Professor Tuncay's work focuses on social welfare and social protection, with particular attention to the psychosocial well-being of children, women, and families in contexts of migration, poverty, and displacement.
Professor Tuncay is a Full Professor at Hacettepe University's Department of Social Work, where he has served on the faculty since 2000. He is currently a Visiting Scholar at the Bursky School of Public Health, Washington University in St. Louis.
He has led and contributed to numerous research and development projects funded by national ministries, the European Union, and UN agencies, designing and evaluating culturally-attuned psychosocial support interventions and empowerment programs for populations facing adversity. He led the EU-funded "Özne Çocuk" project, a three-year initiative to combat child labour and early and forced marriages while strengthening Türkiye's broader social protection system. He has also worked closely with the Ministry of Family and Social Services and international organizations on child protection systems and the rights of refugees and migrants, providing consultancy to UN agencies on the protection and promotion of human rights for populations in vulnerable situations.
His research program combines mixed-methods approaches drawing on social work, public health, and social policy, and has produced more than one hundred and fifty scientific publications. He has supervised over twenty-five graduate theses and is currently extending this agenda at Hacettepe and WashU to study the prevention of and response to mental health concerns among refugee and migrant youth affected by conflict, disaster, and forced displacement.