date covers about 700 deaths. In analysing what exists and what is missing from this data, the thesis examines the role of national, international and non-state actors in these processes and the relations between them. This will enable the thesis to elucidate the ways in which notions of citizenship, race, and sovereignty are constructed around recovered bodies. The research project is carried out in collaboration with the "de:border migration justice collective", a human rights organisation which provides support to relatives of missing migrants, and in whose work the researcher will participate as a full member of the team. This collaboration will ensure that the project has meaningful and impactful results, as it will be geared towards helping the research to identify mechanisms that can render notions of citizenship, race, and sovereignty more inclusive of missing migrants and their families.