I hold a PhD in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), where I held an early-career position in 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 from 2005 to 2018. At Aberystwyth University, I served as the Director of Graduate Studies between 2015 and 2017. I was the co-convener of the British International Studies Association (BISA) Working Group on International Studies on the Mediterranean, Middle East, and Asia between 2014 and 2019. Previously, I was a Visiting Scholar at the Centre of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, University of Cambridge, between November 2009 and March 2010, and the inaugural John Vincent Postdoctoral Fellow at the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, from 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 at York St John University in September 2021 and became Course Lead for Politics and International Relations in September 2022. In this role, I led the validation of the new MA program in International Politics and Security, which started in September 2023. I currently co-chair the Humanities Generative AI Working Group with Professor Vybarr Cregan-Reid (since 2024), and I am a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
At York St John University, I teach undergraduate and postgraduate modules for the Politics and International Relations Program. These include Democracies, Authoritarianism, Politics and Religion of the Middle East, Area Studies and the Global South, and Sustainable Development at the undergraduate level. For the MA program, I teach Culture, Women, and International Politics and Emerging Issues in International Relations. I have supervised several PhD and MA (including MRes) international students and acted as an external examiner for several UK universities.
At Aberystwyth University, I taught undergraduate modules on Religion and Politics in the Middle East; Islam, Foreign Policy and the Developing World; and International Politics and non-Western Worlds. I also taught postgraduate courses on Islam and Modernity and Postcolonial Studies.
As part of my holistic and integrated approach to academic practices, I value research-led teaching and decolonising the curriculum in teaching the Middle East in IR. Inspired by bell hooks’ ‘engaged pedagogy’, my teaching philosophy has been to ensure that all students develop critical thinking and deepen their analytical skills in understanding complex and challenging issues in world politics. I hold multiple teaching awards, including the BISA/HEA Certificate for Excellence in Teaching International Relations in 2011.
I am accepting new applications and interested in supervising postgraduate research students in the following areas:
- International relations of the Middle East
- Political Islam and postcolonial studies
- Democratic backsliding and authoritarianism
- Sustainable Development and the Global South
- Regionalism, Geopolitics and Eurasia
• Turkish politics, nationalism and populism
My primary research interests centre on the international politics of the Middle East, the South Caucasus, Eurasia and Turkey as part of the Global South. While my earlier research and publications focused on the relationship between Turkey’s search for identity, Islam, modernity, and foreign policy-making, I have become increasingly interested in critical understandings of Orientalism, postcolonialism, democratic backsliding, religious populism, and sustainable development.
In the 2025/26 academic year, I led an interdisciplinary research project, ‘Understanding (in)visible facilitators and challenges of refugees and overcoming structural barriers in York’ with Dr Hana Jee and Prof Divine Charura, which was awarded funding from the ISJ Community Research Grant. Drawing on our interdisciplinary expertise in International Politics, Languages, and Psychology, this project is being delivered with external partner Refugee Action York. In 2023/24, I was awarded a British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grant for Rethinking Hybrid Regime and Neo-Islamism in Turkey under the AKP rule. This project will develop a novel definition of neo-Islamism in Turkish studies.
For my co-authored book with Pauline Kollontai and Mark Dawson (Routledge, forthcoming in 2027), I wrote the chapter on ‘Religious Populism, Justice and Moral Governance under the AKP rule in Türkiye’, On the Significance of Religion for Populism (in Routledge Series on Religion Matters: The Significance of Religion in Global Issues). My previous monograph, Turkey Facing East: Islam, Modernity and Foreign Policy (Manchester University Press, 2013), was published as an e-book in 2015 and a paperback in 2017. 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). My most recent research is ‘Illiberal Democracy and the Erosion of Academic Freedom in the " New " Türkiye’, International Political Science Review, Special Issue on Democratic Backsliding (2025, Online first).
My other research outcomes are published as journal articles in Nations and Nationalism, Third World Quarterly, Information and Education Technologies, the Global Discourse, Journal for Turkish-Anglo Relations, 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.
Recent publications
Membership of professional bodies
- 2026 to 2027: Member of British Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES), UK
- 2024 to 2025: Member of American Political Studies Association (APSA), USA
- 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 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 2025)
- 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.
PHD Viva Examiner
I have acted as an external examiner for the following doctoral theses:
- Comparative Analysis of the UK, Russian and Turkish Soft Power in the Education Sector of the Kyrgyz Republic from 2000 to 2021, (Middlesex University, 2024)
- 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)
