Uygar Baspehlivan
@ubaspehlivan.bsky.social
Postdoctoral Research Associate @ Queen Mary University London. Studying memes, digital politics, critical theory, and subjectivity.
Pinned
Theorising the memescape: The spatial politics of Internet memes | Review of International Studies | Cambridge Core
Theorising the memescape: The spatial politics of Internet memes - Volume 50 Issue 1
www.cambridge.org
Just going to slowly introduce some of my research to BlueSky.
I'm a critical theorist interested in political possibilities of new media, particularly memes. My first journal article was a theoretical framework for the political study of internet memes.
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
I'm a critical theorist interested in political possibilities of new media, particularly memes. My first journal article was a theoretical framework for the political study of internet memes.
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Reposted by Uygar Baspehlivan
🔉We have kicked off todays event with our new Working Group @cawpbisa.bsky.social!
🎊Todays event gives an opportunity to learn the aims of the group as well as introduction to the convener team @nataliejester.bsky.social @ubaspehlivan.bsky.social @chenchenzhang.net and Leah de Haan.
🎊Todays event gives an opportunity to learn the aims of the group as well as introduction to the convener team @nataliejester.bsky.social @ubaspehlivan.bsky.social @chenchenzhang.net and Leah de Haan.
November 6, 2025 at 2:43 PM
🔉We have kicked off todays event with our new Working Group @cawpbisa.bsky.social!
🎊Todays event gives an opportunity to learn the aims of the group as well as introduction to the convener team @nataliejester.bsky.social @ubaspehlivan.bsky.social @chenchenzhang.net and Leah de Haan.
🎊Todays event gives an opportunity to learn the aims of the group as well as introduction to the convener team @nataliejester.bsky.social @ubaspehlivan.bsky.social @chenchenzhang.net and Leah de Haan.
Reposted by Uygar Baspehlivan
New BISA WG! 🎉
Critical Alternatives for World Politics - fostering a welcoming space for experimental, creative & non-mainstream research and researchers at the margins of International Studies - join today! 🌟
Info here 👉 buff.ly/1Pxr7Bz
@nataliejester.bsky.social @ubaspehlivan.bsky.social
Critical Alternatives for World Politics - fostering a welcoming space for experimental, creative & non-mainstream research and researchers at the margins of International Studies - join today! 🌟
Info here 👉 buff.ly/1Pxr7Bz
@nataliejester.bsky.social @ubaspehlivan.bsky.social
About Critical Alternatives for World Politics (CAWP)
The Critical Alternatives for World Politics (CAWP) Working Group aims to foster a welcoming space for experimental, creative, and non-mainstream research and researchers at the margins of…
buff.ly
August 29, 2025 at 2:01 PM
New BISA WG! 🎉
Critical Alternatives for World Politics - fostering a welcoming space for experimental, creative & non-mainstream research and researchers at the margins of International Studies - join today! 🌟
Info here 👉 buff.ly/1Pxr7Bz
@nataliejester.bsky.social @ubaspehlivan.bsky.social
Critical Alternatives for World Politics - fostering a welcoming space for experimental, creative & non-mainstream research and researchers at the margins of International Studies - join today! 🌟
Info here 👉 buff.ly/1Pxr7Bz
@nataliejester.bsky.social @ubaspehlivan.bsky.social
🖖Hi people! We are launching our new BISA working group, Critical Alternatives for World Politics! We have been working on this for a while now :) It will be a great space to experiment with and create new methods and approaches to IR. Please make sure to follow and join us :)🥰
🎆We are incredibly excited to launch
BISA's new working group: Critical Alternatives for World Politics (CAWP)! CAWP aims to foster a collegiate space for creative, experimental, and non-mainstream research in IR 🎉Follow us on here and join us at:
www.bisa.ac.uk/members/work...
BISA's new working group: Critical Alternatives for World Politics (CAWP)! CAWP aims to foster a collegiate space for creative, experimental, and non-mainstream research in IR 🎉Follow us on here and join us at:
www.bisa.ac.uk/members/work...
August 26, 2025 at 1:57 PM
🖖Hi people! We are launching our new BISA working group, Critical Alternatives for World Politics! We have been working on this for a while now :) It will be a great space to experiment with and create new methods and approaches to IR. Please make sure to follow and join us :)🥰
Reposted by Uygar Baspehlivan
Drawing on surrealism & anti-colonial thought, Sara Wong’s new open-access article in @risjnl.bsky.social offers an interesting engagement with aesthetic politics. She argues for shift from representation to “what aesthetics do or could do.” www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
August 20, 2025 at 5:25 AM
Drawing on surrealism & anti-colonial thought, Sara Wong’s new open-access article in @risjnl.bsky.social offers an interesting engagement with aesthetic politics. She argues for shift from representation to “what aesthetics do or could do.” www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Reposted by Uygar Baspehlivan
I got interviewed about my PhD thesis on the relationship between neoliberal social media and the normalisation of far-right fantasies by @reacpolrn.bsky.social the Reactionary Politics Research Network. Many thanks to @aurelmondon.bsky.social for conducting the interview!
