Reyhan Topal, Ph.D.

Welcome to my website!

I am a researcher specializing in technology, political violence, security, authoritarianism, and civil resistance. Since 2023, I have been serving as a research manager at the Center for Policy Research at Albany, where I oversee a Department of Homeland Security-funded project focused on violent extremism in the United States. I am also an Information Controls Fellow with the Open Technology Fund, which supports my project on China’s digital transnational repression efforts targeting the Uyghur diaspora. Alongside my research, I teach Violent Political Conflict, Information Technology and World Politics, and Research Seminar in Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security, and Cybersecurity courses at Albany.

I earned my Ph.D. in Political Science at the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy at the University at Albany, State University of New York (SUNY), where I specialized in International Relations and Comparative Politics. In my dissertation, I investigate how new technologies are transforming state repression and contentious politics. Utilizing a combination of qualitative, quantitative, and computational research methods, I examine the implications of AI-powered surveillance of Uyghurs, the use of online platforms to resist state repression, and the impact of emerging technologies on the nature of collective action. Through my research, I offer new insights into the changing nature of violence, security, and authoritarianism. Prior to my arrival at Albany, I earned my bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Bilkent University with a merit-based scholarship. I also obtained a master’s degree in International Relations from the Middle East Technical University with my thesis, “Turkey’s Mediation Initiatives between 2002 and 2015: A Discourse and Content Analysis.”

Previously, I was a Dissertation Scholar affiliated with Princeton University’s Bobst Center for Peace and Justice, which funded my dissertation research. As a Next Generation Fellow at Women in International Security during the 2021-2022 academic year, I conducted research on the gender gap in technology and security studies and proposed solutions to make these fields more inclusive and diverse. In 2019, I earned a place at the University of California, Berkeley’s Program in Science and Technology Studies as a visiting researcher to observe the circulation of radical ideologies within and across violent online subcultures.

With over 10 years of experience, I have worked as both an academic researcher and a practitioner at international governmental and nongovernmental organizations, including NATO, the European Union, and the UN Refugee Council, as well as academic institutions. Most recently, I served as a data governance consultant for the “Unfreedom Monitor” project at Global Voices, a global community of human rights activists and journalists. Through this initiative, we collected and analyzed evidence of the use of digital technologies for oppressive purposes.

Please take a tour of my website to learn more about my research.