Berk Esen is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Sabancı University, Turkey. He received his Ph.D. in Government from Cornell University in 2015 and was a IPC-Stiftung Mercator Fellow in the Center for Applied Turkey Studies (CATS) at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. Before joining Sabancı University, he served as Assistant Professor and Vice Chair at the Department of International Relations at Bilkent University. His research interests include the political economy of development, party politics and authoritarian regimes with a focus on Latin America and the Middle East. His research has been funded by the Science and Technology Institute of Turkey (TUBITAK) and published in political science journals such as Party Politics, Journal of Democracy, Third World Quarterly, Government and Opposition, Armed Forces & Society, PS: Political Science & Politics, South East European Society and Politics, Journal of Near East and Balkan Studies, Mediterranean Politics, Middle East Journal, Turkish Studies, Southeast European and Black Sea Studies and Review of Middle East Studies. Berk has received numerous prestigious awards, including the Sakıp Sabancı International Research Award for his work on democratic backsliding in Turkey and Hungary and the Turkish Science Academy Young Scientist Award (BAGEP).
