Cetin Ozdemir

Education

• Ph.D., Sociology, University of California, Davis, CA, 2018-2025
• M.A., Sociology, University of California, Davis, CA, 2018-2020
• QP: "Afghan Refugee Men’s Attitudes Toward Afghan Women’s Participation in the Labor-Market in Sacramento and Its Effects on Men’s Roles"
• M.A., International Relations (English), Marmara University, İstanbul, 2013-2016
• Thesis: “An Evaluation of the Integration Process of Turkey to the World Capitalist Economic System After World War II Within the Framework of the Uneven and Combined Development Approach”
• B.A., Sociology (English), Marmara University, İstanbul, 2006-2011

About

I am a Ph.D. candidate and an Associate Instructor. My research interests encompass Internal/International Migration, Gender, Comparative and Historical Sociology, International Relations Theories, Sociology of International Relations, Qualitative Research Methods, and Classical and Contemporary Theories. 

Research Focus

-My dissertation project, titled “No Safe Place for Refugees: A Comparative Analysis of Afghan Refugees’ Insecurities in the United States and Türkiye,” focuses on the insecurity and precariousness faced by Afghan refugees in these two countries. The research analyzes how Afghan refugee men experience and navigate shifts in physical insecurity in Afghanistan and legal, economic, social, and gendered insecurities in the United States and Türkiye. This study is grounded in the human security framework, emphasizing the rights of refugees, political structures, economic institutions, and cultures that create human security.  

My methodology involves a comparative study with semi-structured interviews and ethnographic observations of Afghans’ public spaces in three urban areas: Sacramento in the United States and Istanbul and Trabzon provinces in Türkiye.    

The preliminary findings reveal that Afghan refugees encounter multifaceted economic, political, and social insecurities. In the United States, they experience legal inclusion thanks to their immigration status as refugees with Special Immigrant Visas and the United Nations refugee resettlement program but grapple with economic and social exclusions due to skills downgrading and discrimination as Muslim migrants. In Türkiye, Afghan men face political exclusion due to their legal status since Türkiye does not grant refugee status to non-Europeans, and Afghan men endure precariousness and social exclusions. In both countries, particularly legal and economic insecurities have far-reaching effects on Afghan men who are not able to perform their breadwinner roles.

-The first paper from the dissertation data explores how the legal status of Afghan refugees shapes their economic and social integration and plans in Türkiye. Afghan refugees who obtain IPS have access to key rights and services but must settle in satellite provinces in Türkiye. However, Afghan refugees who do not hold IPS lack key rights and are excluded from social services but can reside anywhere, with most settling in Istanbul. By comparing Afghan refugees under undocumented status in Istanbul province with Afghans under IPS in Trabzon province, I uncover how Afghans with IPS and those with irregular status face distinct but equally constrained opportunities. This paper reveals the limitations of IPS as a temporary legal status, particularly when it imposes spatial restrictions on settlement. 

-My research interests also encompass historical sociological approaches, one of which is the uneven and combined development (U&CD) approach on which I wrote my Master's thesis at Marmara University. The U&CD approach discusses how the capitalist crisis emerges in undeveloped or developing countries due to contradictions in modes of production. I employed this approach to explore historical sociology and International Relations debates through the binary conception of domestic and international structures. I analyzed Turkey’s incorporation into the capitalist system between 1945 and 1960 within this approach.  

Publications

Özdemir, Ç . (2018). Turkey’s Integration to Capitalism Within Uneven and Combined Development Approach: “1945-1960”. International Journal of Political Science & Urban Studies, 6 (2), 27-54. DOI: 10.14782/ipsus.460126

Teaching

University of California, Davis & the Department of Sociology

Associate Instructor

Winter 2024                 Immigration and Opportunity (Soc 4) 

Winter 2022                 Introduction to Social Research Methods (Soc 46)

Summer 2021              Self and Society (Soc 2)

Teaching Assistant

Spring 2023                 Intermediate Social Statistics (Soc 106)   

Winter 2023                Global Social Change (Soc 5)  

Fall 2021                      Intermediate Social Statistics (Soc 106) 

Spring 2021.                Introduction Social Statistics (Soc 46)  

Winter 2021                Global Social Change (Soc 5)

Fall 2020                      Global Social Change (Soc 5) 

Spring 2020                 Social Problems (Soc 3)   

Winter 2020                Introduction to Social Research (Soc 46A) 

Winter 2019                 Introduction to Sociology (Soc 001) 

Fall 2018                      Self and Society (Soc 002) 

Spring 2022                Classical Social Theory (Soc 100) 

Fall 2019.                    Transnational Mobility (Soc 104)

Spring 2019                International Migration (Soc 104)   

Awards

2024                           UC Davis Graduate Program Fellowship ($14,359.00)

2024                           UC Davis Dean’s Graduate Summer Fellowship Award ($6.000)

2024                           UC Davis Sociology Program Travel Award and Small Research Grant ($2.500) 

2023                           UC Davis Graduate Program Fellowship ($14,359.00) 

2022                           UC Davis Graduate Program Fellowship ($13,000.00) 

2022                           UC Davis Dean’s Graduate Summer Fellowship Award ($5.500)

2022                           UC Davis Sociology Program Small Research Grant ($1.000)