My public scholarship brings historical analysis into contemporary conversations about the Middle East, global politics, technology, and state power. Drawing on archival research and comparative perspectives, I write for broad audiences to illuminate the deeper structures that shape current events. My work appears in venues that bridge academia, policy, and public debate, and it aims to make historical knowledge accessible without reducing its complexity.
I contribute essays, interviews, and commentary on questions of empire, race, environment, and governance, with particular attention to how the legacies of the Ottoman and post-Ottoman worlds continue to shape political and social landscapes today. Whether examining conflicts, infrastructure, displacement, or regional strategy, I approach public writing as an extension of my research: a way to connect historical inquiry with urgent issues facing communities and policymakers.
Below is a selection of my public-facing writing and media engagements.
Featured Essays
“What Happens in Syria Does not Stay in Syria,” Voices on Peace and War (September 16, 2025).
“Precarious Alliances: Turkey, Israel, Öcalan, and the Kurds Amid Shifting Middle Eastern Geopolitics,” Voices on Peace and War (January 23, 2025)
“Kimin için Self Determinasyon? Lozan Antlaşması, Kürt Sorunu ve Uluslararası Hukukta Irk Meselesi” [Self-Determination for Whom? The Treaty of Lausanne, the Kurdish Issue, and the Question of Race in International Law], PolitikART, 318 (2023): Online.
“Turkish Elections, Kurdish Votes, and the Question of Race,” Jadaliyya (2023).
“Why Does Televizyon Become Vizontele? Kurds and Orientalism from Within,” Annual Review, Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies, New York University (2014), 19.
“Turkey’s Shifting Foreign Policy Toward the Middle East and Its Relationship with Israel,” Journal of Turkish Weekly, December 23, 2011.
“The Arab Spring and the Waves of Democracy,” Journal of Turkish Weekly , September 22, 2011.
Public Lectures & Invited Talks
Norwich University, “Remapping Syria and the Middle East After Assad.” Center for Peace and War, Northfield, VT (2025)
UC Berkeley: “'Final Solution' to the Dersim Question: Ottoman Afterlives, Racialized Violence, and Kurdish Resilience.” Annual Kurdish Studies Lecture, Berkeley, CA (2025).
University of Chicago: “'The Black Box of the Republic': Dersim '38 and the Making of the Modern Turkish State.” Zahra Institute, Chicago, IL (2025).
Stanford University: “Empire of Mountains: Environmental Racialization and Colonial Violence in the Late Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey.” Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies, Palo Alto, CA (2024).
New York University: “Roads to Civilization: Imagining, Mapping, and Integrating Dersim into the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish State.” Ottoman and Turkish Studies, New York, NY (2024).
UC Berkeley: “Empire of Questions: The Late Ottoman Empire and Dersim '38.” Center for Armenian Studies, Berkeley, CA (2024).
UCLA: “Empire of Questions: The Late Ottoman Empire and Dersim '38.” The Promise Armenian Institute, Los Angeles, CA (2024).
Harvard University: “Rebellion as Myth in State–Making: The Case of Dersim across Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey.” New Horizons in Kurdish History Lecture Series, Cambridge, MA (2022).
University of Michigan: “A Disease in the Lungs of Anatolia”: Politics of Reform and Modernization at the Intersection of Armenian, Kurdish, and Kizilbash Questions.” Center for Armenian Studies, Ann Arbor, MI (2022).
Public Engagement & Media
Podcast: “Osmanlı’dan Cumhuriyet'e Dersim’de Devlet İnşası” (State–Making in Dersim across Empire and Nation–State). Kıymık, podcast hosted by Yalçın Çakmak (2023).
Panel: “Turkey and Democracy at the Crossroads.” Panel organized by Writers for Democratic Action & Democracy Book Club. Moderated by Peter Balakian (2023).
Film Screening: “Zer: A film by Kazım Öz.” Q&A Coordinator, Princeton University (2018).
Panel: “A Voice from Syrian Kurdistan: The Civil War, Refugees, and Women.” Panel hosted by Liechtenstein Institute on Self–Determination, Princeton University (2017).
Panel: “Beyond the Arab Spring: Political (De)formation and Social Revolution in Rojava.” Panel hosted by Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies, NYU (2015).
Public Programs and Outreach Assistant, Center for Near Eastern Studies, NYU (2013–2014).
