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Profile
Research Interests
- Critical theory
- The intersection of societal insecurity, identity, and collective action
- Populism
- Nationalism
- Greek and Turkish politics and society
- European Muslim identities and politics
- Southeast European and Middle Eastern Studies
Education
- PhD, Politics/Regional and Cross Cultural Studies, University of Copenhagen
- BSc (Honours), Political Science and International Studies, Panteion University of Social and Political Science
- CERT, Transforming Civil Conflicts. European Network University & Centre for Conflict Resolution, University of Bradford
Biography
Spyros has held teaching and research positions in the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Italy—most recently at Lund University and the London School of Economics and Political Science. His research explores the intersection of societal insecurity, identity, and collective action and, to date, it has focused on Turkish politics and society, nationalism and populism in Europe and the Middle East, European Muslim identities and politics, and the theory of populism.
His latest book, "Turkish Politics and ‘The People’: Mass Mobilisation and Populism" (Edinburgh University Press 2022), explores the emergence of populism in contemporary Turkey from a genealogical perspective. His other publications include "Islam in Europe: Public Spaces and Civic Networks" (Palgrave 2013, co-authored with Roza Tsagarousianou), "Tormented by History: Nationalism in Greece and Turkey" (Hurst and Oxford University Press 2008, co-authored with Umut Özkirimli), and "Nation and Identity in Contemporary Europe" (Routledge 1996, co-edited with Brian Jenkins).
Spyros initiated #RethinkingPopulism, originally in partnership with openDemocracy, and is its lead editor.
Actively accepting MA students interested in:
Collective action; nationalism, Islamism and populism - cultural and political dimensions; Islam and the "West" - history, and Muslim communities in Europe and North America; conflict (with a particular interest in the Middle East and SE Europe); Turkish and Greek politics and culture; Critical theory
Publications
Monographs
- Turkey, Geopolitics and the Age of Populism, Routledge 2026 (forthcoming)
- Turkish Politics and “The People”: Mass Mobilisation and Populism, Edinburgh University Press, 2022.
- Islam in Europe: Public Spaces and Civic Networks, Palgrave, 2013 (co-authored with R. Tsagarousianou).
- Tarihin Cenderesinde (Turkish translation of Tormented by History), Istanbul Bilgi University Press, 2013.
- Το Βάσανο της Ιστορίας (Greek translation of Tormented by History), Kastaniotis, 2008.
- Tormented by History: Nationalism in Greece and Turkey, Oxford University Press, 2008 (co-authored with U. Özkırımlı).
Edited Volumes
- Nation & Identity in Contemporary Europe, Routledge, 1996 (co-edited with B. Jenkins).
Journal Articles and Book Chapters
- 2025: ”, Frontiers in Political Science - Security Peace and Democracy, Volume 7
- 2024: “”, PeaceRep Global Transitions Series, PeaceRep: The Peace and Conflict Resolution Evidence Platform, University of Edinburgh.
- 2024: “” (Arabic translation of Ecologies of Belonging and Exclusion in Urban Kuwait).
- 2023: “”, Kuwait Programme Paper Series 21 (with N. Shahrokni).
- 2023: “”, Global Transitions Report, PeaceRep: The Peace and Conflict Resolution Evidence Platform, University of Edinburgh.
- 2023: “”, PeaceRep: The Peace and Conflict Resolution Evidence Platform, University of Edinburgh.
Older
- 2022: “, Globalizations 19(2), co-authored with N. Shahrokni.
- 2021: “”, Cogent Social Sciences 7(1).
- 2022: “”, LSE Middle East Centre and PeaceRep (Turkish translation of Peacebuilding in Turbulent Times).
- 2022: “”, LSE Middle East Centre and PeaceRep: The Peace and Conflict Resolution Evidence Platform.
- 2019: “”, Political Trends & Dynamics in Southeast Europe 2.
- 2019: “Physical and Virtual Spaces among the Palestinian Diaspora in Malmö”, in J. Retis and R. Tsagarousianou (eds), The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Diasporas and the Media, NJ: Blackwell-Wiley (co-authored with F. Christou).
- 2018: “”, Journal of Historical Sociology 31(1).
- 2017: “Alone in the City: Gezi as a Moment of Transgression”, in O. Hemer, H-Å. Persson & T. Tufte (eds), In the Aftermath of Gezi: From Social Movement to Social Change, Palgrave.
- 2016: “Protest Politics in Turkey”, in Simin Fadaee (ed), Understanding Social Movements in the Global South, Routledge (co-authored with U. Özkırımlı).
