PEOPLE
Principal Investigator and Lab Director:
Nihan Albayrak, PhD
Bio: Dr Nihan Albayrak is an Assistant Professor of Social Psychology at Boğaziçi University, a Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), and the director of the Social Change and Justice Lab. She holds a PhD in Social Psychology from LSE, alongside master’s degrees in Applied Social Psychology from Royal Holloway, University of London and Neuroscience from King’s College London. Her research operates at the intersection of intergroup relations, meta-science, and social inequalities. She investigates how power and privilege dynamics, teaching practices, and research methodologies shape scientific knowledge production and the lived experiences of scholars from marginalised communities. Alongside her large-scale collaborative work on open science and replicability, her research also explores prosocial behaviour, global emergencies, and migration. Beyond her empirical work, she actively leads mentoring initiatives and policy-oriented discussions to drive structural change in higher education.
Research Interests: Global emergencies, helping, intergroup relations, meta-science, social identity
Email: nihan.albayrak@bogazici.edu.tr
Lab Coordinators:
Ayşe Nur Kepil Bilici, MA
Bio: Ayşe Nur Kepil Bilici is a PhD student in Psychological Sciences at Boğaziçi University and serves as a coordinator at the Social Change and Justice Lab. She completed her MA in Psychology at İstanbul 29 Mayıs University, specialising in social psychology with a thesis on the construction and performance of Turkish national identity through internet memes. She holds a BA in Guidance and Psychological Counselling from Boğaziçi University. Alongside her academic research, she has been actively involved in various civic and non-governmental organisations.
Research Interests: Decoloniality, media, memetics, political psychology, social identity
Email: aysenur.kepil@std.bogazici.edu.tr
Hanife Ak, MA
Bio: Hanife Ak is a PhD student in the Department of Psychology at Koç University and serves as a coordinator at the Social Change and Justice Lab. She holds an MA in Developmental Psychology from Koç University, where her thesis focused on adolescent agency and wellbeing in low-resource contexts, and a BA in Sociology from Boğaziçi University. Her early research background includes working at the Boğaziçi University Baby and Child Development Laboratory and the Koç University Independent Evaluation Laboratory.
Research Interests: Child wellbeing, disadvantaged children, intergroup communication, social cohesion, social development
Email: hak23@ku.edu.tr
Postgraduate Students:
Feyza Elif Önder, MA
Feyza Elif Önder is a PhD student in Psychological Sciences at Boğaziçi University. She holds an MA in Clinical Psychology from İstanbul Medipol University and a BA in Psychology from Boğaziçi University. Her research interests centre on maternal identity, interpersonal relations, organisational justice, social identity, and social roles.
Email: feyzaelif.onder@std.bogazici.edu.tr
Elif Arife Kaan, BA
Elif Arife Kaan is an MA student in Psychological Sciences at Boğaziçi University. She completed her BA in Psychology at İstanbul Medipol University in 2024. Her research interests include intergroup relations, migration, multiculturalism, social cognition, and social justice.
Email: elifarife.kaan@std.bogazici.edu.tr
Mehmet Kerem Okutan, BA
Mehmet Kerem Okutan is an MA student in Psychological Sciences at Boğaziçi University, where he also earned his BA in Psychology in 2026. His research interests include belief systems, fanaticism, group dynamics, intergroup attitudes, and social identity.
Email: mehmet.okutan@std.bogazici.edu.tr
Rumeysa Hakyemez Apuhan, BA
Rumeysa Hakyemez Apuhan is an MA student in Psychological Sciences at Boğaziçi University, where she also earned her BA in Psychology in 2026. Her research interests include collective trauma, cultural psychology, framing and discourse, political psychology, and social justice.