I am an International Relations faculty member at Bilkent University. My research is focused on development challenges and the forms and outcomes of international assistance designed to address these challenges through institutional reform. I have carried out field studies in Timor-Leste, Kosovo, Indonesia and North Macedonia both independently and collaboratively as part of a research team. I was also a recipient of TÜBİTAK’s special grants scheme for researchers returning to Türkiye, when I joined Bilkent University’s IR Department in September 2013 having studied, worked and lived in New Zealand and Australia for almost ten years.

Selected Publications:

“Digital transformation of public services as state transformation: An overview of the experience in Turkey during the pandemic”, Alternatives, vol. 48, no. 3, 2023, 10.1177/03043754231174757.

“Looking beyond democratic backsliding: Analyzing the political economy context of Turkey’s regime trajectory through a mode of participation approach”, Democratization, vol. 40, no. 4, 2023, pp. 741-761, DOI: 10.1080/13510347.2023.2185606.

(with Stepan Verkhovetz). “Not so great transformation: Democratisation and social conflict in Timor-Leste", Journal of Contemporary Asia, 2022, DOI: 10.1080/00472336.2022.2128854.

“Combatting violence against women in Turkey: Structural obstacles”, Contemporary Politics, vol. 28, no. 2, 2022, pp. 204-224.

(with Sara Niner, Deborah Cummins, Stella Mulder and Emily Morris). “Women's political participation in post-conflict settings: The case of Timor-Leste”, Asian Studies Review, vol. 46, no. 2, 2022, pp. 293-311.

(with Evgeniia Shahin). “Piecemeal progress or persistent stalemate? Aid-supported governance reforms in Solomon Islands”, Development Policy Review, vol. 38, no. 3, 2020, pp. 366-386.

(with Levent Ozan). “Contextualizing peace-building environments from a sustainability perspective: Findings of a pilot study in North Macedonia”, Perceptions, vol. 24, no. 2, 2019, pp. 225-248.

“The rhetoric and practice of the ‘ownership’ of security sector reform processes in fragile countries: The case of Kosovo”, International Peacekeeping, vol. 24, no. 3, 2017, pp. 461-488. International intervention and state-making: How exception became the norm, Oxon, New York: Routledge, 2015.

“Timor-Leste’s foreign policy: Securing state identity in the post-independence period”, Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs, vol. 33, no. 2, 2014, pp.3-25.

“How exception became the norm: Normalising intervention as an exercise in risk management in Kosovo”, Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies, vol. 15, no. 1, 2013, pp. 17-36.

(with Don Feaver). “The politics of security sector reform in ‘fragile’ or ‘post-conflict’ settings: A critical review of the experience in Timor-Leste”, Democratization, vol. 20, no. 6, 2013, pp. 1056- 1080.

(with Belinda Lewis and Jeff Lewis). “Fractured futures: Indonesian political reform and West Timorese manganese mining”, Global Change, Peace & Security, vol. 24, no. 2, June 2012, 289-304.