Zümray Kutlu

Zümray Kutlu’s teaching and research focus on refugees and migration, human rights, urban inequality, and nongovernmental organizations. Her work engages both the theoretical and practical dimensions of these fields, drawing on long-standing experience in research, teaching, and civil society.

At Smith College, she teaches courses in comparative politics and international relations, including International Human Rights, Introduction to Comparative Politics, and NGOs in World Politics, as well as colloquia on Refugee Politics and Global Cities. She also teaches a seminar on Nationalism, Islam, and Democracy in Modern Turkey and serves on the Advisory Committee for the Community Engagement and Social Change Concentration.

Kutlu is the co-editor of Refugees on the Move: Crisis and Response in Turkey and Europe (Berghahn, 2022). More recently, she co-edited Thesis 11: Marxism Against Liberalism (Agora, 2024, in Turkish), an oral history volume featuring interviews with members of the advisory board of the political journal Thesis 11, published in Turkey between 1985 and 1992.

Beyond her academic work, Kutlu brings more than 15 years of professional experience in the NGO sector, including her work at Anadolu Kültür, where she designed and supervised projects on participatory policy development, cultural rights, cultural heritage, and refugee issues.

Prior to joining Smith College, she taught at Hampshire College, Istanbul Bilgi University, and Bahçeşehir University. She holds a B.A. and M.S. in sociology from Middle East Technical University, an M.A. in theory and practice of human rights from the University of Essex, and a Ph.D. in political science from Istanbul Bilgi University.

Kutlu, Zümray, and Elif Babül. 2026. “Human Rights in Turkish Foreign Policy.” In One Hundred Years of Turkish Foreign Policy: 1923–2023, edited by Binnur Özkeçeci-Taner and Sinem Akgül-Açıkmeşe. Palgrave Macmillan. 

Kutlu, Zümray, and E. Ahmet Tonak, eds. 2024. Thesis 11: Marxism Against Liberalism. Agora. (In Turkish).

Kutlu, Zümray, and Erol Balkan, eds. 2022. Refugees on the Move: Crisis and Response in Turkey and Europe. Berghahn Publications.

Kutlu, Zümray. 2017. “Is Participatory Local Policy Development Possible? The Case of Çanakkale.” Research and Policy on Turkey 2 (1): 90–104.

Kutlu, Zümray. 2016. “Endless Escape: From Syria to Turkey, Then to Europe.” Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism 16 (1): 121–134.