- 2014: “Rallying for Gezi, or Metaphors of Aporia and Empowerment”, in U. Özkırımlı (ed), The Making of a Protest Movement in Turkey: #occupygezi, Palgrave.
- 2014: “Beyond the Intractability of the Greek-Macedonian Dispute”, in J. Lozanoska (ed), The Name Issue Revisited, Skopje: MIC.
- 2010: “Nationalism in Greece and Turkey: Modernity, Enlightenment, Westernization”, in A. Aktar et al. (eds), The Troubled Triangle: Nationalism in Cyprus, Greece and Turkey, Palgrave (co-authored with U. Özkırımlı).
- 2009: “Tormented by History: Greece, Turkey and the Territorial Imagination”, in O. Anastasakis, K. Oktem, K. Nikolaidis (eds), Under the Long Shadows of Europe: Greeks and Turks in the Era of Post-Nationalism, Leiden: Brill (co-authored with U. Özkırımlı).
- 2009: “Colonizing the Past: History and Memory in Greece and Turkey”, in F. A. Gemenne and S. G. Carvalho (eds), Nations and Their Histories, Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave (co-authored with U. Özkırımlı).
- 2001: “European Integration and the Transformation of Turkish Politics”, in K. Featherstone and G. Kazamias (eds), Europeanization and the Southern Periphery, London: Frank Cass.
- 2001: “Culture, Media and the Politics of Disintegration in Former Yugoslavia”, in T. Allen & J. Seaton (eds), The Media of Conflict: War Reporting and Representations of Ethnic Violence, London: Zed Press.
- 2001: “”, Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans 3(2).
- 2001: “ 6(3).
- 2000: “”, South European Society and Politics 5(2).
- 1998: “” (The Greek Civil War and its Legacy: Politics and Identity in Post-War Greece), Historical Critical Review/Yuksabipyoung 42(1).
- 1997: “Towards the New Millennium: The Politics of Identity in Contemporary Europe”, Journal of Area Studies 10, co-authored with R. Tsagarousianou.
- 1996: “”, Social Identities 2(1).
- 1996: “”, Contemporary Politics 2(1).
- 1996: “Nation and Identity in Contemporary Europe: A Theoretical Perspective”, in B. Jenkins and S. A. Sofos (eds), Nation and Identity in Contemporary Europe, London: Routledge (co-authored with B. Jenkins).
- 1996: “Conclusion”, in B. Jenkins and S. A. Sofos (eds), Nation and Identity in Contemporary Europe, London: Routledge (co-authored with B. Jenkins).
- 1996: “Politics, Culture and National Identity in Former Yugoslavia”, in B. Jenkins and S. A. Sofos (eds), Nation and Identity in Contemporary Europe, London: Routledge.
- 1996: “From 'Yugoslav' to National Cultures: Ethnic Conflict and the Nationalization of the Public Spheres of Former Yugoslavia”, Res Publica 2.
- 1994: “Popular Identity and Political Culture in Post-dictatorial Greece: Towards a Cultural Approach to Populism”, in N. Demertzis (ed), Greek Political Culture, Athens: Odysseas (in Greek).
- 1993: “The Politics of Identity: Nationalism in Contemporary Greece”, in J. Amodia (ed), The Resurgence of Nationalist Movements in Europe, Bradford (co-authored with R. Tsagarousianou).
Conference Presentations and Public Talks
- 2025: “The Temporal Dimensions of Populist Discourse and Action in Contemporary Turkey” at the 5th International Forum of Sociology (International Sociological Association), Rabat, Morocco (July 8, 2025)
- 2025: Discussant, “Between Absolutism and Pluralism: Reimagining Secularism for Contemporary Societies” Event, School for International Studies, SFU, May 2, 2025.
- 2025: Discussant, “Ottoman Modernities in the Long Nineteenth Century,” 15th Annual Middle East & Islamic Consortium Student Conference at 91ܽ (March 14, 2025)
- 2025: “Material Histories of Disenfranchisement: Political Economy, Ecology, and Racialization in Turkish Populism” at Materialities of Populism Conference, Leuphana Institute for Advanced Studies and Leuphana University, Lüneburg, Germany.
- 2024: Discussant, Panel on “Realignments of Left and Right” at the Institute for the Humanities Conference on Fascist Neoliberalism and the Fate of Radical Democracy(October 18, 2024).
