Bio

Bengi is a Lecturer in the Department of Social & Behavioral Sciences at Medgar Evers College, CUNY. She received her PhD in Critical Social/Personality & Environmental Psychology at The Graduate Center of The City University of New York with concentrations in Critical Theory and Qualitative Methods. Her dissertation focused on the advocacy for children’s right to play in Turkey (where she is from). Her broader research interests are at the intersection of social and environmental change and human development.

Prior to joining Medgar Evers College as a full-time lecturer, Bengi held adjunct faculty positions teaching introductory, developmental and environmental psychology courses at New York City College of Technology, Baruch College, and The College of Staten Island. She also held writing fellowships at Kingsborough Community College and Medgar Evers College, during which she provided tutoring for undergraduate students across disciplines and participated in and conducted workshops on higher education teaching pedagogy. 

Bengi holds a BA in Sociology from Bogazici University in Istanbul, Turkey; an MSc in Urban Studies from University College London (UCL) in London, UK; and an MA in Environmental Psychology from The Graduate Center, City University of New York.

List of courses: 

SSC 101: Culture, Society & Social Change 

SSC 209: Urban Sociology & Lifestyles 

Publications:

Babel, L., Izadi, M., Sullu B. The Value of Free Play and Risk: Families' and Play Workers' Perspectives of an Adventure Playground (eds. John McKendrick, Wendy Russell, Maria Jesus Alfaro-Simmons) in Spaces for Play: Conceiving, Creating and Mapping Environments for Children’s Play, forthcoming, Edward Elgar Publishing.

Sullu, B. (2025) A listening guide analysis of an immigrant woman’s journey away from the changing landscape of home. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 22, 2, 439-456.

Sullu, B. (2023) Children’s access to play during Covid-19 in the urban context in Turkey. Children’s Geographies, 1-6. 

Daiute C., Sullu B., Kovács-Cerović T. (2021) What Is Social Inclusion? Insights From Interventions With Youth Across Migration Systems. Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 8(2):143-151.       

Daiute, C., Kovacs-Cerovic, T., Mimic, K., Sullu, B., Vracar, S. (2020) Dynamic values negotiating geo-political narratives across a migration system, Qualitative Psychology, 7, 3, 367-383.

Sullu, B. (2018) Geographies of children’s play in the context of neoliberal restructuring in Istanbul, Children’s Geographies, 16, 2, 169-183. 

Selected Presentations:

Sullu, B. (2025). The Meaning of Emerging Adulthood for the Students at the Public University, Jean Piaget Society, Society for the Study of Knowledge and Development Conference, May 29-31, Belgrade, Serbia. 

Ozoguz, S. & Sullu, B. (2025). “It's All About Hazelnuts”: Feminist Political Ecology of Nut Collecting in the Black Sea Region, Association for Women in Psychology Conference, March 6-9, Santa Fe, USA.

Sullu, B. (2024). Reassured Steps into a Future That is Full of Competition: Socio-Spatial Reproduction of Psychological Knowledge around Child Development in The New Geographies of Play in Istanbul, Turkey. Child and Teen Consumption Conference, October 16-19, York University/Online, Canada.