Bilge Yabanci

Bilge Yabanci serves as an Ikerbasque Research Fellow and Ramón y Cajal Research Fellow at the University of Deusto, Spain, where she is embedded in the Ethics Applied to Social Reality (EARS) research team within the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences. Her work bridges political science and ethical frameworks to address contemporary authoritarian challenges and social vulnerabilities.

Her research program critically examines autocratization dynamics, authoritarian regime functionality, and civic resistance movements, with specialized focus on populism's interplay with ideology, religion, and nationalism. Current investigations explore emotional dimensions of political mobilization and pathways to alter public attitudes toward refugees and asylum seekers, particularly through analyzing how far-right narratives manipulate perceptions of migration and gender minorities.

Recent publications reveal consistent thematic threads across democratic erosion studies, digital authoritarianism in migration control, and prejudice reduction methodologies. Her work demonstrates interdisciplinary rigor through publications in top-tier journals like Government and Opposition and Migration Studies, highlighting connections between civic opposition strategies, digital surveillance mechanisms, and innovative dialogue-based interventions for stigma reduction.

Her research is supported by elite fellowships and grants including:

• Ikerbasque Research Fellowship
• Ramón y Cajal Research Fellowship
• Marie Curie Global Fellowship
• Open Society Fellow (Human Rights Cohort)
• Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Swedish Institute
• la Caixa Foundation Grant

While student mentorship details aren't specified in source materials, her current "la Caixa" Foundation project actively develops counter-strategies against harmful far-right narratives, demonstrating applied research impact. This work integrates fieldwork in Turkey with theoretical innovation in political psychology and migration governance.

As a core contributor to the Ethics Applied to Social Reality (EARS) research team, she operationalizes ethical frameworks to analyze power structures in authoritarian contexts, with growing emphasis on digital governance systems and their societal impacts.