SUITS welcomes new postdoc, Reuben Silverman

Reuben Silverman will join us this fall for a two-year postdoctoral position in International Relations with a focus on Turkish Political Economy.

Reuben Silverman
Reuben Silverman

While he has just graduated with a Ph.D. in history from the University of California, San Diego, he already has several books under his belt. His work focuses on modern Turkey, from the founding of the republic to the present day. In particular, he is interested in the development of the center-right political parties that have dominated politics in Turkey since the 1950s. His current book project is focused on the Democrat Party and more broadly examines how national particularities interact with international orders to promote or stymie the emergence and consolidation of democracy.

Reuben Silverman received his PhD in Middle Eastern History from the University of California San Diego (2022). He also holds an MA in International Studies from the Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington (2012). He is a researcher in Stockholm University’s Institute for Turkish Studies (SUITS) and Department of Economic History and International Relations.

Reuben’s work focuses on modern Turkey, from the founding of the republic to the present day. In particular, he is interested in the development of the center-right political parties that have dominated politics in Turkey since the 1950s. His current book project is focused on the Democrat Party, which successfully used populist electoral strategies to bring together a broad coalition of liberals, religious conservatives, peasants, and urbanites, which subsequent political parties have sought to reconstruct. Yet, at the same time that Democrats spoke of “freedom,” opposed “statism,” and championed a more inclusive political system, they also used the power of the state to control the economy and society. The book will consider how the personal particularities of Democrat Party leaders and the opportunities available to canny politicians during the early Cold War combined to produce divisive, authoritarian outcomes. The work engages with questions that are of interest not only to scholars of modern Turkey but also to scholars hoping to understand how national particularities interact with international orders to promote or stymie the emergence and consolidation of democracy.

In addition to his formal scholarly work, Reuben also contributes to the podcasts on the New Books Network and publishes pieces on Turkey’s history and culture on his own website. Many of these pieces have been collected and published in his three books from Libra Press: Turkey’s Ever Present Past: Stories From Turkish Republican History (2015); Politics in Turkey: Parties, Politicians and the Struggle for Power (2018); and Borderline Personalities : Lives at the Political Social and Geographic Edges of Modern Turkey (2021)


Reuben Silverman’s website https://reubensilverman.wordpress.com/