Kimya Oskay Sümbül is a former Research Assistant (Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin) in the Freigeist Research Group "The Cold War's Clash of Civilizations" funded by a Freigeist Fellowship from the Volkswagen Foundation. A member of the Research Group from 2018-2021, she holds an M.A. in History from Bilkent University and a B.S. in Science of Management from the Bilkent University. During her Master's studies, she earned a Research/Teaching assistantship and full tuition award from Bilkent University and was selected as Honour Student during her Bachelor studies. She is fluently capable in Persian (native), English, Modern Turkish, and Azeri languages, while she has received language training in Ottoman Turkish, Arabic and French. 

Kimya received her intellectual training in Ottoman history, and she has specifically focused on 19th-century Iran and the history of photography. In her M.A. dissertation, "Political Usage of Photography in Naseri Period 1848-1896," she investigated how the political realm of the 19th century Iran can reverberate through its photography.

She is interested in exercising interpretive strategy of reading outward from the images coherent with the socio-political parameters. Additionally, Kimya is interested in the social and cultural history of the 20th century - especially of the Cold War - with a particular focus in the history and theory of images.