Jan 2025 - Jun 2025
Ayhan Kaya is a CATS fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Studies (SWP) working on the current state of social movements and nationalism in Turkey, and the elaboration of what Turkey’s socio-political challenges mean for Europe-Turkey relations. He is a Professor of Politics and Jean Monnet Chair of European Politics of Interculturalism at the Department of International Relations, Istanbul Bilgi University; Director of the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence; a member of the Science Academy, Turkey (since 2012); and a member of the British Academy (since 2024). He has recently completed a European Research Council Advanced Grant project on youth radicalisation in Europe (ERC AdG, 2019-2024, No. 785934).
He received his PhD and MA degrees at the University of Warwick, England. Kaya was a guest Professor at Humboldt University Berlin in 2024-2025 academic year. Kaya was previously a Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, Florence, Italy, and an adjunct lecturer at the New York University, Florence between 2016 and 2017. He previously worked and taught at the European University Viadrina as Aziz Nesin Chair in 2013 and 2024, and at Malmö University, Sweden as the Willy Brandt Chair in 2011. His research has focused on European identities, Euro-Turks in Germany, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, the Circassian diaspora in Turkey, the construction and articulation of modern transnational identities, refugee studies in Turkey, conventional and non-conventional forms of political participation in Turkey, and the rise of populist movements in the EU.
Kaya was previously actively involved in two FP7 and four Horizon 2020 projects, and now he is involved in two different Horizon Europe research projects on migration and ressentiment, and a Jean Monnet Networking Project on the importance of values in European Foreign Policy Making Processes. Kaya received the Turkish Social Science Association Prize in 2003; the Turkish Academy of Sciences (TÜBA-GEBİP) Prize in 2005; Sedat Simavi Research Prize in 2005; Euroactiv-Turkey European Prize in 2008, the Prize for the best Text Book given by TÜBA; and the Prize for excellence in teaching at the Department of International Relations, Istanbul Bilgi University in 2013 and 2017.
Sep 2024 - Jun 2025
Dr Çağdaş Üngör is a CATS fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Studies (SWP) in the academic year 2024-2025. She is on leave from the Department of Political Science and International Relations of Marmara University in Istanbul, where she teaches since 2009.
Üngör holds a Ph.D. degree in Chinese modern history from the State University of New York in Binghamton. She previously studied Mandarin and conducted research in Wuhan and Beijing. As an academic, Dr. Üngör joined official delegations to visit several Asian countries and attended international workshops in the capacity of an area expert. She is a frequent commentator in Turkish and Western media outlets on China-related topics. Her studies concentrate on China’s ideological, economic and cultural impact on Turkey from the Cold War era until today.
CATS Fellow Jun 2023 - May 2024
Visiting Fellow Jun 2024 - Jun 2025
Dr Salim Çevik is a CATS fellow. He previously worked as CATS Associate at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP). Prior to joining to SWP, he held research or teaching positions at Lund University (Sweden), Ipek University (Turkey), Bilgi University (Turkey) and Columbia University (USA). He earned his PhD degree in Political Science from Bilkent University (2015, Turkey).
His main area of research focusses on Turkish domestic politics and Turkish foreign policy in the Middle East and Africa.