Zeynep Uzunboy graduated with high honors from Koc University with a major in international relations, minors in international law, public law, and sociology, and specialization tracks in Diplomacy and European Studies. Her research interests center on how societies narrate, manage, and contest questions of belonging.
During her undergraduate years, Zeynep worked as a researcher and intern across academic and policy-oriented institutions. She is a research assistant on the ERC project Democracy-Migration Paradox, which examines tensions between democratic commitments and exclusionary attitudes toward immigrants. She worked at the Center for Foreign Policy and Peace Research, contributed to research at Istanbul Policy Center, and supported the World Decolonization Forum at Institute Social.
Professionally, Zeynep has interned at WAIPA, Turkey’s Ministry of Justice Department of Foreign Relations and European Union Affairs, Turkcell, Al Jazeera Media Institute in Qatar, and TRT World. At Al Jazeera Media Institute, she worked as a visiting journalist and wrote “From Hospitality to Threat: The Political and Media Construction of Anti-Syrian Sentiment in Turkey.” Her civil society affiliations include an Al Sharq Forum Fellowship, assistantships at MiReKoc and Global Relations Forum. She served as a Koc University Radio broadcaster on Middle Eastern politics and music, senior project coordinator at Koc University Global Aid, school representative for the UN Orange Summit, project lead for AIESEC’s women empowerment project in Egypt, and volunteer with Zanzibar Assalam Foundation.