I am a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley.  I am currently writing a dissertation titled "Re-Defining Ethnicity and Belonging: Persistence and Transformation in Regimes of Ethnicity in Germany, USSR/Russia, and Turkey."  I examine the challenges to change the ethnicity regime in these three countries since the 1950s, and explain why the earlier challenges from the 1950s to the 1990s failed, until an episode of successful reform in the late 1990s and early 2000s in these three countries.  I expect to receive my Ph.D. in July 2009.

My dissertation uses, among many other sources, 60 interviews I conducted (in English, German, Russian, and Turkish) with politicians, bureaucrats, leaders of ethnic minority organizations, intellectuals, academics, and other actors engaged with the politics of ethnicity in Germany, Soviet Union, Russian Federation, and Turkey.

On this topic, I have coined the term "regimes of ethnicity" and defined the categories of "mono-ethnic, multi-ethnic, and non/anti-ethnic regimes", which you can learn more about by reading my articles: The Ethnic Category and Nationalism: Mono-Ethnic, Multi-Ethnic and Non-Ethnic Regimes (in Turkish) and Continuity and Change in the Regimes of Ethnicity in Austria, Germany, the USSR/Russia, and Turkey: Varieties of Ethnic Regimes and Hypotheses for Change. I further elaborated this concept in various publications and public presentations that followed.

I have written on many other topics, including moral economy, intellectual history, ethno-nationalism, supra-nationalism, and international relations in general and with a specific focus on Central and Eastern Europe (Germany in particular), former Soviet Union and Russia in particular, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Caucasus, and Central Asia. This otherwise simple page has a link to my CV, which in turn has my academic history and links to all my publications, among other things. My most recent publications include Incompatible Visions of Supra-Nationalism: National Identity in Turkey and the European Union and Comparing Ethnicity Regimes in the Five Central Asian Republics: Commonalities and Differences in the Post-Soviet Period, 1992-2007.

Download Curriculum Vitae (May 25, 2009)