Sonia (she/her) was Project Manager at TEPSA . Sonia coordinated TEPSA’s Nets4Dem – Networks of Networks 4 Democracy project (Horizon Coordination and Support Action). Additionally, she co-managed the supply of external academic expertise to the European Parliament’s Committees and Subcommittees, especially on Foreign Affairs (AFET), matters of human rights (DROI), development (DEVE) and the Southern and Eastern ‘Neighbourhoods’, including the Greater Middle East (AFET).

Sonia developed expertise at the intersection of forced migration, human rights mechanisms and violations, new technologies and the political economy of humanitarian and development assistance in Turkey, the Mashreq, Maghreb and the Gulf. In November 2023, Sonia became a Global Fellow at Brown University’s Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies. Furthermore, for over a year now, she joined JUSTES, a FNRS contact group in Belgium researching social and ecological justice.

Before TEPSA, Sonia strengthened her background through international experience in research institutes (CNRS, Istanbul Policy Center), academia (Yeditepe, Saint-Joseph of Beirut, University College London), think tanks (European Horizons and the Turkish Heritage Organization) and non-governmental organisations. Learning from these spaces, Sonia grew interested in actionable research and strengthening ties between academia and policy-making. She now aims to do so within the scope of the European Union.

Sonia holds three Master’s degrees with a research specialisation: one from the Global Campus of Human Rights with a regional focus on human rights within the ‘Arab world’ (2021) and a Dual MA in the Governance of International Relations from Sciences Po Toulouse and University-Toulouse-1 Capitole (2022). Her master’s theses dealt with the deployment of eye biometrics in humanitarian operations in Jordan and migrants’ grassroots organising in contemporary Turkey.