About Me
I’m a political sociologist interested in the intersection of resistance, culture, and globalization. I’m currently a sociology PhD candidate at Stony Brook University, NY and a graduate fellow of Institute for Advanced Computational Science.
In my dissertation project I focus on international support to domestic social movements. I investigate how and why domestic dissidents seek international support, how domestic concerns are represented in the international media, and lastly the impact of international support on domestic movements. Additionally, I am interested in conceptualizing the popular resistance culture under authoritarianism, by focusing on public yet transgressive spaces. In my research I rely on a mixed methods approach combining computational methods with qualitative analysis.
Prior to finding my way to sociology, I earned a Bachelor of Science in physics from Middle East Technical University in Turkey. During my undergraduate studies, my academic focus centered on analyzing the collective behavior of complex systems using CUDA-accelerated agent-based simulation models.
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Contact: danial.vahabli@stonybrook.edu
Education
2026 (Expected), PhD in Sociology Stony Brook University, New York, USA
Graduate Research Fellow at Institute for Advanced Computational Science
2024, MA in Sociology Stony Brook University, New York, USA
Degree received on the path for Ph.D.
2022, BSc in Physics Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey
Sociology minor
Publications
2025
Vahabli, Danial. “Mentioning the Unmentionable: Perception of Opportunities, Agency, Emotions, and Identity in Iranian Resistance Rap Prior and during the Women, Life, Freedom Uprisings.” Poetics 111 (August 1, 2025): 102020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.poetic.2025.102020.
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Vahabli, Danial, and Jason Jeffrey Jones. “Identity Diversification and Homogenization: Evidence from Frequent Estimates of Similarity of Self-Authored, Self-Descriptive Text.” Journal of Computational Social Science 8, no. 2 (February 6, 2025): 28. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42001-025-00358-y.
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2024
Vahabli, Danial. “From the Global South to the Human Rights Stage: A Study of Global Frame Resonance Using a Comparative Case of Women, Life, Freedom and Bloody November in Iran.” International Journal of Comparative Sociology, August 20, 2024, 00207152241269783. https://doi.org/10.1177/00207152241269783.
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2023
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2021
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Awards & Scholarships
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Winner of Conflict, Social Action, and Change Division's Graduate Student Paper Award by Society for the Study of Social Problems, 2025 for paper titled "Mentioning the Unmentionable: Perception of Opportunities, Agency, Emotions, and Identity in Iranian Resistance Rap prior and during the Women, Life, Freedom Uprisings"
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Norman "Norm" Goodman Endowment Excellence Award in Sociology, Stony Brook University, Sociology Department, 2025
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Hanan Selvin Award for outstanding quantitative and/or methodological paper from Stony Brook University’s Sociology department for paper titled "From the Global South to the World Stage: A Study of Global Frame Resonance Using a Comparative Case of Women, Life, Freedom and Bloody November in Iran"
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Beneficiary of the graduate fellowship of the Institute of Advanced Computational Sciences.
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Beneficiary of TUTÜBÄ°TAK (Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey) Scholarship for my work with Prof. Serim Ilday.