Professional Bio

Oğuzalp Şamlı is a PhD student from Istanbul, Turkey. His primary subfield is comparative politics, and he employs a mixed-methods approach. He is interested in the relationship between institutional choices and democratic performance; with a focus on constitution-making processes, executive-legislative relations, supreme courts, parties, and elections in both democratic and non-democratic countries.

Prior to joining Penn State, he completed his undergraduate double major in political science and philosophy at Boğaziçi University, Turkey. He received his master’s degree in political science at Sabancı University, Turkey. His thesis examined the conditions under which political parties are more likely to form pre-electoral coalitions in non-democratic elections, applying prospect theory from behavioral economics to political science.