
Aytuğ Şaşmaz, Ph.D.
Political Scientist, Research Associate
Dr. Aytuğ Şaşmaz is a Political Scientist working on secular-religious cleavage, political parties, social policy, and democratic decline, primarily in the Middle East and North Africa. He is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Bryn Mawr College. His work also explores voters' responses to executive aggrandisement (focusing on Turkey) and social welfare in the context of ethnic and organisational diversity (focusing on Lebanon). He also investigates the impact of ethnic and organisational diversity on the quality of social services, the involvement of international organisations in social policies for refugees, youth political and civic engagement, and citizens’ reactions to executive aggrandisement.
Dr. Aytuğ Şaşmaz received his Ph.D. in political science from Harvard University Government Department in July 2021. During the 2021-2022 academic year, he was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Stanford University’s Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law. He also holds a Master's degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science at Brown University.