Dr. Mehmet Sinan Birdal
Arbeitsbereich Gender and Diversity
Researcher
14195 Berlin
Mehmet Sinan Birdal is a DFG-sponsored research associate at the Gender & Diversity Department, Otto Suhr Institute for Political Science. He received his PhD in International Relations from the University of Southern California with a specialty in Culture, Gender, and Global Society.
2020-2023 Ernst Reuter Fellow, Freie Universität Berlin
Gender and Diversity Department
2019-2020 Editor-in-Chief, History Foundation (Tarih Vakfi)
Istanbul, Turkey
2016-2019 Visiting Assistant Professor, University of Southern California
Los Angeles, USA
2012-2017 Assistant Professor, Isik University
Istanbul, Turkey
2011-2012 Visiting Professor, Istanbul University
Istanbul, Turkey
2010-2011 Assistant Professor, Maltepe University
Istanbul, Turkey
2010 Lecturer, Yeditepe University
Istanbul, Turkey
2009 Lecturer, University of Southern California
Los Angeles, USA
2008 PhD in International Relations, University of Southern California
Los Angeles, USA
Advisors: Hayward R. Alker, J. Ann Tickner
2004 M.A. in International Relations,University of Southern California
Los Angeles, USA
Advisor: Hayward R. Alker
1999 B.A. in International Relations, Ankara University
Ankara, Turkey B.A. in International Relations
Teaching
Over the course of his career Birdal has taught the following courses at several Turkish universities and at the University of Southern California:
- Middle East Political Economy
- Sovereignty in the Middle East
- Perspectives on US Foreign Policy in the Middle East
- Seminar in Social Analysis: Turkey, The Failure of a Democracy
- Contemporary Politics of the Middle East
- Contemporary International Politics
- Comparative Foreign Policy Analysis
- Introduction to International Politics
- Theories of International Relations
- Regional Issues
- American Politics
- Research Methods in the Social Sciences (MA)
- Concepts and Frameworks in Security Studies (MA)
- War and Peace (MA)
- Great Powers and the Current International System (MA)
- Contemporary Approaches in International Relations (MA)
In 2024 he will be teaching a course titled “Geopolitics of Sexuality” at the FUB
Research
Birdal’s main research interests span across the fields of international relations theory, feminist theory, queer theory, political theory and historical sociology. Birdal is the author of The Holy Roman Empire and the Ottomans: From Global Imperial Power to Absolutist States (2011, Turkish Translation 2016), a comparative study of early modern state formation and states system. He has written on topics such as geopolitical doctrines, authoritarianism, psychological warfare/counterinsurgency, queer politics, and transitional justice in Turkey.
Birdal’s DFG research project is titled Sexual Science, Self-determination and Transnationalism: Global Scripts of the Early Homosexual Movements in Germany (1865-1969). It investigates the nexus between natural law, sovereignty and geopolitics in the emergence of the homosexual movement by the raising the following questions: How and why is sexuality formulated/reformulated by reform movements at critical moments of state formation and international order? What is the impact of transnationalism and sexual science on the invention and diffusion of sexual identities and justice claims? What impact do changes in international relations have on sexual politics?
Joining the International Studies Association’s LGBTQA Caucus in 2011, Birdal published several articles on queer politics in individual and collaborative projects in Turkish and in English. These articles investigate queer challenges to the historiography of the Republic of Turkey, the limits of the liberal rights discourse for LGBTI+ inclusion in Turkey, the impact of 2013 Gezi protests on the opportunity structure of queer activism in Turkey and the different types of homophobic state repression in Turkey, Tunisia, Egypt and Lebanon after 2011. The current project extends Birdal’s research agenda to the study of global and national alliances for and against sexual orientation and gender identity rights.
Select Publications
Books
The Holy Roman Empire and the Ottomans: From Global Imperial Power to Absolutist States (2011, I.B. Tauris).
Kutsal Roma İmparatorluğu ve Osmanlı: Küresel Emperyal İktidardan Mutlakıyetçi Devletlere (2016, Iletisim Yayinlari).
Articles
“The State of the LGBTs in the Age of Reaction: Post-2011 Visibility and Repression,” Oxford Handbook on Global LGBT and Sexual Minority Politics (2020, Oxford University Press).
“Tek-adamlaşma” (On the path to dictatorship), Kuşku ile Komşuluk: Türkiye ve Rusya İlişkilerinde Değişen Dinamikler (Suspicious neighbors: changing dynamics in the Turkish-Russian relations), Gencer Özcan, Evren Balta and Burç Beşgül (eds). (2017, İletişim Yayınları), 321-340.
“Between the Universal and the Particular: The Politics of Recognition of LGBT Rights in Turkey,” Sexualities in World Politics: How LGBTQ Claims Shape International Relations, Manuela Lavinas Picq and Markus Thiel (eds). (2015, Routledge), 124-138.
“Farklı Kuramsal Yaklaşımlar Açısından Ekonomi ve Dış Politika (The Economy and Foreign Policy According to Different Theoretical Approaches),” Dış Politika - Karşılaştırmalı Bir Bakış (Foreign Policy: A Comparative View), Faruk Sönmezoğlu ve Özgün Erler Bayır (eds). (2014, Der Yayınları), 111-143.
“Feminizm (Feminism),” Uluslararası İlişkilere Giriş: Tarih, Teori, Kavram ve Konular (Introduction to International Relations: History, Theory, Concepts and Issues), Şaban Kardaş ve Ali Balcı (eds), (2014, Küre Yayınları), 241-256.
