About me

I am an assistant professor of Political Science at Bogazici University. I received my Ph.D. in Political Science from the Department of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania in 2016. Prior to attending Penn, I did a B.A. in Political Science & International Relations at Galatasaray University, a M.A. in European Political and Administrative Studies at the College of Europe, and another M.A. in Political Science at Sabancı University. My research interests include social movements and contentious politics, cooperation and decision making under uncertainty and rapid change, and financial and sovereign debt crises. Methodologically, I specialize in network analysis, agent-based modeling, dynamical systems, and multi-method research. My work has been published in Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change, Contemporary European Studies, and Journal of Contemporary European Studies. Currently, I am working on a book project on the role of cooperation among challengers on regime change, and a paper project, "the Last Grain on the Sand Pile," which applies complexity theory and nonlinear dynamical systems to cases of regime change. I am also working on a co-authored project on the role of private debts in the 2008 financial crisis with Patricia Posey, Ph.D. candidate at the University of Pennsylvania and a dear friend. My dissertation investigates the effect of preference diversity and preference compatibility on ideological issues (how the new regime should look like) and on strategic issues (how regime change should be carried out). This work fills the gap in regime literature by explaining the conditions under which challengers are able to form a coherent united oppositional coalition capable of changing the regime. View all posts by Basak Taraktas