Nazli Azergun
Pre-Field Graduate Student, Graduate Student Representative
MA in Global Studies, University of California Santa Barbara, 2019
BA in Political Science and International Relations, Bogazici University, 2016
Specialties
Economic systems and corporations; social studies of finance and financialization
Economics and politics of sustainability; sustainable/responsible investing; ESG integration
Community design and thinking; alternative subjectivities and communities
Value extraction and creation; commons
Indigeneity and market participation; art markets and Indigenous art
Affect theory and sociology of emotions
Regional specialization: North America, Northern Europe, Turkey and the Middle East
I am a PhD student in Sociocultural Anthropology. My dissertation project investigates Environmental-Social-Governance investing, a recent financial trend aiming to allocate credit on the basis of environmental and social impact, in addition to financial prospects. Within the ESG sector, I am particularly interested in:
1) taxonomy creation which operates as a way of translating environmental and social risks into financially commensurable investment inputs,
2) how financial professionals reconcile in their work the two rather divergent objectives of short-term profit maximization and caring for long-term environmental and social impact.
Prior to my doctoral studies at the University of Virginia, I have completed an MA degree in Global Studies at the University of California Santa Barbara on a Fulbright grant. My MA thesis, which was based on short-term ethnographic research in an income-sharing community, investigates the market participation practices and resource allocation mechanims of this community. An article based on my MA thesis, where I use Nobel laureate Elinor Ostrom's commons framework to explain the workings of this egalitarian community, has recently appeared in Economic Affairs journal.
During my undergraduate years, I have conducted research on the economic participation patterns of informal waste collectors in Istanbul, Turkey and on the politicization of public spaces in Turkey by a Swing/Lindy Hop community.
Selected Publications
Peer-reviewed articles
Resource allocation at an income‐sharing community: An application of Elinor Ostrom's
commons framework, Economic Affairs 40.3 (2020): 367-384.
For public audiences
Interview with Jessa Lingel, author of "An Internet for the People: The Politics and Promise of
Craigslist" (2020), CaMP Anthropology Blog (February 2021)