Elif Kalaycioglu is Lecturer in International Relations in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London. She is currently the interim director for Research Centre in International Relations (RCIR).

Elif holds a PhD from the University of Minnesota and an MSc degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Prior to joining King’s College, Kalaycioglu was an Assistant Professor at the University of Alabama (2020-2025), and a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Princeton University’s Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance (2019-2020).

Elif is an editor of International Political Sociology (IPS) and serves on the editorial board of Review of International Studies (RIS). She is the President of ISA-Northeast (2026) and program chair for International History and Politics (IHAP) section of APSA (2026). She previously served as the program chair for ISA-Northeast.

Teaching

2025-26 academic year:

• International Relations Theory (BA1)
• Theories, Concepts, and Methods in International Relations (PGT)

Research Interests

• Theories of Global Politics
• Global Cultural and Heritage Politics
• Memory Politics
• Visions and Politics of Humanity
• UNESCO and World Heritage

Orcid ID

Elif’s research focuses on the role of cultural and historical resources in the conduct of global politics. She explores how these resources act as launching grounds of political visions, shape recognition pursuits, and get marshalled to the construction of international prestige.

Empirically, Elif’s work pursues these questions through global heritage politics, and with a focus on UNESCO’s world heritage regime.

Recent publications

Kalaycioglu, Elif. The Politics of World Heritage: Visions, Custodians, and Futures of Humanity. Oxford University Press, 2025. 

Kalaycioglu, Elif. "World heritage and inter/national cultural prestige." Review of International Studies (2025): 1-19.

Kalaycioglu, Elif. "Confirming, suturing and transforming international recognition: the case of world heritage." International Theory (2025): 1-30. 

Kalaycioglu, Elif, and Jelena Subotić. "Global politics of cultural heritage: Status, authority, and geopolitics." Review of International Studies (2025): 1-13. 

Kalaycioglu, Elif. "Aesthetic elisions: The Ruins of Palmyra and the “good life” of liberal multiculturalism." International Political Sociology 14, no. 3 (2020): 286-303. 

 

Research Centres and Groups

• Interim director for  the Research Centre in International Relations (RCIR).

 

PhD Supervision

Elif is open to supervise PhD students with projects that correspond to her areas of research interest.