About me

Hello! I am a Lecturer and Research Data Services Specialist at the RDS Department and Affiliate Faculty with the Department of Political Science at Georgia State University (GSU).

My research broadly focuses on political parties and elections, opposition cooperation and coordination, democratic backsliding, and authoritarian regimes. I am currently working on my book project which addresses the pre-electoral coalitions formed in electoral autocracies. My research on Turkish electoral coalitions received the Best Paper Award at ISA-South and Best Fieldwork Award – Honorable Mention from APSA’s Democracy and Autocracy section. My research has been supported by the William A. Steiger Fund for Legislative Studies of the APSA Centennial Grant, Institute for Human Studies, Craigie Fellowship, and GSU Library Dissertation Award.

My research has been published in the Party Politics, QMMR, Journal of Peace Research, and Journal of Civil Society. My published and working papers can be found on my publications page and Google Scholar. Access my most current CV here.

I received my Ph.D. from the Department of Political Science at GSU in Atlanta, Georgia. I received my BA and MA from Political Science and International Relations Department at Bogazici University.

You can contact me at otuncelgurlek1 [at] gsu [dot] edu.