About me

I am a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Political Science at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia. I received my BA and MA from Political Science and International Relations Department at Bogazici University. My current research agenda focuses on political parties, opposition cooperation and coordination, and authoritarian regimes.

My research has been published in the Party Politics, 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.

My dissertation research addresses the pre-electoral coalitions formed in electoral autocratic regimes. I adopt a mixed-methodological approach - large-N quantitative analysis, causal case selection, and site-intensive methods - to explore how political parties’ organizational structures and ideological and political agenda diversity explain opposition bargaining prior to the elections. My dissertation research has been supported by the William A. Steiger Fund for Legislative Studies of the APSA Centennial Grant, Craigie Fellowship, and GSU’s Library Dissertation Award. See details of my dissertation project here.

I was the Chair of the Atlanta Symposium on Political Science (ASOPS). I also served as elected Ph.D. representative of my department’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee. In my free time, I volunteer at the Carpentries or I like to hike, cook, read, and play tennis or tabletop games.

I can be contacted at otuncelgurlek1 [at] gsu [dot] edu.