Over the past two years, the number of people living under populist governments has dropped by 800 million. Why? Gülşen Doğan explains the factors helping to overturn authoritarian rule, and reveals why authoritarian leaders have been unseated in some countries, but not in others
PhD Candidate in Political Science and International Relations, Koç University
Gülşen graduated summa cum laude from Bogazici University with a BA in Political Science and International Relations & Sociology.
She received her MA in International Relations from Koç University, with a thesis on the institutional and ideological conditions for the extent of executive aggrandisement in Turkey and Brazil over the last decade.
Her research interests lie at the intersection of populism, democratic backsliding, political economy, governance, political parties, migration diplomacy, disaster diplomacy, and gender and politics.
She studies Turkey, Brazil and the EU.
During her undergraduate studies, Gülşen chaired the Center for European Studies Student Forum (CESSF), which organises academic meetings and publishes analyses and policy recommendations on the processes of EU politics and EU-Turkey relations.
Between 2020 and 2023, she worked as a researcher and editor in Democratization and Development Programmes at an Istanbul-based think tank, Istanbul Political Research Institute (IstanPol).
She currently works at MiReKoç (Migration Research Center at Koç University) as a project researcher for the Horizon Europe Twinning project: BROAD-ER (Bridging the Migration and Urban Studies Nexus).
