Mortara Research Seminar – A Conversation with Professor Burcu Savun

By Anna O’Sullivan (SFS ’28) —

This Monday, December 1st, the Mortara Center for International Studies welcomed Professor Burcu Savun of the University of Pittsburgh for an inspiring presentation of her recent project, titled “Liberal Refugee Policies and Political Violence”. Co-authored with Professor Christopher W. Blair of Princeton University and Zhejun Qiu, a PhD student at the University of Pittsburgh, the paper questions pre-existing assumptions that an influx of refugees increases the likelihood of political violence in a given region. Professor Savun’s presentation at the Mortara Center was both informative and thought provoking, engaging the Georgetown University PhD students and faculty in conversation and feedback.

At the University of Pittsburgh, Savun is a Professor of Political Science specializing in international relations. Her academic work is primarily focused on forms of political violence, such as civil wars and terrorism, as well as forced migration and refugee politics. Savun’s academic journey began at the Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara, Turkey, a nation that at the time hosted a large number of Syrian refugees. This experience, as well as Savun’s doctoral studies at Rice University, inspired questions surrounding refugees in the Global South and instability that Professor Savun continues to explore in her latest research.

The results find that liberal refugee policies actually decrease the likelihood of political violence in that region significantly. Using a multi-difference design, Savun compares political violence rates in countries with liberal refugee policies versus those with stricter approaches. The study specifically focuses on Global South-to-Global South forced migration, with 70% of the world’s refugees residing in these nations. 142 countries were examined with a spatial domain of 1990-2020, driven by a theoretically-based regression design based on five policy indicators. The results prove a strong linkage between liberal policies, such as the freedom of movement and increased right to work, with lower instances of political violence. The study found multiple conceptual explanations to this phenomenon, grounded in economic benefit for states, such as higher opportunity costs of engaging in political violence due to increased economic opportunities. Professor Savun’s research delivers a strikingly optimistic message: when governments treat refugees more equitably, they stand to gain stability and resilience rather than risk disorder. Her work provides a policy blueprint for improving governance through humane refugee practices.

Prior to the presentation, PhD students and faculty had a chance to meet with Savun to discuss her latest work, as well as her professional career. In one of these chats, Professor Savun and I discussed her time in D.C., as well as her motivations behind her research. She spoke highly of Georgetown’s government department and the faculty, many of whom she is well acquainted with. Professor Savun emphasized that in her work, she especially appreciates the contributions made by her graduate students and research assistants. She stressed the importance of mentorship and noted that, for this project, her research team made significant contributions to data collection. This commitment to collaboration reflects the broader spirit of her work: that investing in people–whether students or refugees–creates stronger, more resilient societies.