Research

I am a sociologist of inequality working at the intersections of race and ethnicity, immigration, consumption, and social policy. My research asks how inequality is produced and sustained both through material structures — segregation, urban renewal, and policy regimes — and through cultural processes that shape perception, taste, and belonging. Methodologically, I combine computational text analysis, spatial analysis, and qualitative approaches.

My book project, Race, Space, and Taste in Post-War America, examines how mid-twentieth-century segregation policies such as redlining and urban renewal shaped urban consumption and the making of White middle-class identity. A parallel strand of my work uses natural language processing to study digital public discourse around migration, health, and inequality, tracing how online platforms foster both polarization and solidarity.

Research Interests

• Race and Ethnicity
• Immigration
• Consumption
• Social Policy
• Computational Methods

Publications

• Suleyman Kiroglu & Huseyin Zeyd Koytak (2026). Rural notables, professionals, and ideologues: The social bases of AKP local power. European Politics and Society.
• Huzeyfe Ayaz, Muhammed Hasan Celik, Huseyin Zeyd Koytak, & Ibrahim Emre Yanik (2024). Exploring vaccine hesitancy in digital public discourse: From tribal polarization to socio-economic disparities. PLOS ONE, 19(11), e0308122. (Co-first and co-corresponding author.)
• Suleyman Kiroglu & Huseyin Zeyd Koytak (2024). Mapping solidarity: Organizational density of hometown associations of Istanbul. Turkish Studies. (Co-first and corresponding author.)
• Huseyin Zeyd Koytak (2024). Ethnicity on the table: A content analysis of online reviews for Syracuse’s cuisines. Sociology Compass, e13195.
• Huseyin Zeyd Koytak & Muhammed Hasan Celik (2022). A text mining approach to determinants of attitude towards Syrian immigration in the Turkish Twittersphere. Social Science Computer Review. (Co-first and corresponding author.)
• Jennifer Karas Montez, Jason Beckfield, Julene Cooney, Mark D. Hayward, Jacob M. Grumbach, Huseyin Zeyd Koytak, Steven Woolf, & Anna Zajacova (2020). Policies, politics, and U.S. life expectancy. The Milbank Quarterly, 98(3), 668–699. (Honorable Mention — ASA Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship in Population, 2021.)

Work in Progress

• Book manuscript: Race, Space, and Taste in Post-War America.
• Huseyin Zeyd Koytak. “The Cosmopolitan Paradox: Whitespaces and Taste in Post-War America.” In Whitespaces, eds. David L. Brunsma, Joong Won Kim, Letisha Engracia Cardoso Brown, & Elizabeth Roberts. Under contract with Lexington Books.

Selected Presentations

• “Flavors and Fences: White Habitus and the Making of Urban Foodscapes.” American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, Montreal, 2024.
• with Suleyman Kiroglu. “Classification, Organization, Distribution, and Density of Hometown Associations in Istanbul.” Migration Studies Graduate Student Conference, Istanbul Bilgi University, 2022.
• with Muhammed Hasan Celik. “Discursive Framing of Syrian Immigration in the Turkish Twittersphere.” Population Association of America & European Sociological Association (virtual), 2021.
• with Jennifer Karas Montez & Julene Cooney. “Political Economy and Death in the American States.” American Sociological Association & Society for Longitudinal and Life Course Studies, 2019.

Research Experience

• Turkish General Social Survey (TGSS) — Module Coordinator, 2023–2024.
• Twittersphere.net — Co-founder & Research Team Leader, 2020–2023.
• Policy, Place, and Population Health Lab, Aging Studies Institute, Syracuse University — Research Assistant, 2018–2020.

Grants & Awards

• Research Excellence Doctoral Funding ($28,000), Syracuse University, 2024.
• Summer Dissertation Fellowship ($4,000), Syracuse University, 2022.
• Center for European Studies Graduate Student Grant ($1,500), Syracuse University, 2022.
• Roscoe Martin Fund for Graduate Research ($1,000), Syracuse University, 2022.
• Goekjian / Middle East Research Grant ($1,500), Syracuse University, 2021.
• Honorable Mention, ASA Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship in Population, 2021.

Methods & Tools

Python, STATA, SPSS, ArcGIS, and ATLAS.ti — supporting natural language processing, spatial analysis, statistical modeling, and qualitative coding.