📣New interview📣
@paskokisic.bsky.social discusses how psychoanalytic theory can help us understand the contemporary far right and its normalisation. Check it out below!
reacpol.net/psychoanalyt...
@paskokisic.bsky.social discusses how psychoanalytic theory can help us understand the contemporary far right and its normalisation. Check it out below!
reacpol.net/psychoanalyt...
Interview: Psychoanalytic theory, critical fantasy studies and the normalisation of the far right (Pasko Kisić-Merino) - Reactionary Politics Research Network
This interview is based on Pasko Kisić-Merino's thesis 'Enjoying the Fall: The Normalisation of the Far-Right as an Algorithmically-Mediated Fantasy of Ontological (In)Security' (2025)
reacpol.net
August 7, 2025 at 11:27 AM
I got interviewed about my PhD thesis on the relationship between neoliberal social media and the normalisation of far-right fantasies by @reacpolrn.bsky.social the Reactionary Politics Research Network. Many thanks to @aurelmondon.bsky.social for conducting the interview!
Reposted by Uygar Baspehlivan
🏆 We are pleased to announce @alvinahoffmann.bsky.social as the author of the Best Article in the European Journal of International Relations. Congratulations!
👏 Honorable mention to Alexander Cooley, John Heathershaw, Ricardo Soares De Oliveira
🔗 buff.ly/hqpQJSz
👏 Honorable mention to Alexander Cooley, John Heathershaw, Ricardo Soares De Oliveira
🔗 buff.ly/hqpQJSz
August 6, 2025 at 6:00 AM
🏆 We are pleased to announce @alvinahoffmann.bsky.social as the author of the Best Article in the European Journal of International Relations. Congratulations!
👏 Honorable mention to Alexander Cooley, John Heathershaw, Ricardo Soares De Oliveira
🔗 buff.ly/hqpQJSz
👏 Honorable mention to Alexander Cooley, John Heathershaw, Ricardo Soares De Oliveira
🔗 buff.ly/hqpQJSz
Check out my dear and awesome friend Charlie's new piece on the silly/serious politics of digital reaction! 👇👇
Do you like ketchup? Not only are you wrong, but you may be a fascist. Not really, but in my 🍅New Publication🍅 "Ketchup Is the Whitest Sauce", in International Political Sociology, I argue that memes about ketchup showcase Neo-Nazi solidarity.
academic.oup.com/ips/article/...
academic.oup.com/ips/article/...
Ketchup Is the Whitest Sauce: Memes as Silly/Serious Bordered Spaces in International Relations
Abstract. This paper draws on previous scholarship on humor, memes, and seriousness in International Relations to produce a novel means for understanding o
academic.oup.com
July 29, 2025 at 9:29 AM
Check out my dear and awesome friend Charlie's new piece on the silly/serious politics of digital reaction! 👇👇
Reposted by Uygar Baspehlivan
🎉 Best Article in the @risjnl.bsky.social winner this year was @ubaspehlivan.bsky.social
for: 'Theorising the memescape: The spatial politics of Internet memes' with judges finding the 'theoretical approach original & highly relevant' 🌟
Summary - buff.ly/Rvd09Wk
DOI -
for: 'Theorising the memescape: The spatial politics of Internet memes' with judges finding the 'theoretical approach original & highly relevant' 🌟
Summary - buff.ly/Rvd09Wk
DOI -
July 18, 2025 at 3:06 PM
🎉 Best Article in the @risjnl.bsky.social winner this year was @ubaspehlivan.bsky.social
for: 'Theorising the memescape: The spatial politics of Internet memes' with judges finding the 'theoretical approach original & highly relevant' 🌟
Summary - buff.ly/Rvd09Wk
DOI -
for: 'Theorising the memescape: The spatial politics of Internet memes' with judges finding the 'theoretical approach original & highly relevant' 🌟
Summary - buff.ly/Rvd09Wk
DOI -
Reposted by Uygar Baspehlivan
Have you read the 2024 winner of the RIS Best Article Prize? Uygar Baspehlivan's article "Theorising the memescape: The spatial politics of Internet memes" is #OpenAccess, and a must read for anyone interested in visual IR!
