Ayse Idil Aybars is a Research Fellow at the Center for European Studies of the Middle East Technical University, Ankara. She was awarded a Ph.D. by the University of Ulster, School of Policy Studies / School of Law in 2007 and her M.Sc. from the London School of Economics and Political Science, European Institute in 2002 with a Jean Monnet Award.
She holds a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Sociology, both awarded by the Middle East Technical University. She was a visiting Ph.D. researcher at the EUI in 2006 and Copenhagen Business School in 2005.
Her research interests include gender equality and gender mainstreaming, EU social law/policy, comparative welfare regime analysis, new modes of governance, employment law, rights-based approaches to development, and EU-Turkey relations. She has been working in EU-funded research and capacity-building projects since 2006.
These projects focused on the promotion of civil society dialogue between the EU and Turkey, comparative research on Europe, social and regional policies in Turkey’s EU accession process, and regional development challenges.
During her fellowship at the EUI, she will concentrate on the development of gender equality law in Turkey under the influence of the EU accession process and the human rights regime of the UN.
Her publications have focused on the Europeanisation of gender equality across welfare regimes, gender equality in employment in the EU, and social and regional policy in Turkey’s EU accession process. She authored/co-authored reports on social dialogue and cohesion in Turkey, development assistance and women’s rights for various international institutions and organizations.