Ayşe Ezgi Gürcan

Ayşe Ezgi Gürcan is a political scientist. She is an expert in Middle Eastern Studies, Turkish Politics, and Comparative Politics. Her major areas of expertise lie in the connection between religion, politics, and minority rights. She is particularly interested, in general, in the democratic inclusion of religious minorities and, in particular, the Alevi community. Gürcan also explores the domestic impact of the international minority rights norms in Turkey and the challenges in EU norm formation on minority rights. Her current focus is on the complex linkages between religious education and democratic inclusion of the Alevi community in Turkey and Germany.

She completed her PhD at Sabancı University in 2013. In her dissertation, she discussed how the changing political opportunity structures and the collective identity of the Alevis shape their shared interests by focusing on Alevi interest politics in Turkey and Germany. Preceding her doctoral studies, she received a Master’s degree in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish Languages and Cultures from Leiden University. She also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology and a Master’s degree in Middle Eastern Studies from Middle East Technical University.