Esra Nartok-van der Kist is a lecturer at the Institute of Political Science.

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Esra Nartok-van der Kist is a lecturer at the Institute of Political Science. She received her Bachelor's degree in Economics (2011) and Master's degree in Political Science (2014) from Middle East Technical University (Ankara, Turkey). She received her Ph.D. in Politics (2019) from the University of Manchester (Manchester, United Kingdom). Her PhD focused on comparing India and Turkey in terms of transnational business activities and mobilisation of religiously oriented NGOs. During her PhD studies, she was a visiting researcher at Ambedkar University Delhi (2017-2018) to conduct fieldwork in India. 

In exchange for her Ph.D. funding, she was involved in teaching and administrative activities in Turkey between 2020 and 2025. During this period, she worked with large group of students at both undergraduate and graduate levels and helped various institutions to structure their internationalisation policies in education. Between 2022 and 2024, she joined the Global Census of Climate Obstruction Organizations working group of the Climate Social Science Network, Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, Brown University. She participated in data analysis of climate policy-related content produced by Atlas Network-associated think tanks around the world.  

Her research interests lie in the field of international political economy, particularly the ideational basis of corporate lobbying. She is also interested in civilisational politics and discourses in the Global South and their manifestation in urban design. 

She has extensive teaching experience in the fields of international politics and economics. Previously she taught courses International Political Economy, Introduction to Economics, Globalisation and International Development, Asia-Pacific Politics, Political Economy of the Global South and Economic Diplomacy and Development. As of Spring 2025, she delivers thesis seminars on International Politics of the Global South and Global South in Global Governance, and the Great Debates course at the Institute of Political Science, Leiden University.