Dr. Ahmet T. Kuru (San Diego State University, USA)
Dr. Kuru is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at San Diego State University. He was Postdoctoral Fellow and Assistant Director of the Center for the Study of Democracy, Toleration, and Religion at SIPA of Columbia University. His dissertation received the American Political Science Association’s Religion and Politics Section’s best dissertation award. Its revised version was published by Cambridge University Press with the title Secularism and State Policies toward Religion: The United States, France, and Turkey. Kuru is also the author of articles published in journals including World Politics, Comparative Politics, and Political Science Quarterly.
Dr. Sune Lægaard (University of Copenhagen, DENMARK)
Dr.Lægaard is Assistant Professor in Philosophy and affiliated with the Centre for the Study of Equality and Multiculturalism at the University of Copenhagen. Among his publications are ‘Normative Interpretations of Diversity: The Danish Cartoons Controversy and the Importance of Context’, Ethnicities 9(3), August 2009; ‘Moderate Secularism and Multicultural Equality’, Politics 28(3), September 2008; ‘Moderate Secularism, Difference Sensitivity, and Contextualism: A Rejoinder to Modood’, Politics 29(1), January 2009; Nils Holtug, Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen and Sune Lægaard (Eds.), Nationalism and Multiculturalism in a World of Immigration (Basingstoke:
Palgrave Macmillan, 2009).
Shyamal Kataria (Royal Holloway, University of London, UK)
Shyamal is a PhD candidate in the Department of Politics and International Relations at Royal Holloway, University of London. He holds a Masters degree (Asian Politics) from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He has a particular interest in South Asian studies, and his thesis, under the supervision of Dr Yasmin Khan, attempts to place the trajectory of a well-known Indian separatist movement within adequate historical context.
Paula Sandrin (University of Westminster, UK)
Paula is a PhD candidate in the Department of Politics and International Relations at University of Westminster (UK). Her research interest is on Turkey-EU relations, in particular the security dimension. Her thesis, supervised by Professor Chantal Mouffe, is provisionally entitled European Union’s Common Foreign and Security Policy and the impact of Turkey: a Tale of divergent Security Cultures?. She also holds a Master Degree in International Relations from University of Westminster , and her thesis was entitled Beyond compliance with Copenhagen Criteria: A critical assessment of the arguments against Turkey accession to the European Union.
Prof. Dr. E. Fuat Keyman (Koç University, TURKEY)
Prof. Keyman is professor of International Relations at Koç University/İstanbul. He is also the director of the Koç University Center for Research on Globalization and Democratic Governance (GLODEM). He works on democratization, globalization, international relations, civil society, and Turkey-EU relations. He has produced many books and articels, both in English and in Turkish, in these areas. Among his books are Contending Discourses of Nationalism in Turkey (University of Utah Pres, 2009); Remaking Turkey (Lexington, Oxford, 2008); Turkish Politics in a Changing World: Global Dynamics, Domestic Transformations (Bilgi University Publications, 2007, with Ziya Öniş); Citizenship in a Global World: European Questions and Turkish Experiences (Routledge, London, 2005, with Ahmet İçduygu); Globalization, State, Identity/Difference: Towards a Critical Social Theory of International Relations (Humanities Press, New Jersey, 1997); Globalization, Europeanization and Citizenship in Turkey, (Bilgi University Publications, İstanbul, 2009, in Turkish); The Good Governace of Turkey (Bilgi University Publications, İstanbul, 2008, in Turkish); Changing World, Tranforming Turkey (Bilgi University Publications, İstanbul, 2005, in Turkish); and Turkey and Radical Democracy (Alfa, Istanbul, 2001, in Turkish).
Aykut Kaya (Kingston University, UK)
Aykut is an MSc candidate in International Relations at Kingston University (UK). He received his BSc in Business Administration from Koç University (TURKEY). His research interests include European and Middle East politics.
