Y. Doğan Çetinkaya was born in Istanbul. He is working as an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Political Sciences at Istanbul University. He is a member of the board of directors of Özgür Üniversite (Free University). He is the co-chief editor of Tarih ve Toplum Yeni Yaklaşımlar (History and Society) journal.

He graduated from the Faculty of Political Sciences at Istanbul University in 1997.

He received his first MA degree from the Department of History at Boğaziçi University in 2002. His thesis was published by İletişim Yayınları in Istanbul in 2004 (3rd print 2020): 1908 Osmanlı Boykotu: Bir Toplumsal Hareketin Analizi (1908 Ottoman Boycott: An Analysis of a Social Movement).

He had a second master’s degree from the Department of History at Central European University in Budapest in 2004.

He took his Ph.D. degree from Leiden University in May 2010 from the Institute of Area Studies/Middle Eastern Studies. His Ph.D. Thesis published by IB Tauris in 2014 (Paperback in 2021) in London: The Young Turks and the Boycott Movement: Nationalism, Protest and Working Classes in the Formation of Modern Turkey. A Turkish translation of this book came out a year later in 2015 in Istanbul and was published by İletişim Yayınları: Osmanlı’yı Müslümanlaştırmak: Kitle Siyaseti, Toplumsal Sınıflar, Boykotlar ve Milli İktisat (1909-1914).

The last book he has written is on different aspects and historiography of the 1917 Revolution and co-authored by Foti Benlisoy: Gelecek 1917: Tarih Devrim Kültür (Future 1917: History, Revolution, Culture) and published by Habitus Kitap in 2018

An edition of his on social movements, Toplumsal Hareketler: Tarih, Teori ve Deneyim (Social Movements: History, Theory, and Experience) came out in 2008 in Istanbul and was printed by İletişim Yayınları 5 times until 2021. Another edition of his came out after the Arap Spring and was published in 2014 (3rd print in 2021) by İletişim Yayınları: Ortadoğu: Direniş, Devrim ve Emperyalizm (Middle East: Resistance, Revolution, and Imperialism). He edited two volumes with Mehmet Ö. Alkan on the working-class history of the Ottoman Empire and Turkey and the 1917 Revolution, both published by Tarih Vakfı Yurt Yayınları: Tanzimat’tan Günümüze Türkiye İşçi Sınıfı Tarihi 1839-2014: Yeni Yaklaşımlar, Yeni Alanlar, Yeni Sorunlar, [The History of Working-Class in Turkey 1839-2014] in 2015 (2nd print in 2021) and 1917: Rusya’da Devrimde Devrim, [1917: Revolution in Revolution in Russia] in 2018.
The last book he edited is Osmanlı'da Marksizm ve Sosyalizm (Marxism and Socialism in the Ottoman Empire) published in December 2021 (2nd print in 2022).

He was the vice president of Tarih Vakfı (History Foundation).