Sinem Cengiz

Background

About Sinem Cengiz

Dr. Sinem Cengiz is a researcher at Gulf Studies Center of Qatar University, where she specializes on the foreign policies of GCC states, socio-political transformations across the Gulf, and Turkey-GCC relations. She is a non-resident fellow at the Washington-based Gulf International Forum (GIF). She actively contributes to the Forum through panel moderations on Gulf affairs, with a particular focus on Turkey-GCC relations, as well as through publications exploring society and culture within the GCC. She is also member at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR)’s Women of the Middle East Network for Peacebuilding (WOMENP). Dr. Cengiz is widely known through her weekly columns published in Saudi Arabia’s largest English language daily, Arab News, since 2016, where she writes on Turkey’s foreign policy. She has extensively contributed to several outlets, such as Arab Gulf States Institute, Amwaj.media, Afkar, LSE Blogs, Gulf State Analytics, Politics Today, Sharq Forum, Peninsula Qatar & Independent Turkish. She has directed and moderated several workshops on the Gulf affairs. She holds a Ph.D. in Area Studies from Middle East Technical University. She is the author of two books: “Turkish-Saudi Relations: Cooperation and Competition in the Middle East” published by Gerlach Press in 2020, and “The Making of Contemporary Kuwait: Identity, Politics, and Its Survival Strategy” published by Routledge in 2024. She is working on two forthcoming book projects: a monograph on Turkey-GCC relations, and an edited volume on Gulf geopolitics. Her scholarly output spans dozens of book chapters (both English & Turkish) and journal articles covering topics on the GCC states. In addition to her academic track, she holds experience in journalism. Between 2012-2014, she worked as a diplomatic correspondent interviewing foreign presidents, ministers & ambassadors. Between 2014-2015, she contributed to Al Arabiya as a weekly columnist. In 2018, she joined Kuwait University with a year-long state-funded scholarship. Before joining Kuwait University, she worked at the Embassy of State of Kuwait in Ankara between 2015-2018, where she carried out several projects related to press and cultural affairs. Dr. Cengiz took part in projects carried out by European Union (EU), and took a variety of internships in several institutions, including United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Protocol Department of Foreign Affairs of Turkish Parliament, and think-tanks. She is also a member for Women in Foreign Policy (DPK) Initiative.