Aysu K. Erkul is a sociologist whose research is focused on urban issues. She works on many aspects of cities from a sociological point of view, such as culture, consumption and stratification, as well as housing, historic towns and urban development. She specifically wants to combine theories from different fields of sociology to study the urban social space.

Aysu obtained her Bachelors degree in Sociology at Middle East Technical University, Turkey. During her undergraduate education, she studied sociology at University of Oklahoma, Norman as an exchange student. After graduation, she decided to focus on urban sociology so she completed the Master’s Program in Urban Policy Planning and Local Governments, at Middle East Technical University.

At the moment, Aysu is a Ph.D. candidate at Hacettepe University and a research assistant at the Department of Sociology. Currently, she is conducting research at University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA as a Visiting Scholar.

The specific areas of research that Aysu is currently interested are the role of forms of capital in the acts of urban residents with regard to urban issues. More specifically, she works on the impact of different forms of capital on the housing preferences of people, as well as on their perceptions about the city they live in. This research focus also includes the consumption and leisure activity patterns of urban dwellers.