👉 buff.ly/fZmc0Ch
👉 buff.ly/fZmc0Ch
July 15, 2025 at 11:03 AM
Have you read the 2024 winner of the RIS Best Article Prize? Uygar Baspehlivan's article "Theorising the memescape: The spatial politics of Internet memes" is #OpenAccess, and a must read for anyone interested in visual IR!
👉 buff.ly/fZmc0Ch
👉 buff.ly/fZmc0Ch
Reposted by Uygar Baspehlivan
🚨 Launch of the first MA in International Political Sociology at @qmpoliticsir.bsky.social, starting September 2025. Applications are now open for 2025-26. The programme adopts a problem-driven approach, bridging disciplines to address complex challenges in World Politics. More information here:
International Political Sociology - Queen Mary University of London
Explore the intersection of politics, sociology, and global issues with the MA in International Political Sociology at Queen Mary University of London. Study power, inequality, and global transformati...
www.qmul.ac.uk
July 9, 2025 at 5:57 PM
🚨 Launch of the first MA in International Political Sociology at @qmpoliticsir.bsky.social, starting September 2025. Applications are now open for 2025-26. The programme adopts a problem-driven approach, bridging disciplines to address complex challenges in World Politics. More information here:
Reposted by Uygar Baspehlivan
Our 11th joint winners were Anne-Marie Houde and Ugyar Baspehhlivan of the Emotions Working Group Prize – best PhD thesis in Emotions and Politics and IR 🎉
#BISA2025
#BISA2025
June 20, 2025 at 8:14 AM
Our 11th joint winners were Anne-Marie Houde and Ugyar Baspehhlivan of the Emotions Working Group Prize – best PhD thesis in Emotions and Politics and IR 🎉
#BISA2025
#BISA2025
Reposted by Uygar Baspehlivan
Our fourth winner was Uygar Baspehlivan🎉
Uygar Baspehlivan won the Review of International Studies: Best Article Prize for his article 'Theorizing the memescape: the spatial politics of internet memes' 📝
#BISA2025
Uygar Baspehlivan won the Review of International Studies: Best Article Prize for his article 'Theorizing the memescape: the spatial politics of internet memes' 📝
#BISA2025
June 20, 2025 at 8:06 AM
Our fourth winner was Uygar Baspehlivan🎉
Uygar Baspehlivan won the Review of International Studies: Best Article Prize for his article 'Theorizing the memescape: the spatial politics of internet memes' 📝
#BISA2025
Uygar Baspehlivan won the Review of International Studies: Best Article Prize for his article 'Theorizing the memescape: the spatial politics of internet memes' 📝
#BISA2025
🏆🏆Absolute pleasure to be awarded the:
-RIS Best Article Prize for "Theorising the Memescape: The Spatial Politics of Internet Memes
-Honourable Mention for BISA Michael Nicholson Best Thesis Prize @MYBISA
-BISA Emotions in Politics and IR Working Group Best Thesis Prize
-RIS Best Article Prize for "Theorising the Memescape: The Spatial Politics of Internet Memes
-Honourable Mention for BISA Michael Nicholson Best Thesis Prize @MYBISA
-BISA Emotions in Politics and IR Working Group Best Thesis Prize
June 19, 2025 at 4:27 PM
🏆🏆Absolute pleasure to be awarded the:
-RIS Best Article Prize for "Theorising the Memescape: The Spatial Politics of Internet Memes
-Honourable Mention for BISA Michael Nicholson Best Thesis Prize @MYBISA
-BISA Emotions in Politics and IR Working Group Best Thesis Prize
-RIS Best Article Prize for "Theorising the Memescape: The Spatial Politics of Internet Memes
-Honourable Mention for BISA Michael Nicholson Best Thesis Prize @MYBISA
-BISA Emotions in Politics and IR Working Group Best Thesis Prize
Reposted by Uygar Baspehlivan
I enjoyed this talk by @robtoes.bsky.social on the rhetoric of reactionary digital politics. I liked the idea of 'ambient extremism.' I think it's very useful to understand how reactionary rhetoric leaks into our daily conversations by blurring boundaries. I also liked+
www.spui25.nl/programma/am...
www.spui25.nl/programma/am...
Ambient Extremism in Reactionary Digital Politics
In this second talk of ACES’s “Diagonalism” series, Robert Topinka engages with the idea of “ambient extremism.” This type of contemporary digital reactionary politics entails a dissolution of distinc...
www.spui25.nl
June 18, 2025 at 7:45 AM
I enjoyed this talk by @robtoes.bsky.social on the rhetoric of reactionary digital politics. I liked the idea of 'ambient extremism.' I think it's very useful to understand how reactionary rhetoric leaks into our daily conversations by blurring boundaries. I also liked+
www.spui25.nl/programma/am...
www.spui25.nl/programma/am...
