2023 –             Senior Lecturer in Developmental Psychology, University of Manchester, UK

2015 – 2023    Lecturer in Developmental Psychology, University of Manchester, UK

2011 – 2015     Post-doctoral Researcher, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany

2005 – 2011     M.A. & Ph.D. in Education, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA

2003 – 2005     M.A. in Psychology, Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey

1999 – 2003     B.A. in Psychology, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey

My research focuses on the intersection between children’s communicative and socio-cognitive development. I investigate the ways in which young children’s social and cognitive abilities are manifested in interactive contexts, particularly in their peer interactions. The topics that I am interested in involve:

• Children’s reasoning and joint decision-making with partners (mostly peers)
• Children’s moral reasoning and moral judgment
• Children's understanding of social norms, obligations, and commitments
• Children's understanding of common ground or shared experiences with others

PSYC 21021: Topics in Developmental Psychology - Unit Lead (with Dr. Alissa Ferry & Prof. Anna Theakston)

PSYC 31121: Language and Communicative Development in Educational Settings - Unit Lead (with Prof. Anna Theakston)

PSYC 30920: Third-year Project Supervision

• Project Title: "Collective Reasoning and Rationality in Early Childhood" (PI, Funder: Templeton World Charity Foundation)
• Project Title: "The Social Epistemology of Argumentation" (CoI, Funder: European Research Council)
• Project Title: "Human Intelligence in Development: Ontogeny of Reasoning" (PI, Funder: Templeton World Charity Foundation)

Current members:

• Carlyn Murray, Research Coordinator
• Dr. Owen Waddington (Post-doctoral Research Associate)
• Charlotte Savill (PhD student)
• Sarah Ali (MRes student)
• Xihan Hu (MRes student)

Past Members:

• Dr. Kirstie Hartwell (Manchester Institute of Education)
• Dr. Maria Mammen (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universtät, München)
• Dr. Andreas Domberg (Max Planck Institute for Human Development)
• Grace Barton
• Hannah Dempsey
• Leonor Santana Miranda Goncalves
• Yasmin Green
• Sophie Bennett