Mert is a Turkish political scientist and Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Relations at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, where he also serves as the Head of the Department of Legal Sciences. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Boğaziçi University and completed his Ph.D. in Political Science at Northwestern University. His research combines comparative politics, political sociology, and historical-institutional analysis.
His scholarship focuses on contentious politics, urban movements, and the specific mechanics of state repression under contemporary authoritarian regimes, particularly in Turkey. Rather than looking solely at overt police violence, his empirical work investigates less visible, bureaucratic forms of repression, such as the strategic use of protest bans, legal exceptions, administrative fines, and spatial control to neutralize dissent. His highly cited research papers, including “Mobile Emergency Rule in Turkey” (2020) and “Spatial Reason of the State” (2023), map how authorities manipulate judicial and geographical boundaries to legally restrict mobilization.
Active in international academic partnerships, Arslanalp serves as the project lead from Boğaziçi University for SOS4Democracy, a Horizon Europe-funded consortium dedicated to researching illiberal systems, structural state overreach, and methods to protect democratic citizenship.