Ayşe Şeyma Turgut Arıkan graduated from Başkent University's Social Work Department in 2015 with the first-ranked degree. She completed her master's degree in Hacettepe University's Department of Social Work in 2018 and finished her doctoral education in Kocaeli University's Labor Economics and Industrial Relations Department, specializing in the Poverty Studies Program, in 2023. Since 2017, she has been working as a research assistant at Kocaeli University's Social Work Department. Her fields of study include unemployment, poverty, disability, institutional care, and resilience