Şebnem Baran received her doctorate in cinema and media studies at the University of Southern California in 2018. Before coming to the University of Southern California, where Baran also minored in communication during her doctoral education, she received her bachelor's and master's degrees in political science and international relations at Bogazici University in Turkey. Baran’s dissertation, “Whose Quality Is It?:
 Transnational TV Flows and Power in the Global TV Market,” explores how Anglo-American quality programming standards are claiming more importance in the global television market. Her project aims to bridge political economy and cultural studies approaches by surveying text with context alongside agency with structure. With her research on the generic, narrative and aesthetic analysis of traveling content, Baran explores the power dynamics in the global television market. Her research interests include television studies, global television markets, media industries, online streaming, TV formats, and audience and fan studies. Baran teaches course on the global history of television, quality television, TV genres and the theory of television studies.