Bio


Irmak Yazici is a Lecturer and Fellow in the Civic, Liberal, Global Education (COLLEGE) Program at Stanford University. Irmak is a political scientist by training and her research broadly focuses on secularism and religion in global and comparative politics. She's particularly interested in how secular law and policies regulate the public sphere in democracies and the cases in which such regulation can foster religious nationalist ideologies. Irmak is currently working on a book project that details this complex overlap between secularism, democracy, and religious nationalism.

Prior to her appointment at Stanford, Irmak was a Lecturer in the Department of Political Science at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. She designed and taught a broad range of courses, including courses on religion and constitutional law in the United States, the politics of the media, environmental law and politics, American politics, global/comparative politics, and political inquiry/analysis.

Irmak is a Fulbright alumna (2012–2014) and her research received funding from the American Political Science Association (APSA), International Studies Association (ISA), and Spark M. Matsunaga Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution.

Academic Appointments


  • Lecturer, Stanford Introductory Studies - Civic, Liberal, and Global Education

Professional Education


  • PhD, MA, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Political Science
  • MS, Middle East Technical University, Asian Studies
  • MA, BA, Middle East Technical University, Philosophy

Research Interests


  • Philosophy
  • Religion

2023-24 Courses