Biography

Before joining the European University Institute as a Max Weber Fellow, Ayça Çubukçu was a Postdoctoral Scholar with the Committee on Global Thought at Columbia University (2007-2009), where she taught a course titled “The Law of Violence”.
Ayça Çubukçu obtained a Ph.D. with Distinction from Columbia University, Department of Anthropology, and received her M.Phil. and M.A. degrees from the same institution. She holds a B.A. in Government with Distinction in All Subjects from Cornell University.
Ayça Çubukçu’s research interests include the history and critique of international law (in particular the jurisprudence of war), human rights, cosmopolitanism, secularism, and global social movements.
In reference to the 2003 occupation of Iraq, Ayça Çubukçu’s book manuscript, “Humanity Must Be Defended”?, explores possible vectors of divergence and convergence between "imperial" mobilizations of international law, ideas of humanity and human rights on the one hand, and "anti-imperial" ones on the other. In this context, engaging with the theory and practice of competing cosmopolitanisms, it locates conflicting political tendencies within various traditions in political praxis, philosophy, and international law.