I hold a PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), where I had an early career position at the Department of International Relations between 2003 and 2005.
After LSE, I moved to Wales and worked in the Department of International Politics, at Aberystwyth University, between 2005 and 2018. I was a Visiting Scholar at the Centre of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, University of Cambridge, November 2009 and March 2010, and also the inaugural John Vincent Post-doctoral Fellow at the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University in 2002 to 2003. I completed my BA and MA in International Relations at the Faculty of Political Science, Ankara University in Turkey.
I joined the School of Humanities, York St John University in 2021 and became the Course Lead for Politics and International Relations in 2022. As the Course Lead, I recently led the validation of a new MA in International Politics and Security Program, which will commence in September 2023.
At York St John University, I teach a range of modules on the Politics and International Relations Program, including Democracies, Authoritarianism, the Middle East, Area Studies and the Global South and Sustainable Development. In Aberystwyth University, I taught undergraduate modules on Religion and Politics in the Middle East; Islam, Foreign Policy and the Developing World; International Politics and non-Western Worlds and a postgraduate course on Islam and Modernity. I have supervised several PhD and MA (including MRes) students and acted as an external examiner for a number of universities in the UK. I am also a Senior Fellow at the Higher Education Academy.
I am interested in supervising postgraduate research students in the following areas:
- International relations and non-Western worlds
- Religion and international politics
- International relations of the Middle East
- Democracy and authoritarianism
- Global South and development
- Regional studies and Eurasia
- Turkish foreign policy
I teach on the following:
- POL6007M Authoritarianism
- POL6010M Middle East
- POL5007M Democracies
- IRL5003M Area Studies
- IRL4004M Aid, Inequality and Development
- IRL4001M Understanding World Politics
My primary research interests focus on Islamic studies, nationalism, identity politics, foreign policy analysis and Postcolonialism, with particular reference to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), the Caucasus, Eurasia and Turkey. While my earlier research and publications were concerned with the relationship between Turkey’s search for identity, nationalism and foreign policy making, I have become increasingly interested in the critical understandings of Islam and modernity in Western discourses and policy making.
I acted as the guest editor of a special issue on ‘Views From the “Others” of the War on Terror’ for the Journal of Critical Studies on Terrorism (2010). I am the author of Turkey Facing East: Islam, Modernity and Foreign Policy (Manchester University Press, 2013). My most recent research on ‘A symbiotic relationship between academic freedom and liberal democracy: The case of higher education in Turkey’ is published in Handbook on Academic Freedom, Richard Watermeyer, Rillie Raaper and Mark Olssen, (eds.), (London: Edgar Elgar Publishing, 2022).
My other research outcomes are published as journal articles in Nations and Nationalism, Third World Quarterly, Information and Education Technologies and the Global Discourse and numerous book chapters on Turkey, the Middle East and international relations, as well as blog posts, including the Conversation and Open Democracy. I have also contributed extensively to international conferences, seminars and talks in Azerbaijan, Australia, France, Finland, Northern Ireland, Morocco, Switzerland, Turkey, the UK and the USA.
Membership of professional bodies
- 2023 to 2024: Member of Political Studies Association, UK
- 2021 to 2022: Member of the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA), USA
- 2003 to 2019: Member of British International Studies Association (BISA), UK
- 2005 to 2018: Member of International Studies Association (ISA), USA
- 2014 to 2018: Member of the British Association of Islamic Studies (BRAIS)
- 2009 to 2017: Fellow of High Education Academy (HEA), UK
- 2009 to 2013: Member of Islamic Studies Network, HEA, UK
Editorial boards
I have served on the following editorial boards:
- Advisory board for Centre for Turkey Studies, London, UK (2015 to 2023)
- Member of Advisory Board, Centre for Strategic Research and Analysis (CESRAN) International, UK (2010 to 2023)
- Member of International Advisory Board, Sociology of Islam, Brill, USA (2019 to 2021)
- Member of Editorial Board, Journal of Global Analysis, London, UK (2018 to 2014)
- Member of Editorial Board, Critical Terrorism Studies (Routledge), London, UK (2018 to 2019)
- Member of Editorial Board, Mediterranean Politics (Routledge), London, UK (2017 to 2012)
External examining
I have acted as an external examiner for the following universities:
- Current Appointment of External Examiner for BA (Hons) Politics and BA (Hons) Politics and International Relations, University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) with effect from 1 October 2023 to 30 September 2027.
- Chief External Examiner in the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Westminster, London, between 1 October 2016 to 30 September 2021.
- Subject leader for the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Wales Doctoral Training Centre (DTC) for Politics and International Relations Pathway, and Aberystwyth University's lead for the Wales DTC for leading the universities’ bid to forefront the Wales Doctoral Training Partnership between 2015 to 2017.
- External examiner for the MA in International Development programme at the University of Manchester between 2012 and 2016.
I have acted as an external examiner for the following doctoral theses:
- The impact of Arab Spring on Turkey Zero-Problem with Neighbours (ZPN) through the focus on Iraqi Kurdistan, (Surrey University, 2019)
- Unravelling the Social Formation: Free Trade, the State and Business in Turkey, (Nottingham University , 2018)
- Exploring Turkey’s Energy Relations with Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), (Durham University, 2018)
- The Europeanisation of European Security Culture and the EU-Turkey Security and Foreign Relations: A Disharmonising Europeanisation?, (Birmingham University, 2017)
- Minarets and Golden Arches: State, Capital and Resistance in Neoliberal, (Nottingham University, 2016)
- ‘Politics, Power and Matrimony: Understanding Women’s Marital Rights in Egypt and Iran’, (Surrey University, 2015)
- Crossing Identities and the Turkish Military: Revolutionist, Guardians and Professionals, (Bath University, 2015)
- The Turkish Model and Multiple Modernities, (Durham University, 2015)
- ‘Syrian Civil War and Islamic Radicalisation’ (Surrey University, 2014)
