Dr Necla Acik-Toprak

Research Associate

Tel: 0161 275 4975

Fax: 0161 275 4722

necla.acik-toprak@manchester.ac.uk

Room G.25

CCSR (Cathie Marsh Centre for Census and Survey Research)

School of Social Sciences

Kantorovich Building,

Humanities Bridgeford Street

University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL

 

Professional biography

I have an interdisciplinary background and an interest in political sociology. My doctoral thesis examined pattern and levels of civic engagement in Europe using the European Social Survey and applying quantitative techniques. However, prior to that I applied mainly qualitative methods and focused on issues of gender, ethnicity and nationalism, particularly on the context of the Middle East. 

My involvement with the CCSR goes back to October 2002 when I registered on their MSc Social Research Methods and Statistics Programme. I went on to work at the Working Lives Research Institute, at the London Metropolitan University, on a project that explored the employment barriers refugees and BME face in Britain. I came back to the CSSR in October 2005 to take up an ESRC funded Case studentship in collaboration with the political think-thank Unlock Democracy. I recently completed my PhD and I am working on a number of small projects at the CCSR.

 

Specific research interests

• Political consumerism
• Active citizenship
• Social inequalities
• Inequalities in health
• Ethnicity

• Migration
• Comparative European studies
• Kurdish Studies
• Quantitative and qualitative methods

 

Current research projects

Ethnicity, deprivation and take-up of breast cancer screening services

This study is funded by the Genesis Charity for five months until June 2010, under the direction of Professor James Nazroo and Professor Anil Jain to look at inequalities in breast cancer uptake among ethnic minorities and deprived groups in the North West.

Teaching Assistant

I have been running tutorials for undergraduate students in Sociology (From Modernity to Postmodernity I, From Modernity to Postmodernity II, Media, Culture and Society II) and in Politics (Comparative European Politics). I have also experience of teaching postgraduate students at the Institute for Social Change (Social Capital and Social Change) and at a number of short day courses at the CCSR (Standardised Multi-Item Scale Development for Surveys, Cognitive Interviewing for Testing Survey Questions, Questionnaire Design, Introduction to Data Analysis I, Introduction to Data Analysis II, Multiple Regression, Logistic Regression, Multilevel Modelling)

Publications

Online Conference Papers and Working papers:

Acik-Toprak, Necla, “MCA, CATPCA and PCA: examples of applications”, CCSR Work, Employment and Methods Research Group and CCSR Social Statistics Research Group, CCSR, University of Manchester, 5 May 2009,  http://www.ccsr.ac.uk/werg/documents/Necla_MCA_CATPCA_PCA_April09.doc

Acik-Toprak, Necla, “Country context matters: civic engagement across Europe”, 59th Policy Studies Association Annual Conference, Challenges for Democracy in a Global Era, The University of Manchester, 7-9 April, http://www.psa.ac.uk/2009/pps/Acik-Toprak.pdf

Acik-Toprak, Necla, “Political Consumerism and New Social Movements in Europe: Evidence of a Link though Multiple Correspondence Analysis”, European Protest Movements: The rise of a (Trans-)national Civil Society and the Transformation of the Public Sphere after 1945. Mari Curie Conferences, University of Zurich, 23-26 June 2009.  http://www.protest-research.eu/index.php?option= com_researchers&view= researchers&id=19&Itemid=32

 

Book chapters

Acik, Necla (2003):“Nationalism, Myths and Mobilisation of Women: An Analysis of Contemporary Kurdish Women’s Magazines in Turkey”, in Eva Savelsberg, Siamend Hajo, Carsten Brock (eds.), Kurdish Gender Studies, Kurdologie 4. Muenster: LIT Publishers. (Language: German).

Acik, Necla (2003):“The Kurdish Women’s Movement”, in NAVEND-Zentrum für Kurdische Studien e.V. Kurds Today: Background, Aspects and Developments. Navend Schriftenreihe Bd. 13. Bonn: Navend. (Language: German)

Acik Necla (2002): “Gender and Nation; Discourses on Women within the Contemporary Kurdish National Struggle”, in Aksu Bora and Asena Gunal (eds.), Feminism in the 1990s in Turkey. Istanbul: Iletisim Publishers. (Language: Turkish)

 

 

Non-peer reviewed articles (online forum, journals, book review)

 

 “A personal encounter with voting”, comments on Richard Corbett’s (MEP) article “Why the 2009 European elections matter”. In The Magazine of Unlock Democracy: Citizen. Spring 2009, Unlock Democracy, London.

“Ethical consumerism; a new ‘political’ trend or just an artefact of a post-materialist society?”, Unlock Democracy; online forum, November 07, http://www.unlockdemocracy.org.uk/?p=1078

Book review: “Wolf-Dietrich BUKOW, Klaus Junschke, Susanne Spindler und Ugur TEKIN Ausgegrenzt, eingesperrt, und abgeschoben: Migration und Jugendkriminalitaet”, in Journal of Comparative European Studies, 12(1), April 2004, p. 113-115.

Recent and forthcoming publications

Acik-Toprak, Necla (forthcoming): “Carrying the burden of liberation: nation-building and women’s participation in Kurdistan”, in Zeydanlioglu, W. and Gunes, C. (eds.). The Kurdish Question in Turkey: New Perspectives on Conflict, Representation and Reconciliation. California: Mazda Publishers.

Last updated March 2010