About
I am an interdisciplinary social scientist with over a decade of research experience in transitional justice, peace and conflict, social justice, and community‑based approaches to social transformation. My work is internationally recognised for its critical and original contributions to understanding how marginalised communities pursue justice amid political violence, repression, and structural inequality, and it increasingly shapes both scholarly debate and policy engagement
My monograph "Transitional Justice and the Kurdish Conflict: A Grassroots Approach" (Routledge 2025), winner of the 2026 Serbest Best Book Award in Social Sciences in Kurdish Studies, builds on my PhD in Transitional Justice from Ulster University. The book advances an agenda‑setting framework by foregrounding multilayered victimhood shaped by state violence, identity, language, gender, and activism. As Turkey entered a peace process in 2025, this work has taken on renewed significance, prompting invitations for policy consultations, public engagement events, media interviews, and practitioner training in the UK and internationally. Alongside the monograph, I have published in leading journals including the International Journal of Transitional Justice, Journal of Human Rights Practice, and the Journal of Disappearance Studies.
My research programme is structured around four interconnected strands. The first extends my core expertise, with two current articles examining political responses to enforced disappearances in divided societies and community‑based truth‑recovery practices. The second one is on environmental justice – conflict nexus. As PI on a British International Studies Association–funded project, I examined environmental risks in the Kurdish region during conflict‑to‑peace transition. This work contributes to emerging debates on ecological harm, resource governance, and environmental violence in protracted conflicts. The third strand investigates the role of social infrastructure in shaping social justice outcomes in the UK and Turkey, with a particular focus on young people.
Previously, I worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Queen’s University Belfast and as a Visiting Scholar at the University of Cambridge, generating research and policy outputs on peace, conflict, and transitional justice. I have taught at Trinity College Dublin and Ulster University across subjects including transitional justice, peace and conflict studies, international law, criminology, and sociology.
I bring extensive fieldwork experience from Colombia, Serbia, Kosovo, Turkey, and Ireland, including research in Istanbul on the legacy of the Turkish–Kurdish peace process and recognition and reparations linked to the Armenian genocide, as well as work on gender dynamics in the Colombian peace process and research with asylum seekers in the UK.
Beyond academia, I have significant policy and civil society experience. I served as a political advisor in the Turkish Parliament, contributing to legislative initiatives on human rights, minority rights, gender, and peacebuilding. I am also the co‑founder and chair of the DEMOS Research Association for Peace, Democracy, and Alternative Politics, where I have led research teams, hosted the DEMOStanSesler podcast, and initiated the Transitional Justice Updates from Turkey series. I continue to work within the DEMOS Research Collective and provide consultancy to international NGOs on justice, peace, and gender.
Membership of professional bodies
Associate Fellow, Higher Education Academy
Qualifications
2022 Ulster University, PhD in Transitional Justice
Imagining Transitional Justice in the Ongoing Kurdish Conflict: A Victim-centred Analysis
2016 University of Kent, MA International Conflict and Security
The Missing Link Between Attempt and Outcome: The EU’s Involvement in Transitional Justice in Kosovo
2007-2013 Bogazici University, BA Political Science and International Relations
International experience
I have lived, studied, and worked in Belgium, Spain, Turkey, and the UK. I have conducted fieldwork in Colombia, Kosovo, Northern Ireland, Serbia, Turkey. Additionally, I have been involved in projects and workshop activities in numerous countries, including Cyprus, Germany, Georgia, Iraq, Mexico, Norway, Sweden, and the USA.
Recent publications
Books
Alici, N. (2025) ‘Transitional Justice and the Kurdish Conflict: A Grassroots Approach’ Routledge Transitional Justice Series
Alıcı, N., Dasli, G. (Eds.) (2019). Toplumsal Cinsiyet ve Barıs, (Gender and Peace) Ankara: Dipnot
Alici, N., Dasli G., Flader, U. (2016). Kadınların Barış Mücadelesinde Dünya Deneyimleri: Sırbistan, Kosova, Sri Lanka ve Suriye (Women’ Struggle for Peace: Serbia, Kosova, Sri Lanka and Syria) Ankara: Demos Research Association.
Journal articles
2025 Alici, N. ‘Transitional justice mobilization of the relatives of the disappeared: the case of the Saturday Mothers’ Journal of Disappearance Studies, https://doi.org/10.1332/30498414Y2025D000000016
Alici, N. & Falschebner, P. (2025) ‘Navigating Non-Transition: Grassroots Victim Mobilization and the Pursuit of Transitional Justice in Turkey and Morocco, Journal of Human Rights Practice
Alici, N. (2024) ‘Learning from the Civil Society Actors in Turkey: Using Transitional Justice in an Ongoing Conflict’ International Journal of Transitional Justice, https://doi.org/10.1093/ijtj/ijae015
Book chapters
Alici, N. (2025) ‘Confronting the Shadows: Transitional Justice and the Armenian Genocide in Turkey, In Dinc, P. & Hunler, O. (eds.) Beyond 100 Years: Republic of Turkey and its Unresolved Issues. Palgrave
Alici, N. (2023) ‘Complexities and Construction of Victimhood in the Kurdish Conflict’ In Sandal EÖ., Acar, YG., Uysal, MS, and Şen E. The Political Psychology of Kurds in Turkey: Critical Perspectives on Identity, Narratives, and Resistance. Palgrave Studies in Political Psychology series
Alici, N. (2022) ‘Imagining Transitional Justice in Turkey’s Ongoing Kurdish Conflict’ In Destrooper, T., Gissel, LE., and Carlson, KB. (eds.) Innovation and Consolidation in Transitional Justice. Learning from Aparadigmatic Contexts. Routledge
Research reports
Curran, L. & Alici, N. (2023) Addressing the Torment of Powerlessness: Bagaraybang bagaraybang mayinygalang (BBM): Empowering & Alleviating: A Health Justice Partnership (HJP) of the Hume Riverina Community Legal Service (HRCLS) & Albury Wodonga Aboriginal Health Service (AWAHS) offering legal support for social & emotional well-being with Aboriginal Peoples in Northeast NSW and Victoria, Nottingham Trent University
Alıcı, N., Bor, G. & Daşlı, G. (2021). From Converging Roads to Narrowing Grounds: The Struggle for Peace by LGBTI+ and Women's Organizations in Turkey, Demos Research Association
Alici, N., Dasli, G., Figueras, J.P. (2018) Peace and Gender: The Colombian Peace Process, Demos Research Association
Blog posts and Policy papers
Alıcı, N. (2023) Confronting the Armenian Genocide in Turkey: A Transitional Justice Approach. Kurdish Peace Institute.
Alıcı, N. (2023) Linking Turkey's Kurdish Conflict to Transitional Justice: Grassroots Pursuit of Truth and Justice. Nottingham Law School Blog.
Alıcı, N. (2022) Blog series: Gendered Aspects of Peace and War in Turkey. Off University.
Alıcı, N. (2021) The Saturday Mothers movement in Turkey: 26-year quest for justice and truth. LSE Women, Peace and Security Blog.
Alıcı, N., Bor, G. & Daşlı, G. (2020). Turkey’s Missing Women Peace Security Agenda and Implications for the COVID-19 Pandemic. LSE Women, Peace and Security Blog.
