Nora Fisher Onar headshot

Nora Fisher Onar

Associate Professor

Department Chair
Full-Time Faculty
Kalmanovitz Hall 275

Biography

Nora Fisher Onar is Associate Professor and Chair of International Studies at the University of San Francisco. 

Her research interests include international relations theory, diplomacy, comparative politics / area studies (Turkey/Middle East; Europe; Eurasia), political ideologies, gender, and history/memory. She is also increasingly interested in the impact of technological change on international affairs. 

She received her doctorate from the University of Oxford and holds master’s and undergraduate degrees from Johns Hopkins (SAIS) and Georgetown universities, respectively. She speaks five languages, has traveled to over 80 countries, and lived in eight.

Fisher-Onar is the author of Contesting Pluralism(s): Islam, Liberalism and Nationalism in Turkey, with Cambridge University Press, and lead editor of the volume, Istanbul: Living With Difference in a Global City (co-edited with Susan C. Pearce and E. Fuat Keyman). She is also the editor of special issues of major scholarly journals like: the Journal of Common Market Studies; International Affairs, and Global Studies Quarterly, among others.

Fisher-Onar speaks often at policy fora like Brookings, Carnegie, and the German Marshall Fund (GMF) where she has served as a Ronald Asmus Fellow, Transatlantic Academy Fellow, and Non-Residential Fellow. She further contributes commentary to platforms like the Washington Post, Foreign Affairs, and OpenDemocracy.

Expertise

  • Empire/Post-colonialism
  • Religion and politics
  • History, memory and politics
  • Turkey/Middle East
  • EU/Europe

Research Areas

  • International relations theory
  • Comparative politics/area studies
  • Political ideologies
  • Gender
  • Digital diplomacy/Technology and international relations

Education

  • DPhil (PhD) in International Relations / Political Science, University of Oxford
  • Master in International Affairs (MIA), Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies
  • BS, Foreign Service, Georgetown University

Awards & Distinctions

  • Jesuit Foundation Grant, USF 2023

  • Davies Forum Professorship, USF Spring 2021

  • Deborah Gerner Award, Women's Caucus for International Studies, International Studies Association (ISA), 2017

  • Transatlantic Academy, Residential Fellowship on "Religion and the Liberal Order" German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF), 2014-5

  • National Humanities Center Fellowship, 2013-4

Selected Publications