Lisel Hintz
Lecturer (Asst Prof) of International Relations
SOAS University of London
Spanning International Relations and comparative politics, my research examines how contestation over various identities - e.g., national, ethnic, gender, anti-imperial/civilizational - shapes politics from the international to the subnational and societal levels. Trained as political scientist, I draw tools from anthropology and media studies to study identity dynamics with contextual nuance and analytical rigor. My regional focus on Turkey and its varied neighborhoods provides numerous cases for comparative analysis - e.g., Kurdish and Alevi issues, political Islam, anti-Westernism/civilizationalism - that also spill over to impact transnational mobilization, foreign and defense policy, and grand strategy-making.
My recent publications aim at audio-visualizing the political science toolkit. These include award-winning articles in Politics & Gender, Perspectives on Politics, and British Journal of Middle East Studies. My current book projects, under contract with Cambridge and Oxford university presses, respectively, examine popular culture as political battleground in autocratizing regimes and how populists' hyper-mediatization of Others shapes their foreign policies and grand strategies.
My work on identity politics also includes my 2018 book from Oxford University Press, Identity Politics Inside Out: National Identity Contestation and Foreign Policy in Turkey, as well as publications in Democratization, Security Studies, Nationalities Papers, PS: Political Science and Politics, European Journal of International Relations, and Survival. I've also contributed to Foreign Policy, 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 have taught courses on psychology and foreign policy decision-making, subnational diplomacy, comparative politics, protests and social movements, and conflicts and cultures in Turkey. Prior to joining SOAS, I was an Assistant Professor at Johns Hopkins SAIS; a Visiting Assistant Professor at Barnard College, Columbia University; and a postdoctoral fellow at Cornell University. I received my PhD in Political Science from George Washington University.
I am also proud to run a Zoom writing solidarity group that hosts 10 to 12 two-hour sessions per week for students and scholars from/working on the MENA region. Following the devastating February 2023 earthquakes that killed over 50,000 people, I created a writing solidarity group to provide community for students and scholars from Turkey and Syria. Seeing the progress group members have made, I expanded the group to include PhD students and scholars working in/on/from MENA. Some participants have joined once, some over 200 times. Some (26!) have finished PhD dissertations, some have published articles they've written in our sessions. I provide a blueprint of the group for others to use in my 2024 PS: Political Science and Politics article; I very much hope the model will spread. We finished our 166th week on 3 July 2026. Please get in touch if you or your students are interested!
Click for info on my first book, out from Oxford University Press November 2018
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Click to watch my panel on art and authoritarianism on Turkey with rapper and "Susamam" creator Sarp Palaur aka Şanışer
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Speaking on the Syrian refugee crisis at Cornell Law School
The PBS Great Decisions documentary "Turkey: A Partner in Crisis"
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Speaking live on Turkey's coup attempt with Knowledge@Wharton
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Hosting former opposition MP and humanitarian activist Şafak Pavey
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Moderating a panel on domestic politics at MEI's 8th annual Turkey conference.
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Teaching my class on Turkey and the Middle East at Cornell
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Click the photo for my podcast on Turkey's constitutional referendum with POMEPS director Marc Lynch