Dr Ayça Çubukçu

Ayça Çubukçu is Associate Professor in Human Rights at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where she served as the Co-Director of LSE Human Rights for six years (2018-2024). Before her appointment at the LSE, Dr Çubukçu taught for the Committee on Global Thought at Columbia University and the Committee on Degrees in Social Studies at Harvard University.

A transdisciplinary scholar by training, Dr. Çubukçu holds a BA in Government (with Distinction in All Subjects) from Cornell University and a PhD (with Distinction) from the Department of Anthropology at Columbia University.

Dr Çubukçu has held a number of international fellowships and visiting appointments, including a Senior Fellowship at the Fung Global Fellows Program at Princeton University; Max Weber Fellowship at the European University Institute, Florence; Visiting Fellowship at the Institute for Philosophy, Freie Universität-Berlin; Visiting Professorship at the Department of Political Science and International Relations, Bogaziçi University, Istanbul; Visiting Professorship at the Central European University, Budapest; and the Visiting Faculty Fellowship at the Committee on Globalization and Social Change at the Graduate Center, City University of New York.

Key expertise: Human Rights, Cosmopolitanism, Internationalism, Postcolonial Studies

Broadly construed, Dr Çubukçu’s research and teaching interests are in global critical theory. Her scholarship has addressed socio-political, legal, and historical aspects of internationalism, postcolonial studies, transnational solidarity, war and violence, human rights, and radical social movements. Some of her work has been translated into Greek, French, German, Portuguese, Turkish, and Italian.

Dr Çubukçu leads the lecture series at LSE since 2013. She is also an Honorary Member of the Centre on Social Movement Studies at Scuola Normale Superiore, Florence; Co-editor of ; Co-editor of Humanity Journal, and Co-Editor of Jadaliyya’s Turkey Page (2013-2023).

Dr. Çubukçu is the recipient of multiple teaching awards, including the Harvard University Certificate of Teaching Excellence; the Award for Outstanding Teaching given by the Students’ Union of LSE; Major Review Teaching Award and the Excellence in Education Award by the London School of Economics and Political Science.

A scholar committed to public engagement, Dr. Çubukçu has written for the Guardian, Los Angeles Review of Books, Al Jazeera English, Boston Review, Rep Pepper Magazine, Truthout, Jadaliyya, and Africa Is A Country among other publications. She has also appeared on BBC3’s Free Thinking, BBC2’s Newsnight, and BBC Arabic’s television programmes.

Public writings include:

Ayça Çubukçu (2025), "Hannah Arendt, Gaza and Personal Responsibility Under Genocide," in Critical Legal Thinking and The New Arab.

Ayça Çubukçu (2024), "Leadership and Liberation: An Exchange" with Jodi Dean, in Boston Review.

Ayça Çubukçu (2024), "At Columbia and beyond, disobedience for Palestine becomes a duty," in the New Arab.

Ayça Çubukçu (2024), "Many Speak for Palestine," in the Boston Review.

Ayça Çubukçu (2023), "Not Excepting Palestine," in Verso Blog.

Ayça Çubukçu (2023), "Against Capitalist Realism," in Red Pepper Magazine.

Ayça Çubukçu (2023), "After Erdogan’s Victory, Movements in Turkey Must Fight beyond the Ballot Box," in Truthout.

Ayça Çubukçu (2022), "We Are All Criminals," in Jadaliyya.

Ayça Çubukçu (2021), "A Continuum of Intervention," published in the VERSO Blog.

Ayça Çubukçu (2021), "Opposing the Invasion of Afghanistan," Los Angeles Review of Books.

Ayça Çubukçu (2021), "Law & Critique: Arendt, Race and Lawbreaking" in Critical Legal Thinking. Portuguese translation published here.

Seda Altug, Ayça Çubukçu, Saygun Gokariksel (2021), "An Interview with Boğaziçi University Faculty on Contemporary Protests," in Jadaliyya.

Ayça Çubukçu (2020), Humanity in Public Seminar, Sentencing the Present: Critical Conversations in a Time of Crisis Series.

Ayça Çubukçu (2016), It’s the will of the Turkish people, Erdogan says. But which people? The Guardian, July 26.

Ayça Çubukçu (2013), In this Sublime Struggle of Ours: After Egypt, on Turkey and Terror, Al Jazeera English, August 23. Republished by T24, Sendika.org and Jadaliyya in Turkish, translated by Balam Kenter.

Ayça Çubukçu (2013), New Texts Out Now: Ayça Çubukçu, ‘Responsibility to Protect: Libya and the Problem of Transnational Solidarity, interview with Jadaliyya editors, May 29.

Ayça Çubukçu (2011), Turkey: the ‘Progressive’ Land of Repression, The Guardian, December 11.

Ayça Çubukçu (2011), ‘Operational Accidents’: On the Turkish State and Kurdish Deaths, Jadaliyya, December 30.

Ayça Çubukçu (2011), Killing in the Name of: Libya, Sovereignty, Humanity, Jadaliyya, March 11. Also available on Immanent Frame, the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) blog on Secularism, Religion, and Public Life.

Ayça Çubukçu (2011), New Texts Out Now: Ayca Cubukcu, ‘On Cosmopolitan Occupations: the Case of the World Tribunal on Iraq’, interview with Jadaliyya editors, November 16.