Somer's research examines ethnic identities and conflict, public and private polarization, democratization, religious politics, and secularism, with area emphases on political Islam, the Kurdish conflict, Turkey, the Balkans, and the Middle East. His research has appeared in book chapters and journals such as The Annals of the AAPSS, Comparative Political Studies, The Middle East Journal, and Third World Quarterly. He holds a BA in Economics from Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, and an MA in Economics and a PhD in Political Economy and Public Policy from the University of Southern California. Before joining Koç University, he was a Mellon Post-doctoral Fellow and lecturer at the Jackson School of International Studies of the University of Washington, Seattle. Somer is currently a visiting scholar at Harvard’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies.