Projects
The research projects behind my articles: the questions, data, methods, and findings of each study.
Jan 2026 European Politics and Society
The Social Bases of AKP Local Power
A prosopographic study, co-authored with Süleyman Kıroğlu, of 684 AKP district councilors elected in Istanbul in 2019. Clustering their civil society affiliations reveals three archetypes of local political elites: rural notables, professionals, and ideological cadres.
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Nov 2024 PLOS ONE
Vaccine Hesitancy and Socioeconomic Variables in the US
An analysis of Twitter posts on vaccine hesitancy in the United States and how it relates to state-level socioeconomic characteristics such as education, race and income. It identifies two sets of justifications, political and medical, and highlights the central role of trust.
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Apr 2024 Turkish Studies
Migrant Solidarity and Hometown Associations in Istanbul
This study examines how internal migration has transformed Istanbul by mapping hometown associations across the city's districts. Using DERBİS and TÜİK data, it shows where migrant organizational cohesion is strongest and how village, district and city associations are distributed.
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Mar 2024 Sociology Compass
Online Restaurant Reviews in Syracuse, NY
A computational content analysis of online customer reviews for 237 restaurants in Syracuse, New York. Reviews of mainstream cuisines focus more on service and ambiance, while reviews of immigrant cuisines emphasize the food itself, especially authenticity.
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Aug 2022 Social Science Computer Review
Social Media Framings of Syrian Immigration to Turkey
An NLP analysis of nearly 300,000 tweets on Syrian immigration to Turkey from the first half of 2020. Welfare chauvinism grew with the COVID-19 pandemic, while patriotic and militaristic posts showed relatively more pro-immigrant sentiment after Operation Spring Shield.
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Aug 2020 The Milbank Quarterly
US State Policies and Life Expectancy
This project examines how US state policies across 18 policy domains shaped life expectancy trends from the 1970s through 2014. More liberal state policies were associated with longer life expectancy, while conservative policy shifts may help explain its recent stagnation.
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