Dr. Assel Tutumlu is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Near East University and a political scientist whose research examines authoritarian governance, state legitimacy, and political transformation in Central Asia and the broader post-Soviet region. She earned her Ph.D. in Global Affairs from Rutgers University and holds master’s degrees in Politics from The New School for Social Research and in International Affairs from American University.
With more than two decades of international teaching and research experience, Dr. Tutumlu has taught political science and international relations across North America, Europe, and Eurasia, including academic appointments and engagements in the United States, Kazakhstan, Türkiye, Switzerland, and Northern Cyprus. She has taught at undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral levels, supervised more than twenty graduate students, and remains actively committed to mentoring the next generation of scholars through initiatives such as the Usta Mentorship Program for early-career researchers.
Dr. Tutumlu’s scholarship investigates the mechanisms through which authoritarian regimes produce, legitimize, and sustain political authority. Her work contributes to broader debates on authoritarian resilience, state-building, symbolic politics, and political imaginaries, with particular attention to the discursive and disciplinary dimensions of governance. More recently, she has developed a research agenda on the political significance of material and symbolic infrastructure, examining how large-scale public projects, new city developments, and visions of futurity are mobilized by personalistic regimes to construct legitimacy, shape national narratives, and advance political-economic transformation.
Her research has been supported by competitive grants from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Oxus Society, the United States Institute of Peace, the British Academy, and Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (Sweden). Findings from these projects have been published in leading journals in comparative politics and Eurasian studies, including Europe-Asia Studies, Central Asian Survey, Security Journal, Journal of Eurasian Studies, and Problems of Post-Communism. She is currently co-editing a volume on postcolonial intercommunal violence under contract with Routledge.
Beyond her research and teaching, Dr. Tutumlu contributes actively to the scholarly profession through editorial and academic service. She serves on the editorial boards of Central Asian Studies and the Journal of Social Sciences and has held leadership roles within regional and international scholarly networks, including RUTA Association (Ukraine). Her expertise on Central Asian and post-Soviet politics has been featured by major international media outlets, including Al Jazeera, BBC, TRT World, and France 24.
Through her research, teaching, mentorship, and public engagement, Dr. Tutumlu advances interdisciplinary understanding of authoritarianism, regime legitimacy, political imaginaries, and the evolving political landscapes of Eurasia.