Bilge YABANCI

Bilge YABANCI is a Research Fellow at the Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, with affiliations at Northwestern University (USA) through a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellowship. Her interdisciplinary research bridges political science, sociology, and political psychology, focusing on civil society under autocratization, populism, affective mobilization, and performance in political movements.

• Ph.D. in Politics, University of Bath (UK)
• MSc in European Affairs, Lund University (Sweden)
• BSc in International Relations (Hons.), Middle East Technical University (Turkey)

Her recent work combines fieldwork, network analysis, surveys, and online experiments to develop policy-relevant strategies for migrant/refugee inclusion, challenging racialized attitudes through empirical social science. She has pioneered research on government-oriented civil society organizations in Turkey, analyzing their role in authoritarian consolidation and resistance.

Key scientific awards include:

• Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellowship (2022-2024)
• Marie Curie European Fellowship (2019-2021)
• Open Society Fellow (2017-2019)
• Swedish Institute Post-doctoral Fellowship (2017-2018)
• Graduation with High Honor, METU (2006)

She has conducted extensive comparative research across 7 countries, with special emphasis on authoritarian neoliberalism in Turkey and Southeastern Europe. Her teaching includes Qualitative Research Methodology and European Studies.