Biography
Ayşenur Dal is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication and Design, where she has been a faculty member since 2018. She also serves as the Associate Dean in the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture,. She was a Visiting Scholar at Northwestern University’s Buffett Institute for Global Affairs during her 2024–2025 sabbatical year. She holds a Ph.D. in Communication from The Ohio State University and a B.A. in Political Science and International Relations from Boğaziçi University in Istanbul.
Her research focuses on the social-psychological determinants of online expressive behavior. In particular, she examines how individuals navigate contextual dynamics that shape their interpretations of, and responses to, expression, privacy, and activism-related risks. Methodologically, she employs a mixed-methods approach, combining surveys, experiments, and focus groups.
Dr. Dal is the recipient of The Science Academy’s Young Scientist Award (BAGEP), The Turkish Academy of Sciences’ Outstanding Young Scientist Award (GEBİP) and The Sakıp Sabancı International Research Award. Her work has been published in leading journals such as New Media & Society, Communication Research, Political Behavior, Social Media + Society, Human Communication Research, and the International Journal of Communication. She also co-edited the special issue Global Perspectives on Science, Polarization, and Populism in the International Journal of Public Opinion Research, and contributed a chapter to the Oxford Handbook of New Social Movements. A full list of her publications can be found on her personal website. (http://www.aysenurdal.com) Dr. Dal currently serves on the editorial boards of International Journal of Press/Politics and Communication Theory.
Research Interests: Political Communication, Public Opinion, Online Political Expression, Digital Privacy, Risk Communication
Courses Taught
- COMD 341 // Media and Society
- COMD 358 // Professional Communication
- COMD 422 // Advanced Issues in Communication Studies
- COMD 481-482 // Visual Communication Project I-II
- COMD 511 // Research Methods
- COMD 523 // Media and Everyday Life
Selected Publications
- Dal, A. & Nisbet, E. C. (2025). Global Perspectives on Science, Polarization, and Populism Special Issue Introduction. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 37(1), 1-7. https://doi.org/10.1093/ijpor/edaf009
- Dal, A. (2024). Firewalls Have Ears: How Horizontal Privacy Regulation Influences Online Political Expression in Russia. International Journal of Communication, 18, 22. https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/22263/0
- Özen, H. E., Dal, A., & Tokdemir, E. (2024). “Welcoming Guests”: The Role of Ideational and Contextual Factors in Public Perceptions About Refugees and Attitudes about Their Integration. International Relations, 20(80), 5-25. https://doi.org/10.33458/uidergisi.1299112
- Dal, A., Nisbet, E.C., & Kamenchuk, O. (2023). Signaling Silence: Affective and Cognitive Responses to Risks of Online Activism about Corruption in an Authoritarian Context. New Media & Society, 25(3), 646-664. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448221135861
- Dal, A. & Nisbet, E.C.(2022). Walking through Firewalls: Circumventing Censorship of Social Media and Online Content in a Networked Authoritarian Context. Social Media+Society, (8)4, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051221137738
- Dal, A. & Tokdemir, E. (2022). Social-Psychology of Vaccine Intentions: The Mediating Role of Institutional Trust in the Fight Against Covid-19. Political Behavior, 44, 1459–1481. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-022-09793-3
- Dal, A. & Nisbet, E.C. (2022). To share or not to share? How emotional judgements drive online political expression in high-risk contexts. Communication Research, 49(3), 353-375. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650220950570
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