Stockholm university
Institute for Turkish Studies

SUITS welcomes new visiting scholar, Çağla Demirel

Çağla Demirel, photo: private

Çağla Demirel completed her Ph.D. in Political Science at Södertörn University in 2023. Her research interests include peace and conflict studies, memory politics, ethnonational identities, collective victimhood, and reconciliation processes. 

Her Ph.D. dissertation explores the role of competitive victimhood in ethnonational reconciliation processes. Through case studies of Turkish–Armenian relations, Republican–Unionist relations in Northern Ireland, and interethnic relations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, her research offers a framework for understanding how groups engage in competitive victimhood at varying intensities while downplaying or negating the suffering of others.

Building on her research on competitive victimhood, she is currently examining memory politics in Turkey and Serbia, focusing on how historical crimes are framed, contested, and compared in political discourse. Her work explores key similarities and differences in the strategic use of memory politics in both countries, analysing how narratives are mobilised in public and political debates.

Çağla has published her research in peer-reviewed journals such as Third World Quarterly, Peacebuilding, and Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power. She has also been awarded a Research Grant from the Helge Ax:son Johnson Foundation in 2023 and the Postdoctoral Bridge Grant by the European International Studies Association (EISA) in 2024. In addition to her research, she has taught courses on Nationalism in the Era of Globalization, Global Governance, and International Cooperation and Integration.

Beyond her academic research, she has been actively engaged in institutional initiatives. From 2020 to 2022, she served as the Ph.D. representative on the Board of Peace Research in Sweden (PRIS). She also actively contributes to the Centre for Baltic Sea Region and Eastern European Studies (CBEES) and the Memory Platform at Södertörn University, where she combines research with academic coordination. In these roles, Çağla organises scholarly events and facilitates interdisciplinary collaboration.
 

Last updated: January 20, 2025

Source: SUITS

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