Kürşad Atalay is a Ph.D. candidate in Economics at Ege University, İzmir, Turkey. His doctoral research focuses on concept of nature in economic thought and extractivist conflicts, with particular attention to the relationship between economic activity and nature, the social tensions that emerge around the use of natural resources, and the political-economic dimensions of these processes.

Kürşad was a Visiting Scholar at York University-Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change in Canada during the 2025-2026, where he conducted comparative research on the social impacts of gold mining in Turkey and Canada. His broader research interests include extractivism, environmental justice, natural resource governance, and the role of local and Indigenous communities in decision-making processes. Kürşad is also interested in how a non-dualistic approach to nature may shape economic activity. He focuses particularly on the experiences of Indigenous communities in this regard.

He received a B.A. in Economics from Hacettepe University, Ankara, and an M.A. in Economic Policy from Marmara University, İstanbul. The master’s thesis examined the crisis of capitalism through the lens of Hyman P. Minsky’s financial instability hypothesis. Kürşad has been working as a Research Assistant in the Department of Economics and Finance at Aydın Adnan Menderes University since 2020, 

You can find publications and academic updates: linkedin researchgate