On August 13, 2026, Merve Kılıçkan successfully defended her dissertation, entitled “(Dis-)Enabling Knowledge Production: Empirical Studies of the Turkish University System.” In recognition of her outstanding achievement, she was awarded a magna cum laude both for the thesis and for the defense.

The committee members were: 

Prof. Dr. Guido Bünstorf (first supervisor); Prof. Dr. Ivo Bischoff, Prof. Dr. Michael Goller, Prof. Dr. Anne Otto.

The cumulative dissertation in the Department of Economics at the University of Kassel includes the following articles:

Kılıçkan, Nur Merve (2025): German Refugee Economists and the Development of Turkish Economic Thought. In: Jakob Kapeller, M. Erdem Özgür (Eds.): Economic Ideas Across Borders. A history of German influence on Turkish economics. London: Routledge, 92–107. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003622000-9.

Kılıçkan, Nur Merve (2026): Legacy in exile? Refugee professors from Nazi Germany and the reformation of Turkish academia. Higher Education [Online First]. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-026-01707-0.

Kılıçkan, Nur Merve; König, Johannes; Ozgun, Burcu (n.d.): Signing away a career? Academic careers under political pressure [Manuscript submitted for publication].

Kılıçkan, Nur Merve (n.d.): Growing the academy: Institutions, inbreeding, and scientific output in the expansion of Turkish higher education, 1966–1991 [Unpublished single-author paper].