Short Story: Akin Unver is an associate professor of International Relations at Ozyegin University.

 

Long Story Short: Akin Unver is an associate professor of International Relations at Ozyegin University, specializing in conflict research, computational methods and digital crisis communication. Since 2024, he is coordinating DE-CONSPIRATOR, a large HorizonEU project with 15 European universities and research labs, tackling foreign information manipulation across Europe. He is a fellow of Carnegie Endowment's Digital Democracy Network and serves as a member of TikTok's MENA-T Security Advisory Council. Previously he served as a Research Associate at the Center for Technology and Global Affairs, Oxford University and a Senior Research Fellow at GUARD (Global Urban Analytics for Resilient Defence) at the Alan Turing Institute. He is the author of ‘Defining Turkey’s Kurdish Question: Discourse and Politics Since 1990’ (Routledge Series in Middle Eastern Politics). He is the Istanbul organizer of the Summer Institute in Computational Social Science (SICSS) and the founder of the Istanbul Twitter Developers' Community.

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He is the recipient of the following recognitions:

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- The Science Academy of Turkey (Bilim Akademisi) 'Outstanding Young Scientist' Award, 2021

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- Turkish Academy of Sciences (TÜBA) 'Promising Young Scientist' Award, 2019

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- Alan Turing Institute, London 'Defense Modelling Program Best Research Project' Award, 2019

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- Kadir Has University's 'Promising Young Scientist' Award, 2018

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- Society for Digital Diplomacy's 'Best Research Article' Award, 2017

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- Oxford University Cybersecurity Program Research Showcase Award, 2017

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- MESA Malcolm H. Kerr 'Best Dissertation' Award in the Field of Social Sciences, 2010

 

Long Story: Akin Unver is an associate professor of International Relations at Ozyegin University, specializing in conflict research, computational methods and digital crisis communication. He serves as a fellow of Carnegie Endowment's Digital Democracy Network and TikTok's MENA-T Security Advisory Council. He teaches qualitative, quantitative and computational research methods, IR theory, energy politics and comparative conflict research. He is also the director of Cyber Research Program and a supervisory board member at EDAM (Centre for Economic and Foreign Policy Studies), Co-Opinion Youth Solidarity Network and Doğruluk Payı (Turkey’s main political fact-checking initiative). Since 2024, he is coordinating DE-CONSPIRATOR, a large HorizonEU project with 15 European universities and research labs, tackling foreign information manipulation across Europe.

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Dr. Unver completed his PhD at the University of Essex, Department of Government. His dissertation ‘Defining Turkey’s Kurdish Question: Discourse and Politics Since 1990’ received the Middle East Studies Association’s Malcolm H. Kerr Award and was a departmental nominee for the European Consortium for Political Research’s best dissertation in the field of comparative politics. This was the first time that the Malcolm Kerr award was given to a non-Oxbridge British university in more than 20 years. This study is published in 2015 by Routledge Series in Middle East Studies.

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Dr. Unver served as a Marcia Robins – Wilf Young scholar at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a dual post-doctoral researcher at the University of Michigan’s Center for European Studies and the Center for Middle East and North African Studies. He was awarded the position of Ertegun Lecturer at Princeton University’s Near Eastern Studies Department, teaching 'History of the Middle East', 'Conflict and Terrorism Sociologies' and 'Foreign Policy Analysis in the Middle East' – he was also the first scholar to retain the Ertegün fellowship for two consecutive years at Princeton.

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In 2017, Dr. Unver was a Bosch Digital Politics Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute and a geospatial research fellow at the Alan Turing Institute in London. He is currently a Research Associate at the Center for Technology and Global Affairs, Oxford University and a Senior Research Fellow at GUARD (Global Urban Analytics for Resilient Defence) at the Alan Turing Institute. He also serves as the Istanbul site organizer of the Summer Institute in Computational Social Science (SICSS); a summer course, which combines social sciences with programming and mixed-methods research, as well as the Istanbul Twitter Developers' Community, which serves as a base for all Istanbul-based researchers working with Twitter API data.

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Having published in Foreign Affairs, The Diplomat, Journal of International Affairs, Middle East Quarterly, Middle East Policy and Yale Journal of International Affairs, Dr. Ünver has also spoken and lectured at invited events at Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford Cybersecurity Doctoral Training Program, Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School, Georgetown University’s Edmund Walsh School of Foreign Service, London School of Economics’ Middle East Center and Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. He regularly appears for commentary on BBC World News, National Public Radio (NPR), Reuters, France 24, Finnish National Broadcasting Company, Al Jazeera International and CNN International. His research was featured in Washington Post, New York Times, Economist and Financial Times.

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