Academic Staff

Sitki Egeli holds degrees from Bosphorus University (BA, Political Science), University of Chicago (MA, Security Studies), and Bilkent University (PhD, International Relations. Beginning his professional career in US, in 1991 he has joined Turkey’s Undersecretariat for Defense Industries (SSM) where he eventually became the Director for International Affairs. Between 2000 and 2015, he held senior executive position in an international consulting firm. Since 2015, he has been teaching international relations and international security courses at Izmir University of Economics. He has published several books, articles and papers on proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery means, air and missile defense, nuclear deterrence, air power, space security, international arms trade, and export controls.

Upon completion of his BA at Bilkent University, he acquired MA degrees in history and political science from Uppsala University. He received his PhD in political science from Istanbul Bilgi University. In his doctoral dissertation he discussed the relationship between constitutionalism and democracy by thinking through the case of Turkey. He continues to study in the field of normative democratic theory. He has publications on topics such as; epistemic democracy, majoritarianism and epistocracy. Alongside democratic theory, his research interests include contemporary liberal theory and philosophy of social sciences. He is currently working on a book about Kant and neo-Kantian political philosophy.

Devrim Sezer is Associate Professor of Political Thought. He started his university education in the Department of Physics at Boğaziçi University. He was then educated at Middle East Technical University, where he received a BS in Economics and an MS in Political Science, and at London School of Economics and Political Science, where he received an MSc in Political Theory. He completed his PhD at Carleton University. His research interests include modern and contemporary political theory, theories of democracy and republicanism, and politics of memory. His articles have appeared in Memory Studies, History of Political Thought, History of European Ideas, S:I.M.O.N. Shoah: Intervention. Methods. Documentation., Toplum ve Bilim, Felsefi Düşün, Birikim, Cogito and felsefelogos, and he has contributed chapters to edited books. He has been the co-editor of two books (both in Turkish): Siyasalın Peşinde: Dünyaya Tragedyalarla Bakmak (with Nazile Kalaycı; Metis, 2017) and a Festschrift, Hasan Ünal Nalbantoğlu’na Armağan (with Adile Arslan; İletişim, 2008). He has co-translated Hannah Arendt's posthumously published work Lectures on Kant's Political Philosophy (ed. Ronald Beiner) (with İsmail Ilgar, ed. Serdar Tekin, İletişim, 2019). He is an alumnus of the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies where he has been a Research Fellow.

Born in 1966 in Izmir, Prof. Murat BOROVALI graduated from Saint Joseph Middle School in 1981, Izmir Ataturk High School in 1984, and received his Bachelor’s degree in Economics at Boğaziçi University in 1989. Borovalı received his Master’s degree in Economics from the University of Manchester in 1992, and his Ph.D. in Political Science from the same university in 1998. Prof. Murat Borovalı started his academic career as an Assistant Professor at Department of International Relations, Istanbul Bilgi University in 2000. After conducting studies on Political Theory, Borovalı was promoted to Associate Professor in 2009, and Professor in 2015. Among positions held during his tenure at Istanbul Bilgi University were Head of Department of International Relations, and Vice Rector in charge of Financial and Administrative Affairs. Borovalı was also appointed as the Acting Rector in 2016-2017 academic year. Borovalı, a Member of the Executive Board of the Turkish Political Science Association, was appointed as a Consultant to the Board of Trustees at Izmir University of Economics as of September 2018.

Adisonmez is Assistant Professor at the Political Science and International Relations Department of Izmir University of Economics. He received his PhD in International Relations from the University of Kent, UK. Prior to joining Izmir University of Economics, he worked as Visiting Lecturer at City, University of London (2019-2021) and Assistant Lecturer at University of Kent (2017-2021). He was awarded the Vice Chancellor’s Research Scholarship (2017-2020) to pursue his PhD project. Previously, Adisonmez was awarded Lund University Global Scholarship (2016-2017) during his MA programme in Global Studies at Lund University. He received his BA in International Relations from Bilkent University. Adisonmez’s main research areas are emotions in IR; political psychology; ethnicity and identity; conflict analysis; and Middle Eastern politics. His works have been published in various edited volumes and international peer-reviewed journals such as Political Psychology, Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, Alternatives: Global, Local, Political, Middle East Critique, Uluslararası İlişkiler/International Relations and Asian Politics & Policy. He is an editorial board member of Alternatives: Global, Local, Political journal.

Cigdem Kentmen-Cin received her bachelor's degree from Istanbul University, Department of International Relations in 1999. She received her master's degree in the European Studies program at Bahcesehir University, where she also worked as a research assistant, in 2002. She obtained her Ph.D. degree in Political Science from the University of Missouri, Columbia in 2007. In the same year, she started working as an Assistant Professor at Izmir University of Economics. She was promoted to Associate Professor in 2012 and to Professor in 2018. She was awarded the Outstanding Young Scientist Award (GEBIP) in the field of political science by the Turkish Academy of Sciences in 2014. Dr. Kentmen Çin's research areas include public opinion, survey methodology, and voter behavior. Her publications can be found in leading academic journals such as Political Research Quarterly, JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, European Union Politics, Social Science Quarterly, Journal of European Social Policy, and Environment & Behavior. She has been a member of the editorial board of the journal European Union Politics since 2011. She also serves as the work package leader and senior researcher in the project titled RAISE (Recognition and Acknowledgement of Injustice to Strengthen Equality), funded by Horizon Europe. From 2018 to 2024, she served as the Vice Rector for Academic Affairs at Izmir University of Economics.

After receiving her B.A. degree in Sociology from Middle East Technical University, Prof. Dr. Filiz Başkan obtained her M.A. and Ph.D. Degrees from Bilkent University Department of Political Science and Public Administration. She carried out her post-doctoral research in European University Institute- Robert Schuman Center for Advanced Studies between September 2000 and June 2001. Dr. Başkan, whose resarch areas are Islamic communities, Islamic parties, Islamic capital and extremist right parties, has published in national and international journals such as Middle Eastern Studies, Turkish Studies, Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies, South European Society and Politics.

I hold BA degrees in Economics and International Relations from Izmir University of Economics. I completed my MA in political science at Marshall University (USA) in 2009. I got my PhD from University of Utah (USA) in 2015. I was a visiting scholar and a lecturer at Ohio State University during the 2022-23 academic year. My research focuses on ethnicity, nationalism and security studies within a comparative perspective. My primary geographical focus is on the Kurdish Middle East and Turkey. You can access my publications via my Academia page: https://iue.academia.edu/SerhunAl