Dr. Öğr. Üyesi ŞEYMA EKİZ

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Boğaziçi University, where I have taught since September 2023. My work is situated at the intersection of EU foreign policy, Turkey's European trajectory, and German politics. I have a growing interest in diaspora studies.

I studied Political Science and International Relations at İstanbul University, took an MA at the University of Central Florida on a full assistantship, and completed my PhD in 2017 at the Jean Monnet Chair for European Politics at the Universität zu Köln. Between degrees I worked outside the academy, advising on EU funding programs in İstanbul, managing EU projects for DİTİB in Cologne, and serving as a researcher for Bündnis 90/Die Grünen in the German Bundestag for a short period. These experiences taught me to read European politics from the inside as well as from the literature.

My doctoral research culminated in the publication of The Role of the EU and Member States in the Arab Spring (Nomos, 2018). This work examines whether the actions of the European Union in Tunisia and Liby, two distinct cases, were driven by material interests or by values. The findings indicate a significant consistency between the EU's declarations and its actions, although the response to this question varied across different areas. Related articles appeared in the European Foreign Affairs Review and the British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, and a 2025 chapter examines Germany's Zeitenwende and its response to the war in Ukraine against the concept of Europeanization. A 2026 article, "Securitized Euroscepticism: Performative Discursive Power in Türkiye–EU Relations (2013–2024)," turns to Türkiye, showing how official discourse casts EU criticism as an existential threat and puts that framing to work both abroad and at home, through a qualitative content analysis of 435 news items on maritime sovereignty, counterterrorism and migration

One of my latest projects is research on Turkish diaspora advocacy and lobbying in Germany, intended as a bridge between diaspora representatives and German policymakers. The second, funded by a BAP grant of Boğaziçi University for 2025–2027, builds on extensive data I have gathered from the Turkish political elite to trace how Euroscepticism and Euro-alternativism shapes Türkiye's future supranational orientation.