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Elif is an interdisciplinary scholar who brings together management, anthropology, and political science to understand the working lives of refugees. Her research focuses on the lives, agency, and life-making practices of refugees and migrants, particularly within contexts shaped by war, forced migration, and precarity in the Global South.
Elif holds a Ph.D. in Management from the University of Bath, an M.A. in Political Science from the University of Toronto, and a B.A. in Political Science and International Relations from Marmara University. Before entering academia, she worked as an NGO professional in Turkey and Afghanistan.
Elif is an ethnographer who explores the lived worlds of refugee women. Through ethnographic research with Syrian refugee women in Turkey, she explores how they survive in precarious conditions following war, trauma, and displacement, and how they rebuild their sense of self by exercising innovative forms of agentic practices. She explores the feelings, senses, voices, silences, values, and ways of reasoning of these women to understand how they re-establish their selves in post-war circumstances.
Elif argues that foregrounding the experiences of refugee women is crucial not only for understanding how war and forced migration reshape millions of lives, but also for revealing how people strive to live with honour and dignity even in seemingly impossible circumstances. Elif contributes to academia and policy by highlighting forms of life that are often overlooked, yet equally important and meaningful as those lived in elsewhere.
Research
Duman-Cogen, E. N. (2025). Agency of silence: Female Syrian refugee workers and the reconstitution of the post-war self. Human Relations, 0(0).
Teaching
Elif has taught undergraduate, master’s, and PhD students over the past three years at the University of Bath and the University of Bristol. She has delivered modules such as Qualitative Research (PhD), Leading and Managing Change (MSc and UG), Introducing Strategic Management (MSc), Research Methods (UG), and People and Organizations (UG). She tutors and mentors first-year PhD students, supporting them in selecting appropriate research methodologies and preparing ethics applications. Making learning fun is a key aspect of her teaching.
Awards
‘Most Thought-Provoking PhD Student Paper’ Award
Presented at the Qualitative Research in Management (QRM) Conference in Albuquerque, USA, for the paper “How Syrian Refugee Domestic Workers Reconstitute Themselves as Ethical Subjects,” 2023
Santander Postgraduate Mobility Award, University of Bath, 2024
University Research Studentship Award (URSA), PhD Studentship, University of Bath, 2020–2023
Full Tuition Fee Award, University of Toronto (MA Studies), 2015–2016
Conferences
Co-organised the launch of the Bath School of Management’s annual series on influential feminist thinkers. At the conference, which explored the work of feminist philosophers including Judith Butler and Jessica Benjamin, Elif presented on the work of Saba Mahmood and how her ideas help advance organisational theory.
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