Jared M. Wright, Ph.D.
Director
Jared M. Wright is an Assistant Professor at TED University in Ankara, Turkey. He received his Ph.D. in Sociology from Purdue University in 2020. He is a former member of the Oxford Internet Institute’s Summer Doctoral Programme (2019) and former fellow for Wikipedia (2018) and the Purdue Research Foundation (2017). He specializes in the study of digital sociology, new media and communications, social movements, and political sociology. He has published articles in Social Movement Studies, Contention, and Social Politics. His dissertation titled “Digital Contention” analyzes evolving collective action dynamics in digital space among hacktivist and data activist mobilizations.
Stuart A. Wright, Ph.D.
Research Associate
Stuart A. Wright is Professor of Sociology and Chair of the Department of Sociology, Social Work and Criminal Justice at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas. He has authored over fifty publications in scholarly books and journals. Dr. Wright is known internationally for his research on religious and political movements, conflict, and violence. He has published seven books, including The Demise of Religion: How Religions End, Die or Dissipate (with Michael Stausberg and Carole Cusack, Bloomsburg, 2020), Storming Zion: Governments Raids on Religious Communities (with Susan J. Palmer, Oxford, 2016), Saints under Siege: The Texas State Raid on the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints (with James T. Richardson, New York University Press, 2011), Patriots, Politics, and the Oklahoma City Bombing (Cambridge University Press, 2007), and Armageddon in Waco (University of Chicago Press, 1995).
Gülçin Con Wright, Ph.D.
Research Associate
Gülçin Con Wright received her dual-title Ph.D. in Sociology and Gerontology at Purdue University in 2018. She is currently working as an Assistant Professor of Sociology at TED University in Ankara, Turkey. Her research interests lay at the intersection of aging, family, health, and gender. Her articles have been published in The Gerontologist, Journal of Marriage and Family, and Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences. She continues to conduct research on gender dynamics in intergenerational relationships and caregiving in later life in Turkish as well as American families.
İnan Özdemir Taştan, Ph.D.
Research Associate
İnan Özdemir Taştan received her Ph.D. in 2013 from Ankara University Institute of Social Sciences, writing her thesis on the rhetoric of radical left movements in Turkey in the 1970s. She worked as a research assistant at Ankara University Communication faculty between 2002 and 2017, where she offered courses on public relations, political communication, and research methods. In 2020-21 she was Barbro Klein Fellow at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study, Uppsala. She is currently a research fellow at The Forum Transregionale Studium, Berlin. Her research interests include political communication, social movements, and media studies. She published several articles and book chapters in academic journals and in edited books. She is also the co-author of the books Seçimlik Demokrasi (2018) (Voting Democracy) and Vaatten Duaya, Anayasadan Kur'an'a: Siyasette Dinselleşme (2019) (From Promise to Prayer, Constitution to Koran: Religionization of Politics).
Marcus Mann, Ph.D.
Research Associate
Marcus Mann received his Ph.D. in sociology at Duke University and is currently an assistant professor in sociology at Purdue University. His primary research interests are in the fields of political sociology, the sociology of knowledge, and social movements. He is currently working on projects examining politically conservative knowledge production, political disinformation, and online political radicalization. To examine these topics, he employs computational approaches including the collection and analysis of digital trace data, big data processing, and text analysis methods. His research has been published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, The American Sociological Review, Social Forces, and Social Problems among others.
Soner Emeç
Research Intern
Soner Emeç received his bachelor’s degree in Political Science and International Relations with a minor in Sociology at TED University in 2021. He has recently been accepted to a two-year Master’s Programme in History and Oriental Studies at the University of Bologna. He is particularly interested in post-colonial theory, post-colonial imagery, and subaltern studies from a Gramscian approach. He is the chosen participant of the Summer School titled “Political Imagination After COVID-19” organized by the University of Bologna, the University of Virginia, and Duke University. He has also worked as an intern at Policy Analytics Lab and Foreign Policy Institute.