Selen Ayirtman
Australian National University
Research School of Social Sciences
Political Science Program
Canberra ACT 0200
Ph (+61) 2 6125 0781
Selen Ayirtman is a Research Associate and a PhD Candidate in the Political Science Program.
Her research interests include contemporary democratic theory with a particular focus on deliberative democracy; identity politics and multiculturalism; and democracy and integration in the European Union. Her current research focuses on the enabling conditons for deliberative democracy in the face of cultural diversity.
Education
PhD in progress, Political Science Program, Australian National University, Canberra.
PhD Thesis in progress: Deliberative Democracy in the face of Cultural Diversity
- under the supervision of Prof John Dryzek
M.A. in Political Science (major), Sociology and German Literature (minors), University of Heidelberg, Germany (2003)
Master Thesis in Political Science: The Relationship between Constitutional State and Democracy in Carl Schmitt and Jürgen Habermas (in German)
- under the supervision of Prof Wolfgang Merkel
B.A. in Political Science, Middle East Technical University, Turkey (1998)
Academic Employment
05/2006- current Research Associate in the Project "Micropolitics of Deliberation"
Political Science Program, Australian National University, Canberra.
2003- 2005 Research Associate in the Project "Parties and Democracy in the European Union:
Europarties as New Democratic Intermediaries?"
under the supervision of Prof. Jan van Deth
Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES), University of Mannheim, Germany.
2001-2003 Research Assistant in the Project “Citizenship, Involvement and Democracy”
under the supervisions of Prof. Jan van Deth and Dr Sigrid Rossteutscher
Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES), University of Mannheim, Germany.
1997 3 months-internship with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Ankara, Turkey.
Publications & Refereed Conference Proceedings
2005: “Europarties as Transnational Networks: Contribution of the Europarties in the Emergence of an European Public Sphere” (with C. Pütz), in European Civil Society: Concepts, Actors, Strategies, Finke, B. and Knodt, M. (eds), Wiesbaden: VS Verlag fuer Sozialwissenschaften, pp.389-408 (in German).
2006: “Backstage Actors of the European Union? Understanding the Role of the Europarties in the Emergence of a European Public Sphere” (with C. Pütz) in: CESAA Review, Nr 34, pp. 42-58.
2006: "In Search of Australian Values", Radikal2, 02/04/2006 (in Turkish).
2007: "Recognition through Deliberation. Towards Deliberative Accomodation of Cultural Diversity", Refeered Conference Proceeding, 55th Australasian Political Studies Association (APSA) Annual Conference, Political and Social Theory Stream.
2008: "Beyond Multiculturalism: A Deliberative Approach" in The Politics of Multiculturalism. Questions Across Disciplines, Cervantes-Carson, A. and Maria Lazaroms, I.J. (eds), Oxford: Interdisciplinary Press (forthcoming).
Conference Papers
2005: “Europarties: Networks of the Deliberative Democracy in the European Union?” presented to European Studies Postgraduate Conference, 17 June 2005, European Studies Centre, The University of Sydney.
2005: “Reconceptualizing Public Sphere in Culturally Diverse Societies. Impacts of Citizenship Policies on the Notion of the Public Sphere” presented to CERC Interdisciplinary Conference “Politics of Belonging: Citizenship, Migration and Ethnic Conflict in Europe” 30 November 2005, Contemporary Europe Research Centre, University of Melbourne.
2006: “Merits and Limits of Deliberative Public Participation in Multi-level Governance. The Case of GM Foods Regulation in the European Union” (with K.Kesim) presented to the 2006 IPSA World Congress of Political Science “Is Democracy Working?” Fukuoko, Japan, 9-14 July 2006.
2006: “Can Deliberative Public Participation Cure the Democratic Deficit of the EU?” (with K. Kesim) presented to the ECPR Third Pan-European Conference on EU Politics, Istanbul, Turkey, 21-23 September 2006.
2006: "More than Tolerance, Less than Trust. Deliberative Conditions of cross-cultural Engagement" presented to International Conference "Dialogue across Difference:Goverance in a Multicultural Era ", Australian National University, Canberra, 4-5 December 2006.
2007: "Beyond Multiculturalism: Conditions for deliberative accomodation of cultural diversity" presented to 1st Global Conference "Multiculturalism, Conflict and Belonging", Mansfield College, Oxford, 3-6 September 2007.
2007: "Recognition through Deliberation" presented to 55th APSA Conference, Monash University, Melbourne, 24-26 September 2007.
2007: "Discourses of Recognition in Contemporary Politics" (with R. Mendonca) presented to Postgraduate Conference "New Horizons in Political Philosophy" Australian National University, Canberra, 6-7 December 2007.
Reports
2008: Achieving Success in Large Scale Deliberation: Anlaysis of the Fremantle Bridge Community Engagement Process (with S. J. Niemeyer and J. HartzKarp), Micropolitics in Deliberation Reports, Deliberative Democracy Research Group, RSSS, The Australian National University, Canberra.
Editorial Roles
1998: Coordinating Editor for the Turkish version of the book "The State of World Refugees 1997-98: A Humanitarian Agenda" by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
2002-2003: Member of the editorial team for the journal Diskus of the Heinrich Boell Foundation, Germany
Academic Awards
2001-2003: Full Stipend of the Heinrich Boell Foundation, Germany
Language Skills
English (fluent), German (fluent), Turkish (native)