Hi!

I’m a Visiting Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Mississippi and a Ph.D. candidate at Syracuse University. My research explores how race, space, and power shape consumption and identity in post-war America—especially through the lens of food and taste. I’m particularly interested in how racialized and spatial boundaries are formed, negotiated, and reproduced through everyday practices of consumption.

My work spans topics such as racialized narratives in online restaurant reviews, the digital framing of Syrian immigration on social media, immigrant social capital in hometown associations, and state-level policy impacts on U.S. life expectancy. A co-authored study I contributed to in The Milbank Quarterly received Honorable Mention from the American Sociological Association in 2021.

I’ve published in PLOS ONE, Sociology Compass, Turkish Studies, and Social Science Computer Review, and I’m currently contributing a chapter to an edited volume on whiteness, and space. I’m also developing new work on brokerage and political representation in local politics.

As a social researcher, I co-founded and led the research team at Twittersphere.net, a collaborative platform for digital social science. I also served as a module coordinator for a survey that capture social change in Turkey.

Methodologically, I combine qualitative, spatial, and computational tools—working with Python, STATA, ArcGIS, and ATLAS.ti—to bridge digital methods with grounded sociological questions.

My work has gained broad visibility through media interviews, research briefs, and public commentary, particularly on issues like vaccine hesitancy, digital discourse, and public trust in health policy. I care deeply about public scholarship, community-building, and mentoring students through research, writing, and professional development.

I’m an active member of the American Sociological Association, Population Association of America, and European Sociological Association.

📬 Feel free to reach out: hkoytak@olemiss.edu
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