Prof Zeynep Bulutgil

Professor in International Relations
Room: 2.06, 29/30 Tavistock Square
Email: z.bulutgil@ucl.ac.uk
Website

 

Biography

I am a Professor in the Department of Political Science at UCL. My research focuses on political violence, state formation, religion and politics, and inequality and ethnic mobilization. My first book, The Roots of Ethnic Cleansing in Europe, explores the conditions that lead to (or prevent) ethnic cleansing, and received the 2017 Best Book Award in the European Politics and Society Section of APSA. My second book, The Origins of Secular Institutions: Ideas, Timing, and Organization, combines ideational and organizational mechanisms to explain how institutional secularization occurs.  I have published articles in International Security, Journal of Peace Research, Journal of Global Security Studies, Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties, and Nationalities Papers. I am also working on a series of co-authored articles on inequality and political mobilization in India.  

My research has been supported by the British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship as well as by fellowships from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, Belfer Center at the Harvard Kennedy School, Yale Center for International and Area Studies, and the National Science Foundation. I hold a PhD from the University of Chicago. I am also an Associate Editor at Nationalities Papers.

Research

My research is at the intersection of international relations and comparative politics. My published works focus on political violence, state formation, ethnic mobilization, and religion and politics. My books on the causes of ethnic cleansing and institutional secularization explore big social science questions that have largely been neglected by mainstream political science. To answer these questions, I employ a mixed-methods approach that includes statistical analysis based on original data I collect, in-depth comparative historical analysis, and fieldwork.

Publications

Books

• Bulutgil, H. Z. (2022) The Origins of Secular Institutions: Ideas, Timing, and Organization. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Bulutgil, H. Z. (2016) The Roots of Ethnic Cleansing in Europe. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Journal articles

• Bulutgil, H. Z., and Prasad, N. (forthcoming) ‘Inequality, Elections, and Communal Riots in India’, Journal of Peace Research, OnlineFirst.
• Bulutgil, H. Z. and Prasad, N. (2019) ‘Inequality and Voting Among Deprived Ethnic Groups: Evidence from India’, Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties, 30(2), pp. 221–243.
• Bulutgil, H. Z. (2019) ‘Prewar Domestic Conditions and Civilians in War’, Journal of Global Security Studies, 5(3), pp. 528–541.
• Bulutgil, H. Z. (2018) ‘The State of the Field and Debates on Ethnic Cleansing’, Nationalities Papers, 46(6), pp. 1136–1145.
• Bulutgil, H. Z. (2018) ‘Response to Critiques and New Research Questions’, Nationalities Papers, 46(5), pp. 925–931. 
• Bulutgil, H. Z. (2017) ‘Ethnic Cleansing and Its Alternatives in Wartime: A Comparison of the Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, and Russian Empires’, International Security, 41(4), pp. 169-201.
• Bulutgil, H. Z (2015) ‘Social Cleavages, Wartime Experience, and Ethnic Cleansing in Europe’, Journal of Peace Research, 52(5), pp. 577–590.
• Bulutgil, H. Z. (2015) ‘Religion and Politics in the European Union: The Secular Canopy’, Perspectives on Politics, 13(4), pp. 1179–1181.
• Bulutgil, H. Z. (2012) ‘Bosnia Remade: Ethnic Cleansing and Its Reversal’, Journal of Politics, 74(1).

Book chapters

• Bulutgil, H. Z. and Erkiletian, S. (2022) ‘Civil Society, Fifth Column Perceptions, and Wartime deportations: Japanese and German Americans’, in H. Mylonas and S. Radnitz (eds.) Enemies Within: The Global Politics of Fifth Columns, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 73–100.
• Bulutgil, H. Z. (2010) ‘War, Collaboration, and Endogenous Ethnic Polarization: The Path to Ethnic Cleansing’, in A. Lawrence and E. Chenoweth (eds.) Rethinking Violence States and Non-state Actors in Conflict. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Teaching

I teach courses on political violence, research design and methodology, comparative politics, and religion and politics. I am currently accepting PhD students who work on political violence, political institutions, and religion and politics.