Leyla Uysal

Leyla Uysal (Mehtap Leyla Turanalp Uysal) is a native Mesopotamian from the Berazî Tribe of the Dinaî family. She originates from Pirsûs (Suruç), within Mesopotamia, the Kobanê territories of present-day Türkiye. She is pursuing a PhD in MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning in the Environmental Planning & Policy program, where her research spans landscape architecture, design, planning and policy, climate change, ecosystem restoration, environmental governance, Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), and water-related socio-ecological challenges.

An award-winning designer, Leyla holds a Master’s in Design Studies from the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) and is also pursuing a Master in Landscape Architecture at Harvard. Her design-research practice brings together landscape ecology, restoration science, and resilience-building approaches, informed by field experience and a commitment to ecological justice. Her work has explored climate change and urban resilience, ecosystem restoration, Indigenous climate knowledge, and the impacts of infrastructural and technological disasters on human and more-than-human communities—questions she continues to develop with a particular emphasis on Kurdish ecologies and climate change contexts.

She earned a BA in Urban and Regional Planning with a minor in Ecology and Ecosystem Restoration from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, where she focused on regenerative agriculture, permaculture, and restoration approaches. In addition, she has completed executive education at MIT Sloan.

Beyond academia, Leyla is the founder and CEO of Bajer Watches, a company that celebrates Kurdish heritage while supporting women and children in Kurdish communities worldwide. As a mother, designer, entrepreneur, artist, photographer, planner, researcher, activist, and gardener, she brings a deeply relational perspective shaped by care, responsibility, and future generations.