PhD Student
Elif has a B.S. in Economics from Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey, and a M.A. in Cultural Studies from Sabancı University in Istanbul, Turkey. Broadly, her research and teaching interests include economic sociology, cultural sociology and sociology of work and organizations. Currently, Elif is conducting a dissertation research on YouTubers and the market of content creation in Turkey. Her research aims to explore how content creators on YouTube navigate between the demands of multiple audiences such as their followers and brands and how third-party organizations like talent managers, MCNs, influencer marketing professionals play a role in this process.In her previous research, Elif analyzed how organizational practices and relationships affect the perception of work by focusing on the experiences of graduate students in the United States and Turkey. Also, her M.A. thesis was about the economic and political precarity of academic labor in Turkey with a particular focus on the experiences of professors and graduate student assistants in the social sciences.