University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Political Economy and Public Policy (Fields: Political Economy of Institutions and Development; Comparative Politics), 2000

University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Economics, 1995

Boğaziçi University, Economics,1992

Murat Somer is a Professor of Political Science and International Relations at Ozyegin University, Istanbul, and an expert on comparative polarization, democratization and depolarization, democratic erosion, recovery, and opposition behavior, religious and secular politics, ethnic conflicts and the Kurdish Question. His publications include Polarizing Polities: A Global Threat to Democracy (co-edited with Jennifer McCoy) and Return to Point Zero: The Turkish-Kurdish Question and How Politics and Ideas (Re)Make Empires, Nations and States. His forthcoming book, Depolarize and Remake Democracies (Princeton University Press, with Jennifer McCoy) puts forward a theory of how contemporary democracies can overcome pernicious polarization and democratic backsliding. Before joining OzU, he served as Assistant, Associate and Full Professor at Koç University, Istanbul, and held various visiting positions including Democracy and Development Fellow at Princeton University, Senior Visiting Scholar at Stockholm University Institute for Turkish Studies, Visiting Scholar at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University, and Visiting Scholar and Lecturer in the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies at Stanford University. He is a member of the Democratic Erosion Consortium at Brown University and of the Advisory Group of the Global Initiative on Polarization and Depolarization Community of Practice of the Institute for Integrated Transitions based in Barcelona, Spain. He has been an active volunteer, participant and advisor for civil society and political parties on issues related to democracy, polarization and rule of law in Turkey, and a frequent contributor to domestic and international media including CNN International, Washington Post, New York Times, Euronews and Deutsche Welle.

Polarization and Depolarization; Democratization, Democratic Erosion and Opposition Behavior; Ethnic Conflict and Nationalism; Political Religion and Secularism; the Kurdish Question