Rodi Yilmaz

Rodi Yilmaz is a PhD candidate in the Department of Politics and International Studies at SOAS, University of London. His doctoral research investigates the electoral decline of social democratic parties in Turkey during the 1990s, focusing on political discourse, party strategy, and institutional transformation. 

Employing a mixed-methods approach that includes topic modelling of parliamentary speeches, time-series cross-sectional regression and elite interviews, his work contributes to the broader field of comparative political party studies and democratisation in emerging democracies.  Rodi holds a master's degree in Social Policy from the University of Birmingham. He completed his undergraduate studies in Political Science and International Relations at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, Turkey. His academic interests span comparative politics, political parties, local governance, and democratic backsliding.  

Rodi has significant teaching experience in the UK and Turkey. He currently serves as a Graduate Teaching Assistant at University College London (UCL), supporting the Democracy and Authoritarianism module. In this role, he facilitates seminars, provides academic support, and undertakes assessment responsibilities. He previously worked as a teaching assistant at Sabancı University and Boğaziçi University, contributing to undergraduate courses in political theory, Turkish politics, and legal and ethical studies.  He is the author of Ortanın Solu ve Yerel Yönetimler: 1973–1977 İstanbul’da Ahmet İsvan Dönemi (Scala Yayıncılık, 2023), a book that explores the role of local governance during a formative era of Turkish municipal politics. The work has received recognition for its empirical depth and relevance to ongoing debates about decentralisation, social democracy, and municipal reform.  

In addition to his doctoral research, Rodi is involved in several co-authored academic projects. These include studies on the hybrid regimes, the role of social policies in competitive authoritarian regimes and patterns of intra-party competition and leadership. Rodi is fluent in Turkish and proficient in English. He has strong methodological skills in qualitative and quantitative research and a working knowledge of both. At SOAS, he is supervised by Dr Tolga Sinmazdemir, Dr Nathaniel George and Professor Hagar Kotef.

• Comparative Politics, 
• Local Governments, 
• Democratization and Authoritarianism