Lisel Hintz

                   Assistant Professor of International Relations
                                        Johns Hopkins University
                            School of Advanced International Studies

I am fascinated by the intersection of identity politics, protest dynamics, pop culture, and foreign policy. My regional focus is on Turkey and its neighborhood relations, particularly in Europe and the Middle East. My new book from Oxford University Press, Identity Politics Inside Out: National Identity Contestation and Foreign Policy in Turkey, examines how Turkey's Justice and Development Party (AKP) used foreign policy gambits to weaken its domestic obstacles and open up space for disseminating its own Ottoman Islamist understanding of Turkish national identity.

My current book project examines state-society struggles over identity in Turkey through the lens of pop culture. I preview the project in a recent Washington Post article exploring how two rap videos galvanized Turkey's embattled opposition around issues ranging from increasing violence against women to environmental degradation to political apathy.

Turkey is a culturally vibrant and intellectually puzzling state, from aspects of civil-military relations to ethnic and gender politics to regional (in)security. While a traditional Western ally, Turkey is an increasingly erratic actor at home and abroad, most visibly in Syria. Understanding its domestic and foreign policies is vital, and demands innovative forms of analysis that can be communicated to academic audiences, policy communities, and university classrooms. With this aim, I speak and write widely on Turkey’s relations in its complex neighborhood as well as with the US and the EU, the Syrian refugee crisis, Kurdish and Alevi issues, and the ruling AKP’s increasingly authoritarian grip on Turkish politics and society. My academic work includes publications in Survival, European Journal of International Relations, International Journal of Turkish Studies, and Project on Middle East Political Science Series. I also have contributed to Foreign Policy, the Washington Post's Monkey Cage, Boston Globe, War on the Rocks, BBC World News, and other media outlets as well as to government and think-tank panels and publications. 

I am thrilled to work with Johns Hopkins SAIS students in teaching courses on foreign policy decision-making, comparative politics, social movements, and the intersection of politics and pop culture. Prior to joining SAIS, I was a postdoctoral fellow at Cornell University in AY 2015-16 and a Visiting Assistant Professor at Barnard College, Columbia University in AY 2016-17.

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Speaking on the Syrian refugee crisis at Cornell Law School

A panel on Turkey's "hostage diplomacy"

The PBS Great Decisions documentary "Turkey: A Partner in Crisis."

Speaking live on Turkey's coup attempt with Knowledge@Wharton

Hosting former opposition MP and humanitarian activist Şafak Pavey

Moderating a panel on domestic politics at MEI's 8th annual Turkey conference.

Teaching my class on Turkey and the Middle East at Cornell

Click the photo for my podcast on Turkey's constitutional referendum with POMEPS director Marc Lynch