Burak Gürel

Burak Gürel is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at Koç University, Istanbul, and serves as Director of the Center for Asian Studies (KUASIA). His research spans political economy, historical sociology, and rural development, with a regional focus on China, India, and Turkey. He teaches courses on social theory, historical sociology, and Asian political economy.

• PhD in Sociology, Johns Hopkins University (2015)
• MA in Sociology, Johns Hopkins University (2009)
• MA in Sociology, Boğaziçi University (2004)
• BA in Sociology, Dokuz Eylül University (2002)

Burak Gürel's scholarship focuses on social movements, welfare politics, and agrarian transformations in emerging economies. His work analyzes comparative-historical dynamics in China, India, and Turkey, particularly examining how collective mobilization shapes rural development trajectories and social protection systems.

His recent publications explore labor unrest in Chinese-invested enterprises in Turkey, land occupations in Turkish agrarian history, and the political logic of taxation in China. These studies reveal persistent themes of state-society relations, economic transformation, and contested development processes.

• Fox International Fellow, MacMillan Center, Yale University (2006-07)
• Visiting researcher at institutions including Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard, and International Institute of Social Studies at the Hague
• Supervisor researcher, Emerging Markets Welfare Project (European Research Council, 2017-2021)
• Member, International Advisory Board, Journal of Peasant Studies