Dr Necla Acik’s academic trajectory began at the Free University of Berlin, where she completed a Magister in Islamic Studies, Sociology, and Politics. In the mid-1990s, she spent a formative year in Damascus studying Arabic, gaining first-hand experience of Syrian society and Rojava prior to the war. After moving to the UK, she completed a PhD in Social Statistics at the Cathie Marsh Institute for Social Research (CMI) at the University of Manchester, where she taught Politics, Sociology, and Criminology until 2019 while contributing to mixed-methods research projects.

Her scholarly work spans over three decades within Kurdish gender studies, with longstanding involvement in the Kurdish Gender Studies Network (KGSN) and its predecessor, the International Kurdish Women’s Studies Network (1998–2021).  She is widely recognised for one of the pioneering studies on the mobilisation of Kurdish women within the Kurdish national struggle, published in German, Turkish, and English, which provided a foundation for subsequent scholarship in the field. Beyond her individual research, Dr Acik has been a dedicated network builder, fostering collective feminist communities that connect scholars, activists, and students across borders. She has contributed to the development of the KGSN, publishing on its evolution and impact in the open-access Kurdish Studies Journal. She also serves on the editorial board of the Alevi Encyclopaedia, chairing its gender stream. 

Methodologically, Dr Acik employs a wide range of mixed methods, combining survey design and analysis with qualitative approaches. Her work demonstrates a strong commitment to participatory, inclusive, and arts-based methods, alongside auto-ethnography and ethnographic fieldwork. In her most recent project, she used digital diaries  with participants in Nigeria, Kenya, and Morocco to capture the processes of migrant decision-making.

She has worked on major international research projects, including the Migration and Development Stream at Middlesex University (linked to the GCRF Gender, Security and Justice Hub at LSE), the Horizon 2020 PARTICIPATION project (on preventing extremism), the UKRI- funded EU Horizon  DYNAMIG project (on migration decisions making and policy effects), and the Horizon PROMISE project (on youth involvement and social engagement). She also works as a Research Consultant, most recently with the University of Derby on a project commissioned by the Irish in Britain. 

During her LSE Visiting Fellowship, Dr Acik will focus on further developing her work in Kurdish Gender Studies and on strengthening the KGSN as an international platform for scholarly exchange and decolonial, collective feminist collaboration.