Faculty Members

Ersel Aydınlı

Professor

Office: A302
Phone: +90 312 290 34 22
E-mail: ersel@bilkent.edu.tr
Personal page: http://www.bilkent.edu.tr/~ersel

Çağlayan Başer

Assistant Professor

Office: A303
Phone: +90 312 290 26 77
E-mail: caglayan.baser@bilkent.edu.tr
Personal page: https://www.caglayanbaser.com

Çağlayan Başer’s research explores the links between domestic and international politics, conflict, and gender politics. Her work has been published in World Politics, Security Studies, and Alternative Politics. Her monograph, titled “Public Preferences, Gender, and Foreign Support for Armed Movements,” is under contract with Cambridge University Press. She previously held a tenure-track position as Assistant Professor of Political Science at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Public Affairs and Citizenship. Prior to that, she taught at New York University Abu Dhabi, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and Loyola University Chicago, where she earned her Ph.D. in Political Science with a specialization in International Relations and Comparative Politics.

Ekrem T. Başer

Assistant Professor

Office: A314
Phone: +90 312 290 20 73
E-mail: ekrem.baser@bilkent.edu.tr 
Personal page: https://ekrembaser.com

Ekrem Başer is a scholar of international relations and political economy, focusing on solutions to commitment and information problems. His research explores reputation and signaling dynamics, status concerns, and the emergence of enforcement institutions, with applications in conflict, international political economy, and domestic politics. He received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Tuğba Bayar

Lecturer

Office: A325-A
Phone: +90 312 290 14 63
E-mail: tugba.bayar@bilkent.edu.tr

Tuğba Bayar is a Lecturer in the International Relations Department at İ.D. Bilkent University. She holds a Ph.D. in International Relations from Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg, Germany. Her research centers on international regimes, international law, human rights, and international cooperation, with a regional focus on the Middle East—particularly Iran. Dr. Bayar’s work has appeared in journals such as All Azimuth, Turkish Studies, Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, and Global Governance. She has received several prestigious research grants, including the TÜBİTAK 3501 Career Development Grant for her project on unilateral withdrawals from multilateral treaties, the European Commission’s Jean Monnet Module Grant for her work on international and European human rights protection, and the TÜBİTAK 1001 Grant for her ongoing research on the compliance of right-wing populist governments with international treaty regimes.

Pınar Bilgin

Professor

Office: A315
Phone: +90 312 290 21 64
E-mail: pbilgin@bilkent.edu.tr
Personal page: http://www.bilkent.edu.tr/~pbilgin

Pınar Bilgin holds a Ph.D. in International Politics from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth (2000), an M.Sc. in Strategic Studies from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth (UWA), an M.A. in International Relations from Bilkent University, and a B.Sc. in International Relations from the Middle East Technical University. Bilgin is the author of Regional Security in the Middle East: A Critical Perspective (2005; 2nd ed. 2019), The International in Security, Security in the International (2016), and co-editor of the Routledge Handbook of International Political Sociology (2017) and Asia in International Relations: Unthinking Imperial Power Relations (2017). Her latest co-authored book with Karen Smith, Thinking Globally About World Politics: Beyond Global IR, was published in 2024.

Over the course of her career, she has held numerous prestigious academic appointments. She was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow at the Wilson Center in Washington, DC (2006–07), a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at King’s College London (2013–14), and a Senior Research Fellow at Käte Hamburger Kolleg, Centre for Global Cooperation Research (2023). She has served as a visiting professor or scholar at institutions including the University of Southern Denmark’s Center for Contemporary Middle East Studies, the Center for the Resolution of International Conflicts (CRIC) at the University of Copenhagen (2015–16), the University of Amsterdam’s Centre for European Studies (June 2019), the Institute for International Relations (IRI) at Pontifical Catholic University (PUC-Rio) (August 2019), Leiden University’s Institute for Security and Global Affairs (June 2021), and as a Global Fellow at St Andrews University (November 2022).

She has served as Associate Editor of Security Dialogue (2008–2013), International Political Sociology (2012–2017), and International Studies Quarterly (2019–2023). She is a member of the editorial boards of numerous journals including the European Journal of International Relations, ID: International Dialogue, Global Discourse, Journal of International Relations and Development, Contexto Internacional, International Studies Quarterly, Critical Military Studies, Revista Brasileira de Política Internacional, Foreign Policy Analysis, International Studies Review, and Geopolitics. He also serves on the international editorial or advisory boards of International Relations, Millennium: Journal of International Relations, and Uluslararası İlişkiler.

