Dr Arzu Kırcal-Şahin

Arzu is the Research and Administrative Coordinator for Contemporary Turkish Studies (CTS) at LSE. Her responsibilities include organising events, seminars, and workshops, managing communications through the CTS website and digital channels, and liaising with internal and external stakeholders to facilitate collaboration.

She also acts as Secretary to the CTS Advisory Board, oversees financial administration, and contributes to research projects through data collection, literature reviews, and report writing. Through her role, Arzu supports the visibility and impact of CTS's work both within LSE and beyond.

Arzu has a diverse academic background, holding a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration, a Master of Arts degree in "Management and Labour Psychology", and a PhD in "Labour Economics and Industrial Relations", which she earned in 2021. Her dissertation focused on the international migration of highly educated stay-at-home mothers in the United Kingdom. She has published her Ph.D. thesis as a book entitled "Yüksek Eğitimli Ev Hanımı Annelerin Uluslararası Göçü" (International Migration of Highly Educated Stay-at-Home Mothers), which explores the experiences of highly educated women who move to the UK to support their spouses' careers while balancing their roles as stay-at-home mothers.

Before joining the European Institute, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Nottingham, where she worked on the "Inclusion and Work-from-anywhere" project. She has also worked as a lecturer at Brunel University London and an academic coordinator at Koç University in Istanbul.

In her free time, Arzu enjoys outdoor activities like walking and biking, visiting museums and the theater, and traveling. Watching her son grow up and discover the world around him brings her immense joy.

Expertise: International Migration, Motherhood, Gender issues, Qualitative methods, Management at higher education

Ask me about:

• Research Administration
• Research Grants and Funding
• Contemporary Turkish Studies