Ph.D. Alumni Success Stories

Arzu Kıbrıs

Arzu Kibris received her PhD in Political Science in 2010. She is currently an associate professor of politics at the Department of Politics and International Studies (PAIS) at University of Warwick. Before joining PAIS in January 2017, she worked as a visiting Assistant Professor at Duke University and as Assistant Professor at Sabancı University, Istanbul. Her main research interests include the dynamics and social, political and economic consequences of civil conflicts as well as formal analyses of political and economic behaviour. Her work has been published in the Journal of Conflict Resolution, Social Science & Medicine, Public Choice, and Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, among other journals. She received the prestigious ERC starting grant in 2016 for her project EXPOVIBE: Exposure to Political Violence and Individual Behavior in which she explores the individual level effects of being exposed to political violence in a civil conflict context. Professor Kıbrıs is also a Turing fellow at the Alan Turing Institute in London and a network professor at Sabancı University in Istanbul. She is a member of the Network of European Peace Scientists steering committee and an associate editor of the journal Peace Economics, Peace Science and Public Policy.

Aybars Görgülü

Aybars Görgülü received his PhD in Political Science from Sabancı University in 2014. He holds a BA degree in Social and Political Sciences obtained from Sabancı University in 2005, and an MA degree in Diplomacy and International Relations which he received from the University of Clermont-Ferrand, France, in 2006. Görgülü served as the Program Officer at the Foreign Policy Program at Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV). He actively participates in civil society efforts aiming to normalize Turkey – Armenia relations, and has several publications on Turkey’s foreign policy. Görgülü currently working as Research Director at Public Policy and Democracy Studies Center (PODEM) and teaches Foreign Policy and Caucasus Politics at Istanbul Kültür University.

Aylin Aydın Çakır

Dr. Aylin Aydin Çakır is a faculty member at Yeditepe University, Political Science and International Relations Department. Her research interests include judicial politics, and comparative political institutions. She has published in various journals such as Political Research Quarterly, International Political Science Review, Law & Society Review, International Journal of Constitutional Law, Democratization, and Turkish Studies. She is a recipient of 2017 Young Scientist Award (BAGEP) given by Science Academy, Turkey.

Cerem I. Cenker Özek

I was a Phd. student in Political Science at Sabancı University (SU) between 2005-2012. Before SU, I conducted post-graduate research on political science at Central European University and on EU-policy making at London School of Economics. The doctoral program at SU is designed to strengthen student’s awareness about the nature of social sciences as well as the diversity of research methods in social sciences. This awareness has been lasting in my life and it influenced my research fundamentally. At SU, I found the opportunity to undertake my dissertation with the guidance of some of the best professors in their subject-areas. The years I spent at SU were also the years I felt like I am becoming a part of the academia as a researcher. I am thankful to all of my professors, who helped me to complete my studies productively; to all the administrative personel for their professional sincerity; and to all my friends who I have crossed paths with at SU.I work as a full-time faculty at Antalya Bilim University (ABU) since my graduation from SU. My research is mostly about social capital, civil society and generalized trust in Turkey. I ran a TÜBİTAK-funded research about civil society cooperation networks in Antalya between 2014-2016. My studies were published in journals such as Turkish Studies, Democratization and International Political Science Review. I also recently published research articles in Turkish, which, I hope, contribute to relevant literature. During the last year, I have started reading about subjects such as political participation and citizenship norms, which I did not study in detail before. In short, I continue academic research with the hope of having a long and a productive research career.

Hasret Dikici Bilgin

Hasret Dikici Bilgin holds an undergraduate degree of international relations and a master’s degree of sociology from Middle East Technical University. She completed her doctoral studies at the program of Political Science at Sabancı University with her dissertation on the coalition governments in Turkey in the 1991-2002 period. Her main areas of interest include comparative political institutions with a specific focus on the political parties, elections and the political elite. She co-edited the book entitled Karşılaştırmalı Siyaset: Temel Konular ve Yaklaşımlar, which was awarded by Turkish Academy of Sciences in 2014 as the best copyright work in social sciences. Among her recent publications, there are: “Social Conflicts and Politicised Cleavages in Turkey”, in Party Politics in Turkey: A Comparative Perspective, S. Sayarı, P. Ayan Musil and Ö. Demirkol (eds.) (2018); “Turkey’s Ministerial Elites: The Growing Importance of Technical Expertise”, in Technocratic Ministers and Political Leadership in European Democracies, P.de Almeida and A. Costa Pinto (eds.) (2018) (with S. Sayarı); “The Obscurities of a Referendum Foretold: What we Know and don’t Know about the 2017 Constitutional Amendments in Turkey”, Review of Middle East Studies (2018) (with E. Erdoğan); “Westernist Sceptics and Anti-western Reformers in the Turkish Party System”, Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies (2016), “Types of Outcomes in Factional Rivalries: Lessons from Non-democratic Parties in Turkey”, International Political Science Review (2017) (with P. Ayan Musil); “Paths to Power: The Making of Cabinet Ministers in Turkey”, Parliamentary Affairs (2011) (with S. Sayarı). Dr. Dikici Bilgin serves as a member of the executive committee of the International Political Science Association (IPSA) for the 2018-2020 period and will act as program co-chair for the 26th World Congress of Political Science to be held in Lisbon, Portugal on July 25-29, 2020.