She is the co-editor (with Monica Herz) of the Palgrave book series Critical Security Studies in the Global South and has served as the President of the World International Studies Committee since 2021.

Her work has been recognized with several awards, including the 2004 Best Article in Politics award by the UK’s Political Studies Association (awarded in 2005), the GEBİP Young Scientist Award by the Turkish Academy of Sciences (2008), and the TÜBİTAK Young Scientist Incentive Award by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (2009).

She is currently a Professor of International Relations at Bilkent University and a member of the Turkish Academy of Sciences.

ChaeEun Cho

Instructor

Office: A311
Phone: +90 312 290 22 13
E-mail: chaeeun.cho@bilkent.edu.tr

Çağla Demir

Visiting Assistant Professor

Office: A318
Phone: +90 312 290 22 33
E-mail: cagla.kilic@bilkent.edu.tr

Çağla Demir is an Assistant Professor in the Department of International Relations at Bilkent University. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Arizona State University, where she specializes in international relations and comparative politics. Her research lies at the intersection of public opinion, foreign policy analysis, political psychology, role theory, and the international politics of China. She has received numerous fellowships and awards throughout her academic career, including a Fulbright Ph.D. scholarship, the Stephen G. Walker Graduate Fellowship, and the Graduate College Excellence Award at Arizona State University. She has experience in research projects funded by TUBITAK and a National Science Foundation-funded panel study on the integration of Syrian refugees in Europe and Turkey. Her international experience includes academic exchanges and internships at institutions such as the European Parliament in Latvia, the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Turkey, and the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA) in Ethiopia. She is fluent in Turkish and English, professionally proficient in Chinese, and has a working knowledge of French and Ottoman paleography. Her research was published in the Journal of Global Security Studies.

Tore Fougner

Associate Professor

Office: A328C
Phone: +90 312 290 31 42
E-mail: fougner@bilkent.edu.tr

Tore holds a Ph.D. in International Relations from Keele University. He is specialized in the field of Global Political Economy and teaches courses also on global environmental politics. He has a keen interest in theory (especially critical theories) and his research tends to have a transdisciplinary flavor. His current research focuses on nonhuman animals and human-animal relations in world politics.

Eliza Gheorghe

Assistant Professor

Office: A305
Phone: +90 312 290 20 70
E-mail: eliza.gheorghe@bilkent.edu.tr

Eliza Gheorghe is an Assistant Professor in the International Relations Department at Bilkent University. She earned her doctorate in International Relations from the University of Oxford (No Corrections, 2014) and an M.A. in Security Studies from Georgetown University (Honors, 2010) on a Fulbright scholarship. She held research fellowships at Vanderbilt University, the University of Hamburg, Yale University, Harvard Kennedy School, Cornell University, SAIS-Johns Hopkins University, the Norwegian Institute for Defense Studies, and Université Paris 1 Panthéon – Sorbonne. Her research was funded by the Stanton Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Fundação Getúlio Vargas, and the University of Vienna. She is the recipient of the International Fellowship for Outstanding Researchers from the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey, and the Outstanding Young Scientist Prize from the Turkish Academy of Sciences. Her research focuses on nuclear proliferation and the evolution of the nuclear market; nuclear alliances; nuclear dominoes; and illicit trade and trafficking networks. Her work has been published in International Security, Journal of Politics, and the Journal of Strategic Studies, among others. Her forthcoming book, titled Market of Doom. Proliferation and the Logic of Nuclear Trade is coming out with Cornell University Press.

Samuel J. Hirst

Assistant Professor

Office: A308
Phone: +90 312 290 21 77
E-mail: samhirst@bilkent.edu.tr
Personal Page: https://www.samueljhirst.com/

Sam Hirst writes and teaches about twentieth-century international history. His first book, Against the Liberal Order: The Soviet Union, Turkey, and Statist Internationalism, 1919-1939 came out with Oxford University Press in 2024. Currently, he is working on the political economy of the Cold War, with a focus on questions of international trade and development in late-1950s Turkey. 

