Teaching and past courses

I have thirteen years of experience in teaching at HSE University (2012-2025). I have been designing and teaching different courses on comparative politics, democratization, and topics in modern political science. I am also interested in teaching a broad range of topics in comparative politics; including non-Western regional studies (particularly Turkish and Russian cases), political economy of authoritarianism, and energy policy in resource-rich regimes. I served as a senior lecturer in two of HSE’s joint bachelor’s programs, with New Economic School (2016-2017) and with the University of London Parallel Degree Program (2017-2024). I have three times received the Best Teachers of HSE University Award, both as ‘Best Lecturer’ (2020, 2018) and as ‘Best Academic Advisor’ (2019).

Below is a list of courses that I taught over the past five years.

1. Comparative Politics (undergraduate):

   This course aims to introduce students to the basic concepts, ideas, and issues in modern comparative politics. The lecture part of the course focuses mainly on teaching the core topics of comparative politics. The seminars are more interactive and based on the discussion of assigned readings. These readings are intended to provide students with the broadest possible coverage of both classical and contemporary research in the sub-field. The course gives students the training to read academic texts critically and understand the basic arguments.

   Sample Syllabus

2. Democracy and Democratisation (undergraduate):

   This senior year course is a part of the double degree programme in International Relations between HSE and the University of London. It is structured around seminal readings from the democratisation literature. İn the first part of the course, we focus on the various definitions and conceptualizations of democracy. Then, we look at different types of democratic and authoritarian regimes, and the different classifications offered by scholars. Third, we focus on regime transitions and the general theories of democratisation. We conclude the course with a discussion of the threats to democracy and democratic breakdowns.

3. Introduction to Political Science (undergraduate):

   This a sophomore year course taught in the joint programme of HSE and the University of London. The aim is to introduce students to the main concepts of political science such as regimes, electoral systems, interest groups and political parties. The course consists of four sections: 1) Thinking like a political scientist; 2) Analyzing political behaviour; 3) Analyzing political institutions; 4) Assessing political outcomes.

4. Modern Political Science (graduate):

   The purpose of this course is to familiarize graduate students with the emerging topics and contemporary research in political science literature. The course consists of nine overarching topics, which in turn are divided into subfields. The course is designed in a graduate seminar format with minimal lecture time and active student participation. Each week, the students are assigned readings to discuss in class. The reading material includes both extended literature reviews and empirical articles. It aims to help students develop analytical skills to understand and criticize contemporary texts.

5. Research Seminar (graduate):

   This course aims to introduce master’s students to dissertation research and writing in social sciences. The first two modules of the course are conducted in a mixed format of lecture and discussion. It focuses on the two main phases of the dissertation process: designing the research and writing the manuscript. In the third module, the students present their own dissertation research and receive feedback from the professor and their peers