Burçak Keskin Kozat

Bio

I help build, manage, and grow educational programs in order to foster rigorous operations and vigorous communities that create sustainable social and intellectual impact through learning, teaching, and research.

As Director of Finance & Operations at the Stanford History Department, I oversee the unit's operational, financial, human and infrastructural resources in partnership with department chair, vice chair, faculty directors, committees, and staff. I primarily focus on faculty affairs, people operations, budget planning & forecasting, and relationship management. My work builds on mutually transformative collaboration that strives to achieve equitable futures, global perspectives, psychological safety, and meaningful belonging.

My team at Stanford History includes 6 full-time staff members (including 2 managers), 2 intra-organizational liaisons, and a growing number of project managers. Together we support close to 50 active & 20 emerit University/tenure-line faculty members, 10 lecturers & fellows, 100 graduate students, and 50 undergraduate majors/minors while preserving and stewarding Stanford's History Corner, a vibrant educational hub that has been serving the entire campus community since 1903. Beyond the Department, I contribute to the campus life by serving on School-level committees (such as H&S IT Task Force, Directors' Retreat) and University-level review panels (such as Fulbright Fellowship, James C. Gaither Junior Fellows Program).

Before joining Stanford History, I served as Associate Director in Stanford Global Studies Division, where I helped develop academic programming, communications strategy, and strategic planning for the Center for South Asia, Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies, and the Mediterranean Studies Forum. I also worked as Associate Director of Stanford University Corporate & Foundation Relations, where I helped develop and implement a foundation relations plan across the university and engaged primary investigators, university staff and external partners. At the University of Michigan, I taught undergraduate courses in sociology, worked on comparative research projects, and served on committees about interdisciplinary, international programming.

Trained as a political and historical sociologist, I am interested in how power inequalities within and between communities shape, and are shaped by, the processes of identity formation and institution-building. My M.A. thesis at the University of Chicago explored how Turkey’s nationalist, Islamist and feminist activists interacted with each other through the binarism of secular modernity and religious traditionalism, and thereby failed to challenge the predominant forms of discrimination within and beyond their particular communities. My doctoral dissertation at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor focused on the limits of power and resistance, exploring the asymmetric negotiations and economic modernization efforts during the Marshall Plan in Turkey (1947-52). Some of my research on religion, nationalism, modernization, and gender appeared in academic journals and books.

I am an avid fan of Stanford Women's Basketball Team, a little free library steward, and an aspiring gardener. I enjoy reading about global affairs, information technology, organizational theory, neuroscience, photography, and street art.

Current Role at Stanford

Director of Finance & Operations

Honors & Awards

• Amy J. Blue Award Nomination (short-listed), Stanford University (2022, 2023)

Education & Certifications

• Manager Academy, Stanford University (2014)
• PhD, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Sociology (2006)
• MA, University of Chicago, Social Sciences (1999)
• BA, Bilkent University (Ankara, Turkey), Political Science & Public Administration (1998)

Service, Volunteer and Community Work

• Pre-major Advisor, Stanford University Vice Provost of Undergraduate Studies

  Location

  Stanford, CA

• Cardinal Service Connector, Stanford University Haas Center for Public Service

  Location

  Stanford, CA

• Fulbright Fellowship Campus Reviewer, Stanford University Bechtel International Center Overseas Resource Center

  Location

  Stanford, CA

• Mentor for Ph.D.s in the Humanities, Stanford Humanities Center

  Location

  Stanford, CA

• Academic Manuscript Reviewer

  Interdisciplinary and social scientific journals such as Sociological Quarterly, Gender & Society, Theory, Society and Culture; Radical History Review, Women's History Review, English Historical Review, and Kadin/Woman 2000.

  Location

  United States/ Europe/ Turkey

• Steward, Little Library

  Location

  California

Professional Interests

Humanities & Social Sciences, Global Higher Education Administration, Program Management, Modernity/Modernization, Nationalism, Religion, Gender, Cold War, Europe, Middle East

Work Experience

• Interim Associate Director, Center for South Asia, Stanford University (9/3/2018 - 6/3/2019)

  Location

  Stanford

• Associate Director of University Corporate and Foundation Relations, Stanford University (May 1, 2017 - 5/31/2018)

  Location

  Stanford

• Associate Director, Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies & Mediterranean Studies Forum, Stanford University (10/1/2008 - 4/30/2017)

  Location

  Stanford, CA

• Instructor & Graduate Student Instructor, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (1/1/2000 - 5/30/2006)

  Location

  Ann Arbor, Michigan