Leyla Uysal

Leyla Uysal (Mehtap Leyla Turanalp Uysal) is from Suruç (Pirsûs) in southeastern Türkiye, a region within the historical landscape of Mesopotamia. Her background informs her academic and professional focus on environmental change, land, and water systems in socio-politically complex geographies.

She is a PhD student in the Environmental Planning & Policy program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), within the Department of Urban Studies and Planning. Her research focuses on climate change, ecosystem restoration, environmental governance, and water-related socio-ecological systems, with particular attention to river basins and regions shaped by large-scale infrastructure. She engages with both scientific and planning-based approaches, alongside questions related to Indigenous and local ecological knowledge.

Leyla holds a Master in Design Studies from the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) and is currently pursuing a Master in Landscape Architecture at Harvard. Her work sits at the intersection of landscape architecture, planning, and environmental research, with an emphasis on restoration processes, resilience, and long-term ecological change.

She received her BA in Urban and Regional Planning from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, where her studies included ecology, ecosystem restoration, and regenerative land-use practices.

In addition to her academic work, Leyla is the founder of Bajer Watches, a small design-based company that draws inspiration from Kurdish cultural heritage and supports community-oriented initiatives.

Her broader work reflects an interest in how environmental systems, cultural landscapes, and governance structures interact, particularly in contexts experiencing ecological stress and transformation.