ABOUT ME
I was trained and educated in Turkey, Netherlands, Italy, UK, and the USA. My family background and my perspective on life have canalized me to embrace cosmopolitan values based on the principles of equality and justice. I am broadly interested in social, political, cultural, and legal issues in which human behavior, collective action, dissent and its diverse implications provide us a complex panorama and dilemma that needs to be resolved, debated, and sometimes even refuted. My research mainly explores the origins and outcomes of injustice, violence, crime, inequality, cultural shifts, political and social movements as well as conflicts between the state and non-state forces. My research agenda endeavours to be relevant to the local context and clarify complex global transformations at the same time. My research aims to bring positive changes to the communities that we live in and produce meaningful impact on the lives of people.
I would define myself as a social and cultural critique so my research and approach to different subjects contains strong critical outlook and seeks to address the existing power hierarchies. I was Impact Fellow at the University of Stirling in Scotland in my previous employment. I am currently Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Social Sciences, University of Derby in the UK.
CURRENT POSITION
Senior Research Fellow, (tenured/permanent) University of Derby (UK)
PREVIOUS EMPLOYMENT
Impact Fellow, University of Stirling (UK) Impact Fellow (2013-2015)
RESEARCH INTERESTS
My research has a strong interdisciplinary & transdisciplinary background and revolves around diverse subjects in social sciences and humanities. My main research interests primarily lie in sociology, anthropology, philosophy, history, cultural studies, politics, and socio-legal studies.
VISITING ACADEMIC POSTS AND RECOGNITIONS
Habiliation, Associate Professorship Certificate by the Catalan Ministry of Education, Catalonia, (Document no: 0233/1355/2018) (2018)
Visiting Professor (2019-2020), School of Law, University of LUMSA, Palermo
Visiting Professor (2018-2019), University of Palermo - Department of Culture and Society
Visiting Academic (2011) University of Oxford - Department of Sociology
Visiting Scholar (2011) Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Center for Law & Justice
AFFILIATIONS
TSAS, Canadian Network for Research on Terrorism, Security and Society (Senior Research Affiliate)
Royal Society of Arts (Fellow)
Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) (Member)
The Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research (Associate Researcher)
ECPR - Standing Group on Organised Crime (Steering Committee Member)
Academics Stand against Poverty (Member)
Council for the Defence of British Universities: CDBU (Member)
EDUCATION
University of Amsterdam (Netherlands) - ISHSS Certificate (2006)
Bilkent University (Turkey)- BA in Political Science (2007)
University of Twente (Netherlands) - MSc in Public Administration (2008)
University of Camerino (Italy) - PhD in Law, Politics and Social Sciences (2012)
RESEARCH METHODS EXPERTISE
I have expertise in a number of empirical methods both in qualitative and quantitative data analysis. I have comprehensive knowledge in analytical data analysis in archival research, ethnography, methods in digital humanities, content analysis, and computer programmes for both qualitative and quantitative data. I have been recently interested in expanding my knowledge in AI, machine learning, and data visualisation as well.
Archival Research
Field Research
Digital Ethnography
Discourse Analysis
QDAMiner programme for Qualitative Data
Advanced Interview Techniques
Digital Methods in Humanities
Voyant Tools
NVivo
Web Scraping
Spatial Data Analysis
Automated Text Analysis
Data Visualization
Field Experiments
Geographical Information Systems (GIS)
Python
Bayesian Statistics
Time Series Analysis for Political and Social Sciences
Stata
Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
Functions in R
Simulations in R
Advanced Graphics in R