Timur is an environmental social scientist who conducted his PhD research on coastal livelihoods and governance in the Philippines as part of the Blue Communities Programme. His research explores power dynamics in a polycentric governance system, and how this influences equity and trade-offs in governance objectives, and between resource-users in a peripheral island community. He is particularly interested in the ways in which relational cultural institutions and politics (re)shape, (re)interpret, and (de)legitimise governance processes and management measures. His research critically engages with dominant discourses and framings of conservation and the Blue Economy, and how community members engage with or contest these through their own counter-narratives. His research employs primarily qualitative methods, drawing from ethnographic approaches and utilising participatory visual and creative tools.

Timur considers himself a hybrid researcher-practitioner, seeking to conduct research that is applied and engaged, with a focus on advocacy for the rights and justice of marginalised natural resource-dependent communities. Prior to his PhD he worked for a grassroots NGO in Zanzibar, Tanzania, with a focus on collaborative fisheries management and small-scale fisheries advocacy. As he continues to write up his PhD, Timur is now a full-time member of the Conservation, Livelihoods and Governance team for the conservation NGO Fauna & Flora International (FFI), providing technical input on socioeconomic monitoring and evaluation (M&E) and broader socioeconomic research.

He has completed a BA in History at University College London (UCL), and a MSc in Environment and Development at the University of Edinburgh.