After graduating from Feyziye Mektepleri Işık College, she studied political science and history at Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, where she obtained the master"s degree on a thesis entitled Prens Sabahaddin ve Terakki Mecmuası ("Prens Sabahaddin and Terakki Magazine"), and the doctorate on a thesis entitled Erken Cumhuriyet Döneminde Laik Düşünce ("Secular Thought in the Early Republican Period").
She is a columnist for Hurriyet Daily News. Mert is also a Bilderberg participant. She worked for some time as a research assistant at Boğaziçi University, after which she became lecturer at the Department of Economics of Istanbul University.
In 2012–2013, she was an International Scholar in Residence at the Stanford Humanities Center.
She used to host a television show, but this was dropped after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan publicly criticized her. She was also fired on February 19, 2012 from her job as a columnist for the daily newspaper Milliyet.
Mert has said that she now fears for her personal safety. The Turkish Journalists" Association has denounced the attacks on Mert by Erdoğan.