Reposted by Uygar Baspehlivan
📣Applications for the second Reactionary Politics Summer School are open📣
The summer school provides a space to develop key skills for the research of reactionary politics. It will be hosted hybrid and attendance is free. Bursaries are also available. Sign up below!
reacpol.net/summer-schoo...
The summer school provides a space to develop key skills for the research of reactionary politics. It will be hosted hybrid and attendance is free. Bursaries are also available. Sign up below!
reacpol.net/summer-schoo...
Summer School - Reactionary Politics Research Network
reacpol.net
June 4, 2025 at 1:29 PM
📣Applications for the second Reactionary Politics Summer School are open📣
The summer school provides a space to develop key skills for the research of reactionary politics. It will be hosted hybrid and attendance is free. Bursaries are also available. Sign up below!
reacpol.net/summer-schoo...
The summer school provides a space to develop key skills for the research of reactionary politics. It will be hosted hybrid and attendance is free. Bursaries are also available. Sign up below!
reacpol.net/summer-schoo...
Reposted by Uygar Baspehlivan
My review of The Technological Republic by Palantir CEO Alex Karp and exec Nicholas Zamiska is out. They call for Silicon Valley to re-align with the Pentagon, where democracy is obsolete, engineers shift from apps to weapons, and code becomes law. Tech is no longer just for profit. It’s for war.
As part of PERC's Silicon Valley Ideology series, @alirizataskale.bsky.social reviews The Technological Republic, by Palantir's CEO Alex Karp and Nicholas Zamiska. The books is an unapologetic blueprint for a militarised tech oligarchy that threatens democracy and needs to be resisted.
Palantir’s Technological Republic: The Militarised Tech Oligarchy is Here - Political Economy Research Centre
In his farewell address this January, then US President Joe Biden delivered a striking warning: a “tech oligarchy”, he said, now threatens American democracy. Echoing Eisenhower’s warning about the mi...
www.goldperc.uk
May 30, 2025 at 10:31 AM
My review of The Technological Republic by Palantir CEO Alex Karp and exec Nicholas Zamiska is out. They call for Silicon Valley to re-align with the Pentagon, where democracy is obsolete, engineers shift from apps to weapons, and code becomes law. Tech is no longer just for profit. It’s for war.
Incredibly honoured to have received BISA Emotions in Politics Working Group's Best Thesis Prize! And to share it with the lovely @annemhoude.bsky.social! Double the honour 😊😊
🎉 We’re thrilled to announce the winners of the 2025 EPIR Thesis Prize!
🏆 Winners: Anne-Marie Houde & Uygar Baspehlivan
🎖 Honourable Mention: Shambhawi Tripathi
Their theses impressed our judges with originality, critical insight, and innovative methods. Congratulations to all! 👏
🏆 Winners: Anne-Marie Houde & Uygar Baspehlivan
🎖 Honourable Mention: Shambhawi Tripathi
Their theses impressed our judges with originality, critical insight, and innovative methods. Congratulations to all! 👏
June 4, 2025 at 9:00 AM
Incredibly honoured to have received BISA Emotions in Politics Working Group's Best Thesis Prize! And to share it with the lovely @annemhoude.bsky.social! Double the honour 😊😊
Reposted by Uygar Baspehlivan
A whole new issue!
Check out Volume 51, Issue 2 on our website now! All articles are free to read until the end of the month 🥳
Check out Volume 51, Issue 2 on our website now! All articles are free to read until the end of the month 🥳
May 26, 2025 at 11:11 AM
A whole new issue!
Check out Volume 51, Issue 2 on our website now! All articles are free to read until the end of the month 🥳
Check out Volume 51, Issue 2 on our website now! All articles are free to read until the end of the month 🥳
Reposted by Uygar Baspehlivan
Following the outcome of the recent regional elections and in response to the rising tide of fascism in the region (and beyond), we've sent a letter to the VC asking Durham University to publicly commit to the safety and wellbeing of its international/migrant staff and students. Excerpts below:
A letter we've sent to our Vice Chancellor, and other members of senior management, insisting they publicly commit themselves to the safety and wellbeing of the university's international/migrant staff and students.
docs.google.com/document/d/1...
docs.google.com/document/d/1...
