Maya Saygin

Since April 2024, I have been working on a PhD project at the Chair of European Integration and Policy, University of Duisburg-Essen, focusing on the views of German and Turkish political parties and party groups in the EU Parliament regarding Turkey’s differentiated integration into the EU.

Before starting my Ph.D., I graduated in 2020 from Anadolu University in Eskişehir, Turkey, with a degree in law and a minor in journalism. Following a legal internship in 2021, I pursued a master’s degree in European and International Relations at the Turkish-German University in Istanbul, Turkey. My master’s thesis, completed during my second year at the University of Cologne, analyzed the perspectives of Turkish opposition parties on Turkey’s EU integration, under the guidance of Prof. Wolfgang Wessels and Prof. Michael Kaeding. Concurrently, I served as a research assistant at the Center for Turkey and European Union Studies at the University of Cologne.

My research interests span EU politics, integration, and constitutional reforms as well as Turkish-German-EU relations. Beyond academia, I produce a podcast that uses satire to discuss Turkish politics, with the specific aim of establishing Turkey’s first liberal pirate party. I also write columns for Turkish news outlets and cover German politics on X for Turkish-speaking audience.