Sırrı Hakan Kırımlı

Associate Professor

Office: A317
Phone: +90 312 290 14 68
E-mail: kirimli@bilkent.edu.tr

Dr. Hakan Kırımlı was born in Balıkesir / Turkey on 30 November 1958. He earned his BA (Economics) and MA (History) degrees at Hacettepe University/Ankara between 1976 and 1985. He began his doctoral studies at the Ukrainian Free University in Munich, West Germany, and later continued at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Kırımlı graduated from the Department of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1990, earning a Ph.D. in History. Since 1991, he has been employed by the Department of International Relations at Bilkent University/Ankara. He was a visiting scholar at Harvard University (2000) and Stanford University (2016). His primary research interests are the history of Turkic and Muslim peoples of the Russian Empire, with a particular emphasis on the Crimean Tatars, as well as Turko-Russian and Turko-Ukrainian relations. In addition to his native Crimean Tatar and Turkish (Ottoman and contemporary), Dr. Kırımlı speaks and reads English, Russian, German, Volga Tatar, Kazak, Nogay, Uzbek, and reads Ukrainian and Bulgarian. Among other honors, he was awarded the “Cross of Ivan Mazepa” by the President of Ukraine in 2023 and the Halil İnalcık Special Award by the Turkish Academy of Sciences in the Field of History.

Dr. Kırımlı has published numerous articles and books, which include, National Movements and National Identity Among the Crimean Tatars (1905-1916) (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1996), Türkiye’deki Kırım Tatar ve Nogay Köy Yerleşimleri [The Crimean Tatar and Nogay Village Settlements in Turkey] (Istanbul, 2012), Kırım’daki Kırım Tatar (Türk-İslâm) Mimarî Yadigârları [Crimean Tatar (Turko-Islamic) Architectural Monuments in the Crimea] (Ankara, 2016), Geraylar ve Osmanlılar [The Gerays and Ottomans] (Istanbul, 2022) and several articles in Cahiers du Monde Russe et Soviétique (Paris), Middle Eastern Studies (London), Der Islam (Hamburg), Central Asian Survey (London), Voprosy Istorii (Moscow), Belleten (Ankara), and others.

Seçkin Köstem

Associate Professor

Office: A316
Phone: +90 312 290 13 12
E-mail: kostem@bilkent.edu.tr
Personal page: https://kostem.bilkent.edu.tr

Seçkin Köstem specializes in International Political Economy with a specific focus on economic statecraft and development finance. In terms of regional expertise, he has published on Turkey, Russia and the post-Soviet space. He is currently a co-editor of Review of International Political Economy (2023-26) and the IPE Section Chair of the International Studies Association for 2025-26. His research has been published in journals such as RIPE, Foreign Policy Analysis, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, Global Policy, Third World Quarterly, Europe-Asia Studies and other outlets. He has been awarded the Outstanding Young Scientist Award of the Turkish Academy of Sciences (TÜBA-GEBİP) in 2023, the Young Scientist Award of The Science Academy (BAGEP) in 2023, the Incentive Award of The Turkish International Relations Council in 2022, and the Distinguished Teaching Award of Bilkent University in 2021. He is events coordinator at the Center for Foreign Policy and Peace Research in Ankara. He received his Ph.D. degree (2016) in Political Science from McGill University, and MA (2010) and BA (2008) degrees in International Relations from Bilkent University.

Tudor A. Onea

Assistant Professor

Office: A306
Phone: +90 312 290 23 43
E-mail: tudor.onea@bilkent.edu.tr

Özgür Özdamar

Professor

Office: A328B
Phone: +90 312 290 19 01
E-mail: ozgur@bilkent.edu.tr
Personal page: http://www.bilkent.edu.tr/~ozgur

Özgür Özdamar has taught at Bilkent-IR since 2009. He served as Chair of Department from 2020 to 2025. He was a visiting Fulbright Scholar at the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University in Washington, DC during the 2019-2020 academic year. His research focuses on foreign policy analysis, leadership studies, forecasting, and IR theories. His articles have been published in journals such as European Journal of IR, International Affairs, Political Research Quarterly, International Studies Review, Terrorism and Political Violence, Foreign Policy Analysis, Social Science Quarterly, Middle East Policy, and Journal of Southeast European and Black Sea Studies. He currently serves as director of research at the Center for Foreign Policy and Peace Studies of Bilkent University. His last co-authored book, Leaders in the Middle East and North Africa: How Ideology Shapes Foreign Policy, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2023 and received the Distinguished Book Award by the Foreign Policy Analysis section of the International Studies Association. Özgür Özdamar will spend the 2025-2026 academic year as a visiting fellow at the European University Institute’s Robert Schuman Centre in Florence.