Dear Professor O’Brien,
Dear Professor O’Brien, We are writing to ask you to make a public statement affirming Durham University’s commitment to the safety and wellbeing of its international/migrant staff and students, and...
docs.google.com
May 26, 2025 at 9:40 AM
Following the outcome of the recent regional elections and in response to the rising tide of fascism in the region (and beyond), we've sent a letter to the VC asking Durham University to publicly commit to the safety and wellbeing of its international/migrant staff and students. Excerpts below:
Reposted by Uygar Baspehlivan
We're hiring! I'll be co-supervising a PhD at Utrecht University on the global governance of socially disruptive technologies. Political philosophy/ethics project focused on legitimacy & good governance.
More info: edu.nl/9admd
Deadline: June 3, 2025 (apologies for the short notice!)
More info: edu.nl/9admd
Deadline: June 3, 2025 (apologies for the short notice!)
edu.nl
May 23, 2025 at 9:34 AM
We're hiring! I'll be co-supervising a PhD at Utrecht University on the global governance of socially disruptive technologies. Political philosophy/ethics project focused on legitimacy & good governance.
More info: edu.nl/9admd
Deadline: June 3, 2025 (apologies for the short notice!)
More info: edu.nl/9admd
Deadline: June 3, 2025 (apologies for the short notice!)
Reposted by Uygar Baspehlivan
Are you a graduate student who presented at the 2025 ISA in Chicago?
If you were part of a panel sponsored or co-sponsored by the IPS section, consider applying to the 2026 IPS Graduate Student Paper Award! Self-nominations are encouraged!
If you were part of a panel sponsored or co-sponsored by the IPS section, consider applying to the 2026 IPS Graduate Student Paper Award! Self-nominations are encouraged!
May 23, 2025 at 8:37 PM
Are you a graduate student who presented at the 2025 ISA in Chicago?
If you were part of a panel sponsored or co-sponsored by the IPS section, consider applying to the 2026 IPS Graduate Student Paper Award! Self-nominations are encouraged!
If you were part of a panel sponsored or co-sponsored by the IPS section, consider applying to the 2026 IPS Graduate Student Paper Award! Self-nominations are encouraged!
Reposted by Uygar Baspehlivan
My article is finally out w/ Rethinking Marxism! Thankful to all my colleagues who provided feedback at different stages including @kaibosworth.bsky.social & Uygar Baspehlivan. Super grateful to the editors too, they’ve been very generous and encouraging.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
The Consummative Mood of Authoritarianism: The Affective and Material Politics of Megaprojects in Turkey
This essay builds on the work of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari to outline a consummative mood of authoritarian politics in Turkey. It defines the consummative mood as the fetishization of effic...
www.tandfonline.com
January 20, 2025 at 3:34 PM
My article is finally out w/ Rethinking Marxism! Thankful to all my colleagues who provided feedback at different stages including @kaibosworth.bsky.social & Uygar Baspehlivan. Super grateful to the editors too, they’ve been very generous and encouraging.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Reposted by Uygar Baspehlivan
*seeking diabetic people based in the UK*
Great opportunity to help researchers who are seeking to design better diabetic food tracking technology! Please share.
Expression of interest here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Great opportunity to help researchers who are seeking to design better diabetic food tracking technology! Please share.
Expression of interest here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
May 15, 2025 at 5:21 PM
*seeking diabetic people based in the UK*
Great opportunity to help researchers who are seeking to design better diabetic food tracking technology! Please share.
Expression of interest here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Great opportunity to help researchers who are seeking to design better diabetic food tracking technology! Please share.
Expression of interest here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Reposted by Uygar Baspehlivan
Working on my presentation for the Spinoza/Marx conference this Friday and coming back to my central point that all attempts to derive a theory of ideology from ultimately become about the relation between minds and bodies, and how one reads EIIP7
www.unemployednegativity.com/2024/04/one-...
www.unemployednegativity.com/2024/04/one-...
One, Two, Many Spinozist-Marxisms: A Postscript to The Double Shift
www.unemployednegativity.com
May 18, 2025 at 12:56 PM
Working on my presentation for the Spinoza/Marx conference this Friday and coming back to my central point that all attempts to derive a theory of ideology from ultimately become about the relation between minds and bodies, and how one reads EIIP7
www.unemployednegativity.com/2024/04/one-...
www.unemployednegativity.com/2024/04/one-...
my hard pivot to environmental (still digital) politics going strong. really enjoyed Ted DeLay's Future of Denial, this one's going super well too 😇
May 16, 2025 at 6:36 PM
my hard pivot to environmental (still digital) politics going strong. really enjoyed Ted DeLay's Future of Denial, this one's going super well too 😇