Bilge Yabanci received her PhD degree from the University of Bath, UK based on a doctoral dissertation on the social and political dynamics and the emerging forms of local resistance against the EU-driven democratisation and conflict resolution process in Kosovo and northern Cyprus. She is affiliated with Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI) in Rome and London-based Centre for Policy and Research on Turkey.

Her current research interests include populism and ruling populist parties, the relationship between authoritarian consolidation and civil society, and democratic reversal in Turkey. Her recent peer-reviewed work ‘Populism as the problem child of democracy’ on government-dependent trade unions and women’s organizations under the AKP rule appeared in the Journal of Southeast European and Black Sea studies.