Can Öztaş

Lecturer

Office: A312
Phone: +90 312 290 22 15
E-mail: can.oztas@googlemail.com

Dr. Can Öztaş is a jurist and diplomat whose academic work bridges international law, human rights, and critical legal theory. He currently serves as Head of Digital and Institutional Communications at the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he leads strategic communication and public diplomacy initiatives. Alongside his diplomatic role, he teaches at Bilkent University and Ankara University, engaging students with interdisciplinary and critical approaches to international law.

He holds an LL.M. in Public International Law from King’s College London and a Ph.D. in Law from Birkbeck College, University of London. His areas of interest include the politics of international courts, legal rhetoric and memory, digital sovereignty, and the aesthetics of resistance. His work draws on critical legal studies and postcolonial theory, particularly Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL), and engages with thinkers such as Martti Koskenniemi, Costas Douzinas, Anthony Anghie, Jacques Derrida, and Hannah Arendt.

Dr. Öztaş moves fluidly between diplomacy and academia, forging links between power and reflection, governance and resistance—anchoring his work in critical inquiry and the art of interdisciplinary teaching.

Efe Tokdemir

Associate Professor

Office: A304
Phone: +90 312 290 16 01
E-mail: efe.tokdemir@bilkent.edu.tr
Personal page: http://www.efetokdemir.com

Dr. Efe Tokdemir earned his PhD in Political Science from Binghamton University (2017), and BA in Boğaziçi University (2012). His research interests include conflict processes, foreign policy and public opinion, and political use of force. His works have so far appeared in leading journals of the field such as Journal of Conflict Resolution, Journal of Peace Research, Political Behavior, Conflict Management and Peace Science, Terrorism & Political Violence, International Interactions. Dr. Tokdemir’s book “Battle for Allegiance: Governments, Terrorist Groups, and Constituencies in Conflict” has been published by University of Michigan Press in 2020. Dr. Tokdemir received “Young Scientist Award (BAGEP)” from Science Academy of Türkiye in 2019, “Award for Outstanding Young Scientist” (GEBIP) from Turkish Academy of Sciences in 2020, The Sakip Sabanci International Research Award in 2021, The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye Incentive Award in 2023, and International Relations Council of Türkiye Young Scholars Award in 2024. His project on non-violent counterinsurgency strategies has been recently funded by TUBITAK National Young Leader Researchers Program for 2022-2025. Dr. Tokdemir has previously been a postdoctoral fellow of ISA James N. Rosenau Fellowship (2017-2018), visiting fellow at The Ohio State University’s Mershon Center for International Security Studies (2016-2018) and visiting scholar at The University of Chicago’s CPOST program (2024-2025). 

Crystal Whetstone

Assistant Professor

Office: A327-A
Phone: +90 312 290 22 52
E-mail: crystal@bilkent.edu.tr
Personal page: https://crystalwhetstone.com

Crystal Whetstone specializes in gender, peace, violence and security with a focus on motherhood. She has examined peaceful motherhood movements in the global South and recently turned to violent motherhoods. Her work has been published in International Affairs, the International Feminist Journal of Politics, Third World Quarterly, Global Studies Quarterly, the Journal of Asian Security and International Affairs and Women Studies International Forum.

Dain Yoo

Personal page: https://dain-yoo.github.io/

Dain Yoo is a political scientist whose research spans international relations and comparative politics. Her research interests include global authoritarianism, political violence, and public opinion, with a regional focus on the Middle East and North Africa. Her work has been published in International Interactions and Democratization. She holds a Ph.D. in Government from Georgetown University, an M.A. in International Relations from Seoul National University, and a B.A. in Arabic and Political Science from Binghamton University.

Ömer Zarplı

Assistant Professor

Office: A313
Phone: +90 312 290 21 25
E-mail: zarpli@bilkent.edu.tr
Personal page: https://omerzarpli.weebly.com/

Omer Zarpli received his Ph.D in Political Science from the University of Pittsburgh. His research focuses on economic sanctions, intra- and inter-state conflict, and public opinion. His work, which uses observational and experimental methods, is published at, among others, International Studies Quarterly, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Journal of Peace Research, International Interactions, Conflict Management and Peace Science. He teaches courses on international relations, conflict studies, research methods, and quantitative data analysis.