Asli Cansunar

Asli Cansunar is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Washington, College of Arts & Sciences. Previously, she held postdoctoral positions at the University of Oxford (2018-2021), including a Non-Stipendiary Research Fellowship at Nuffield College and a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in the Department of Political Science and International Relations. She earned a Ph.D. in Political Science (2018) from Duke University, with a focus on Political Economy and Methodology, and holds dual bachelor's degrees in Mathematics and Economics from Koç University (2012).

Her research bridges comparative political economy, economic history, and political methodology, examining how economic inequality shapes elite preferences on redistribution and taxation. She employs formal modeling, experimental methods, geospatial analysis, and archival research, with regional focuses on advanced industrialized nations and the Middle East. Key themes include the political behavior of high-income groups, tax policy preferences, and the distributional impacts of public goods provision.

Dr. Cansunar has received prestigious awards including the 2019 John Fell Research Grant and the Duke University Graduate School Scholarship. Her teaching spans economic inequality, political methodology, Middle Eastern politics, and geospatial analysis. She is fluent in English, Turkish (native), and French, with Ottoman Turkish reading proficiency.