Irem Kok is a Senior Consultant at the Tellus Mater Foundation in London. She was a visiting research fellow with the STS Program for the 2013-2014 academic year. Irem recently finished her doctoral studies at the School of Geography and the Environment at Oxford (2016). Her doctoral project explored issues of corporate transparency and science-policy relationship in environmental regulation of the shale gas industry in the U.S. and U.K. Comparing two countries’ experiences with the unconventional gas development, she examined practice(s) of corporate transparency and scientific disclosure in different political cultures and the influence of industry projects upon national regulatory frameworks.

During 2012/2013 academic year, Irem undertook field visits to drilling sites in Pennsylvania, U.S. and Lancashire, U.K., as well as conducted extensive interviews with operating companies, government agencies, industry scientists, NGOs and local people involved in the shale gas controversy. As a STS fellow, she will be writing the results of her field observations and research interviews.

Irem’s doctoral research is fully funded by a partnership scholarship program by Clarendon Fund Scholarship and Brasenose College Annual Fund, and supported by additional fieldwork funding from Brasenose College. Prior to doctoral studies, Irem completed the MSc program in Nature, Society and Environmental Policy at the School of Geography and the Environment, Oxford, studying on the Weidenfeld Scholarship and Leadership Programme. Before Oxford, she majored in philosophy and economics, followed by a master’s degree in political science and international relations at Bogazici University, Turkey.