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Ahsen Utku

PhD Candidate in Political Science

Ahsen Utku is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Political Science at Northeastern University, specializing in International Relations and Public Policy. She has a strong background and interest in conflict resolution, forced displacement, identity building and ethno-religious conflicts, democratization and policy-making concerning humanitarian crises. Ahsen has served as a Teaching Assistant for Comparative Politics and International Relations.

Related Schools & Departments

Research Interests

Ahsen’s research focuses on forced displacement and migration, educational policies and inclusion of refugee and immigrant youth, democratization, nationalism and identity building, gender and conflict with a particular focus on the Balkans and the Middle East.

Biography

Ahsen received her Bachelor’s Degree from Political Science and Public Administration at Marmara University, and her first Master’s Degree from International Relations at Marmara University in Turkey. After she worked as a freelance journalist in Turkey for several years, she completed a joint degree Master’s at Harvard Divinity School and the Fletcher School at Tufts University. Ahsen speaks Turkish and French, and she has studied Bosnian/Serbian/Croatian, Greek, Spanish and Arabic through her studies. She is also passionate about (documentary) photography and cooking.

Publications

Policies, Propaganda, and Purdah: Forced Inclusion of Women in the Early 1900s in Turkey and Soviet Central Asia, AICIL Conference Proceedings, May 2015 (co-authored with Jessica Willis)

Conference Presentations

From Heroes to Commodities: Child Soldiers from the WWI to the 21st Century Children and War: Past and Present, University of Salzburg, Austria, 2016

Nostalgia over Dead Sons: Patriotism and Boy Soldiers in the First World War. Memory, Melancholy and Nostalgia, University of Gdansk, Poland, 2015

Policies, Propaganda, and Purdah: Forced Inclusion of Women in the Early 1900s in Turkey and Soviet Central Asia. Annual International Conference on Interdisciplinary Legal Studies, Oxford University, UK, 2015

Transitional Justice and Collective Memory in the Post-conflict Balkans and the Path to Democracy. Peace in the Balkans and Turkey: Cultural and Commercial Diplomacy, Istanbul Commerce Chamber, Turkey, 2014

Reproduction of Nationalism through the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. International Interdisciplinary Conference, Croatia, 2012

Degrees earned and institutions:

BA, Marmara University

MA, Marmara University

MTS, Harvard Divinity School

MALD, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy


Research Interests: 
Forced displacement and migration, educational policies and inclusion of refugee and immigrant youth, democratization, nationalism and identity building, gender and conflict with a particular focus on the Balkans and the Middle East

Contact info:
960A Renaissance Park
utku.h@northeastern.edu

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