Selen Güler is the 2025-26 Marilyn J. Gittell Postdoctoral Fellow in Urban Studies at the CUNY Graduate Center. She is a political and cultural sociologist studying how how people and institutions navigate questions of authority, responsibility, and redistribution in public life.

Selen’s research spans urban tax debates and homelessness governance, collaborative change efforts in higher education, and moral judgments in consumer and healthcare settings, using qualitative mixed methods and survey-based approaches.

Currently, Selen is working on a book manuscript on urban coalitions confronting the limits of local governance amid housing un-affordability, federal disinvestment, and socio-economic inequalities. Provisionally titled, Tech Boom to Tax Boom: Urban Power and Redistribution in a Superstar City, this research investigates how Seattle passed a historic business tax after years of unsuccessful attempts. Through a comparative analysis of key moments of the push for taxation in Seattle, Selen traces the political shifts and realignments that allowed the city to leverage its proximity to the tech industry to generate public revenue. Her research has been supported by the Center for Engaged Scholarship.

Selen earned an MA and a PhD in Sociology from the University of Washington in Seattle. She also holds a BA in Sociology with a minor in Political Science and International Relations from Bogazici University in Istanbul, Turkey.

Selen can be reached at sguler@gc.cuny.edu.