I am a sociologist researching power, injustice, crime, conflict, violence, and the political/social processes through which harm is legitimated, dissent is repressed, and dignity is pursued in the aftermath of injustice.

I am the author of three books. Violence and Militants: From Ottoman Rebellions to Jihadist Organizations (McGill–Queen’s University Press, 2019) examines how militants rationalise violence across centuries and political contexts. A Slow Revolution: The Betrayal of Sicilians and Their War on the Mafia (Cornell University Press, 2026) draws on over a decade of fieldwork in Sicily to explain why some struggles for justice endure for more than 150 years. The Moral Trap: How Autocrats Criminalize and Divide Societies (University of California Press, 2027) shows how regimes weaponise morality to justify repression, from Nazi Germany to contemporary Turkey, US, European countries, Iran, and Russia.

My research develops analytical concepts that connect historical rupture, moral discourse, and lived experience. This connection enables me to delve into systematic comparison across regions, regimes, and time periods. I work within a comparative historical sociological framework, combining long-term ethnographic engagement, archival research, in-depth interviews, and advanced qualitative analysis to trace social and political processes over time. Across my work, I examine how violence and injustice are produced, justified, and contested, and how people navigate oppression while seeking dignity and recognition.

I have secured approximately £2.9 million in competitive research funding from the British Academy, Leverhulme Trust, AHRC, the European Council, and the Max Planck Institute, as Principal or Co-Principal Investigator. Alongside my research, I am Editor-in-Chief of the International Social Science Journal (UNESCO/Wiley), founded the Temple Studies in Criminalization, History, and Society book series at Temple University Press. I am an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of History.

Trained in Turkey, the Netherlands, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States, I bring a strongly international perspective to questions of power, resistance, and collective identity. My research contributes to sociological and political theory as well as comparative historical sociology by linking local histories to global structures of power, control, and conflict. I regularly contribute to major media outlets on contemporary political and social issues, translating academic research for public audiences. I have contributed as an expert to the BBC, The Times, and other national and international newspapers and media outlets, and I write regularly for general audiences. For more information, please visit the Media/Public Scholarship page of this website.

As a gay man, I am keenly aware of the importance of visibility and institutional support. I am committed to supporting LGBTQI+ scholars in academia. I provide voluntary mentorship to PhD candidates and postdoctoral researchers from the queer community and collaborate with the ISA’s LGBTQA Caucus to build structured support for early-career scholars.

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