“The Davutoğlu Doctrine: The Populist Construction of the Strategic Subject,” Turkey Reframed: Constituting Neoliberal Hegemony, İsmet Akça, Ahmet Bekmen ve Barış Alp Özden (eds), (2013, Pluto Press), 92-106. (Turkish translation published by İletişim Yayınları)
“Neden LGBT Tarihi? Türkiye’de Siyaset ve LGBT-fobi (Why LGBT History? Politics and LGBT-phobia in Turkey),” Cumhuriyet Tarihinin Tartışmalı Konuları (Controversial Topics of Republican History), Bülent Bilmez (ed), (2013, Tarih Vakfı Yurt Yayınları), 159-190.
“Ethnicity, Nationalism and Colonialism,” The International Studies Encyclopedia, Volume III, Edited by Robert A. Denemark (2010, Wiley-Blackwell Publishers), pp. 1714-1733.
Collaborative projects
(Case studies with Derviş Aydın Akkoç) Bir Daha Asla! Geçmişle Yüzleşme ve Özür (Never Again! Coming to Terms with the Past and Apology), Asena Günal ve Önder Özengi (ed), (2013, İletişim Yayınları).
With Timur Kuran et al., Social and Economic Life in Seventeenth-Century Istanbul: Glimpses From Court Records,10 vols. (2010-2011, Türkiye İş Bankası Yayınları).
Non-peer review book chapters, articles and commentaries
100. Yılda Lubunyalar: Heteroseksizmden Özel Harbe (Queers in the Republican Centennial: From Heterosexism to Counterinsurgency) Gazete Duvar (Independent online newspaper), 02.10.2023, https://www.gazeteduvar.com.tr/100-yilda-lubunyalar-heteroseksizmden-ozel-harbe-haber-1640304.
“The LGBTI and the Rhetoric of Repression,” A Critical Forum About LGBTI+ Prohibitions in Turkey, Jadaliyya.com, January 2, 2018, https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/34951.
“Voting on the Court Society,” Turkey’s Constitutional Referendum: A Roundtable, Jadaliyya.com, April 10, 2017, https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/34166.
“The Closing of the Opening: The AKP’s Armenian Policy,” April 1, 2017. PD Magazine, https://www.publicdiplomacymagazine.com/blog/adversarial-states/birdal.
“AKP İktidarında İdeoloji ve Hegemonya (Ideology and Hegemony under AKP Rule),” Marka, Takva, Tuğra: AKP Döneminde Kültür ve Politika (Brand, Piety, Imperial Cipher: Culture and Politics in the AKP Era), Kemal İnal, Nuray Sancar, Ulaş Başar Gezgin (eds), (Evrensel Basım Yayın), 2015, 48-57.
“Türkiye’de Dış Politika İdeolojisi (The Foreign Policy Ideology in Turkey),” Birikim (Independent magazine) (313), May 2015, 94-103. (https://birikimdergisi.com/dergiler/birikim/1/sayi-313-mayis-2015/2481/turkiye-de-dis-politika-ideolojisi/7158)
“Yüzleşme Siyaseti Üzerine (On the Politics of Coming to Terms with the Past),” Utanç ve Onur: 1915-2015 Ermeni Soykırımı’nın 100. Yılı (Shame and Pride: 1915-2015 The 100th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide), Aydın Çubukçu, Nevzat Onaran, Hakkı Zariç, Onur Öztürk (eds), (Evrensel Basım Yayın, 2015), 202-218.
With Rita Ender, “İki Mektupta Holokost Anmaları ve Hissettirdikleri (Two Letters on Holocaust Remembrance and How It Feels),” Agos (Armenian newspaper), 27.01.2015, https://www.agos.com.tr/tr/yazi/10368/iki-mektupta-holokost-anmalari-ve-hissettirdikleri. Republished by Avleramoz (Jewish website), 24.01.2016, https://www.avlaremoz.com/2016/01/24/iki-mektupta-holokost-anmalari-ve-hissettirdikleri/.
“Uluslararası Ceza Hukuku ve IŞİD Katliamları (International Penal Law and ISIS Massacres),” Güncel Hukuk (Contemporary Law) (131), 08.11.2014.
“Pnyx’ten Gezi’ye Siyasetin Yereli (Local Politics from Pnyx to Gezi),” KAOS GL (Queer magazine) (134), January-February 2014, 30-33. (https://kaosgl.org/gokkusagi-forumu-kose-yazisi/pnyxrsquoten-gezirsquoye-siyasetin-yereli)
“Dış Politikada Hedging Stratejisi (The Hedging Strategy in Foreign Policy),” Perspectives Heinrich Böll Stiftung (7), January 2014, 52-57. (English version: https://tr.boell.org/en/2014/06/16/hedging-strategy-foreign-policy-publikationen)
“Hak Siyaseti ve Özgürleşme (Politics of Rights and Emancipation),” KAOS GL (Queer magazine) (133), November-December 2013, 24-26. (https://kaosgl.org/gokkusagi-forumu-kose-yazisi/hak-siyaseti-ve-ozgurlesme)
With Mehmet Tarhan, “Gezi Sonrası Üzerine (On Post-Gezi),” KAOS GL (Queer magazine) (132), September-October 2013, 18-21. (https://kaosgl.org/haber/gezi-sonrasi-uzerine)
“Generation Y on the Rise in Turkey,” Ahram Online, 12.06.2013. (https://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContentP/4/73677/Opinion/Generation-Y-on-the-rise-in-Turkey.aspx)
“Queering Conservative Democracy,” Turkish Policy Quarterly 11(4), 2013, 119-129. (http://turkishpolicy.com/Files/ArticlePDF/queering-conservative-democracy-winter-2013-en.pdf)
Birdal is a regular columnist for the daily Evrensel and contributor to several newspapers, magazines as well as TV and OTT channels.