- 2024: “Greece’s Other Populism: Culture, Memory and the Political Ascendance of PASOK in the 1980s” presented at the SFU SNF Centre for HellenicStudies (January 26, 2024).
- 2024: “In Search of the 'Infant People': Continuity and Rupture in Turkey's Political Landscape” at the European Center for Populism Studies, Mapping Global Populism – Panel XVII: The Rise and Reign of Autocratic Populism and Islamist Nationalism in Turkey.
Older
- 2023: “The Construction of ‘auctoritas’ and the ‘people’ in Turkish Populism” at the XX International Sociological Association World Congress of Sociology, Melbourne, Australia, June 30
- 2023: “Turkish Politics and ‘The People’ Mass Mobilisation and Populism” at Political Studies Association, UK, May 3
- 2023: “Turkish Politics and 'The People': Mass Mobilisation and Populism” Book Launch, the London School of Economics and Political Science, March 6
- 2022: “Meanings of the People in Turkish Politics: A Genealogy of Populism” at the Middle Eastern Studies Association Congress, Denver, Co, USA, December 2
- 2020: Conversation with Chantal Mouffe, and Paolo Gerbaudo, Open Democracy, October 27, 2020.
- 2020: Conversation with Jeremy Gilbert, and Seyla Benhabib, Open Democracy, November 17, 2020
Community and Professional Outreach
- 2025: Syria as a Battleground: How Israel and Turkey Are Shaping a Fragmented Middle East. London School of Economics Blog. (Aug 26, 2025)
- 2025: Israel’s attack on Syria: Protecting the Druze minority or a regional power play? The Conversation (Jul 30, 2025)
- 2025: How Israel’s domestic crises and Netanyahu’s aim to project power are reshaping the Middle East The Conversation (Jun 25, 2025)
- 2025: What’s behind Erdoğan’s calculated shift on Kurds and its potential consequences? The Conversation (Mar 5, 2025)
- 2024: The Turkish-Somali Connection: Why does the Horn of Africa Matter for Turkey? London School of Economics Blog. (May 6, 2024)
- 2024: Τι μέλλει γενέσθαι για την Τουρκία μετά την ήττα Έρντογαν στις δημοτικές εκλογές; Inside Story. (April 20, 2024)
- 2024: What’s next for Turkey after local elections put Erdoğan on notice? The Conversation (April 16, 2024)
Older
- 2023: Nagorno-Karabakh: What’s next for the South Caucasus region following Azerbaijan’s aggression against Armenians? The Conversation (Oct 9, 2023)
- 2023: Erdoğan’s Electoral Victory Imperils Democratic Forces in Turkey. Truthout (May 30, 2023)
- 2023: Τουρκία: Γιατί προηγείται ο Ερντογάν, τα λάθη Κιλιτσντάρογλου. iefimerida (May 15, 2023)
- 2020: What is in a Place? Hagia Sophia in the Affective Topography of Populism in Turkey’. Jadaliyya, (Aug 2020)
- 2020: Narrating the pandemic: COVID-19 as a feature of Turkey’s political landscape. Institute for Social Responsibility (July 07 2020)
- 2019: Mobilizing Pity: Iranian Women on the Long Road to Azadi Stadium. Jadaliyya, (Oct 2019) with N. Shahrokni
- 2019: Bringing gender into the populism debate: a guided walk. editorial essay Open Democracy (Dec 16, 2019)
- 2018: The reconfiguration of Swedish nationalism after the Syrian refugee “crisis”. Goethe Institut Schweden, Nya former av nationalism (April 2018)
- 2018: The Turkish election as a warning against the irresistible charms of populism. OpenDemocracy (July 13, 2018)
- 2018: ‘Cypriot hopes for unification are on life support, but not doomed’. The Conversation (Jan 22, 2018)
- 2017: ‘¿Qué significa el reconocimiento de Trump a Jerusalén como la capital de Israel para el Medio Oriente? Dialoguemos -with V. Felci (Dec 12, 2017)
- 2017: The Jerusalem Question in a Regional Context. The Globe Post (Dec 12, 2017)
- 2017: What Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel means for the Middle East. The Conversation -with V. Felci (December 7, 2017)
- 2017: Jérusalem, le nœud gordien des Israéliens et des Palestiniens’. The Conversation French Edition--with V. Felci (December 7, 2017)
- 2016: Turkey: of coups and popular resistance. Open Democracy (July 21, 2016)
- Several more pieces in OpenDemocracy, The Conversation (French, Spanish editions), Dialoguemos, Transconflict, and others.