Onur Bakiner, PhD

Biography

Onur Bakiner is associate professor of political science at Seattle University.  His research and teaching interests include transitional justice, human rights, judicial politics, and technology & society, particularly in Latin America and the Middle East. His current research addresses the impact of artificial intelligence technologies on human rights. His book Truth Commissions: Memory, Power, and Legitimacy (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015) has been awarded the Best Book Award by the Human Rights Section of the American Political Science Association in 2017. His articles have been published in the Journal of Comparative Politics, Annual Review of Law & Social Science, AI & Ethics, Negotiation Journal, Civil Wars, Journal of Law and Courts, International Journal of Transitional Justice, Memory Studies, and Turkish Studies. He has received funding from the German Academic Exchange Service, Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Center for Business Ethics at Seattle University, and the Initiative in Ethics and Transformative Technologies at Seattle University in the recent past.

Teaching and Research Interests 

Transitional justice; human rights; judicial politics; civil war and conflict resolution; technology & society; Middle Eastern politics; Latin American politics.

Selected Publications

2022: “What do Academics Say about Artificial Intelligence Ethics? An Overview of the Scholarship,” AI and Ethics (forthcoming)

2021: Truth Commission Impact on Policy, Courts, and Society, Annual Review of Law & Social Science 17: 73-91

2020:   “Endogenous Sources of Judicial Power: Parapolitics and the Supreme Court of Colombia,” Journal of Comparative Politics 52(4): 603-624

2019:  “Why do Peace Negotiations Succeed or Fail? Legal Commitment, Transparency and Inclusion during Peace Negotiations in Colombia (2012-2016) and Turkey (2012- 2015),” Negotiation Journal 35(4): 471-513

2019:  “Casualties and Support for Violent Conflict in Civil Wars,” Civil Wars 20(4): 555-586 (co-authored with Şule Yaylacı)

2018: “A Key to Turkish Politics? The Center-Periphery Framework Revisited,” Turkish Studies 19(4): 503-522

2016: “Judges Discover Politics: Sources of Judges’ Off-bench Mobilization in Turkey,” Journal of Law and Courts 4(1): 131-157

2015: “One Truth Among Others? Truth Commissions’ Struggle for Truth and Memory,” Memory Studies 8(3): 345-360

2014:   “Truth Commission Impact: an Assessment of How Commissions Influence Politics and Society,” International Journal of Transitional Justice 8(1): 6-30

2013:  “Is Turkey Coming to Terms with its Past? Politics of Memory and Majoritarian Conservatism,” Nationalities Papers: The Journal of Nationalism and Ethnicity 41(5): 691-708

2010:  “From Denial to Reluctant Dialogue: the Chilean Military’s Confrontation with Human Rights (1990-2006),” International Journal of Transitional Justice 4(1): 47-66