Aybuke Atalay

Aybuke Atalay is a Teaching Fellow in Quantitative Methods at the University of Edinburgh, based in the School of Social and Political Science. Her research focuses on computational propaganda, social bots, hybrid regimes, and disinformation, particularly in the context of Turkey's Twittersphere. She holds a PhD in Politics from the University of Edinburgh (2020-2025) and advanced degrees in International Relations from the University of Edinburgh and Bogazici University.

• Education:
• PhD in Politics, University of Edinburgh (2020-2025)
• MSc in International Relations, University of Edinburgh (2018-2019)
• BA in Political Science and International Relations, Bogazici University (2013-2018)

Her research explores mechanisms of online disinformation during crises like the COVID-19 pandemic and the societal impacts of social media algorithms. She has co-organized the Summer Institute in Computational Social Science (SICSS-Edinburgh) and served as Research Coordinator of the Social Data Science Hub (2023–2024). Her work intersects technology, politics, and data-driven social science.

Aybuke has contributed to initiatives such as the Social Media Clone project (British Academy/Leverhulme Trust-funded) and taught courses on computational text analysis, political data, and social network research. Her teaching emphasizes quantitative methods and critical engagement with digital data in social sciences.