Baran Kaplan

Baran Kaplan is a recent graduate of Aydem Science High School in Denizli, Turkey, and will be applying to U.S. colleges for the 2026-2027 academic year. He plans to pursue a major in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE), with a particular interest in institutional design, political violence, and the bureaucratization of governance.

He is currently conducting research through the Pioneer Academics Research Program under Dr. Clarisa Pérez-Armendáriz in the concentration The Political Underpinnings of Social and Criminal Violence in Developing Democracies. In Summer 2025, Baran will serve as a research assistant to Professor Seda Ertaç Güler at Koç University, and in the fall, he will begin an internship at Istanbul Policy Center.

Baran is a nationally recognized competitive debater and has served as the head of his school’s debate society for the past two years. He is also the founder of Denizli’s first debate association, where he helps mentor younger students and promote critical thinking. He has been a finalist and best speaker in several national tournaments and is widely considered one of the most accomplished debaters in Turkey’s Aegean region and Anatolia.

His academic interests include political and structural violence, as well as the ways in which large institutions and economic actors shape the frameworks of success, agency, and inequality. He is particularly drawn to how systems of power embed themselves into everyday life through both formal governance and the socio-economic influence of corporations and state institutions.