Dr. Jochen Walter (University of Bielefeld, GERMANY)
Dr. Walter holds a PhD from Bielefeld University, Germany. His research interests include theories of international community and world society, constructivist methodology and processes of European identity formation. He is member of the Institute for World Society Studies (Bielefeld University) and research associate at the collaborative research center “The Political as Communicative Space in History” (Bielefeld University). Latest publications: Transnational Political Spaces. Agents-Structures-Encounters (ed. with M. Albert, G. Bluhm, A. Leutzsch, J. Helmig) (Frankfurt/New York, 2009); Die Türkei-‘Das Ding auf der Schwelle’.(De-) Konstruktionen der Grenzen Europas (Wiesbaden, 2008).
Dr. Rabia Karakaya Polat (Işık University, TURKEY)
Dr. Karakaya Polat is an Assistant professor in the Department of International Relations at Işık University, Turkey. She holds PhD in Public Policy from De Montfort University (UK) and her thesis title is “The Internet, Local Participation and Democracy: An Institutionalist Approach”. Her publications include: ‘The 2007 Parliamentary Elections in Turkey: Between Securitization and Desecuritization’, Parliamentary Affairs, vol. 62, no.1, pp. 129-148; (with Bülent Aras) ‘From Conflict to Cooperation: Desecuritization of Turkey’s Relations with Syria and Iran’, Security Dialogue, 2008, vol. 39, no.5, pp. 475-495.
Icten Ural (Fatih University, TURKEY)
Icten holds a BA in Business Administration from the College of Arts and Sciences of the Koc University, Turkey and she is currently M.A. candidate in International Relations at Fatih University, Turkey. She is concerned with the Politics of the European Union, Euroskepticism in Turkey as well as Euro-Islam.
Natalie Martin (Loughborough University, UK)
Natalie is currently 3rd year PhD candidate in the Department of Politics, History and International Relations at Loughborough University, UK under the supervision of Prof. Mark Webber. She holds an MA from SOAS, UK and her academic interests are rooted in Turkish studies and now encompass EU enlargement and European security as well. She is also interested in the contemporary history of Turkey and the EU and the metatheoretical debates of International Relations. Her publications include the book review of “European Security Culture” by Monica Gariup (2009) Ashgate, Farnham, published in European Foreign Affairs Review, vol.14, no.3, pp. 451-456.
Dr. Igor Torbakov(the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, FINLAND)
Dr. Torbakov is a Senior Researcher at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs. He holds a PhD in History and is currently working on the project “Understanding Russia’s Policies in the Post-Soviet Lands: A Reappraisal”. He previously worked as a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University, 2002; Analyst at Central Eurasia Project, Open Society Institute, 2000-2006 and Jamestown Foundation, 2004-2006; and Visiting Fellow at Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study, Uppsala, 2006-2007. His recent publications include: “The Southern Vector: Russian Strategic Interests in Central and South Asia,” in Does South Asia Exist: Prospects for Regionalism in South Asia. Stanford University Press/Brookings Institution, 2009, forthcoming. “Rethinking the Nation: Imperial Collapse, Eurasianism, and George Vernadsky’s Historical Scholarship,” Kennan Institute Occasional Paper, 2008, forthcoming.“Making Sense of the Current Phase of the Turkish-Russian Relations,” Jamestown Foundation Occasional Paper, October 2007.
Prof. Ayhan Kaya (Istanbul Bilgi University, TURKEY)
Lecturer at the Department of International Relations, Istanbul Bilgi University; Director of the European Institute; specialised on European identities, Euro-Turks in Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands, Islam in Europe, Circassian diaspora in Turkey, and the construction and articulation of modern diasporic identities; received his PhD and MA degrees at the University of Warwick; his latest book is on the comparison of contemporary integration, citizenship and integration regimes of Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands (Islam, Migration and Integration: The Age of Securitization, London: Palgrave, 2009 May); his other recent books are as follows, Contemporary Migrations in Turkey: Integration or Return (Istanbul Bilgi University Press, in Turkish, co-written with others), Belgian-Turks, Brussels: King Baudouin Foundation, 2008, co-written with Ferh at Kentel), Euro-Turks: A Bridge or a Breach between Turkey and the EU (Brussels: CEPS Publications, 2005, co-written with Ferhat Kentel, Turkish version by Bilgi University).
Prof. Dr. Füsun Alver (Kocaeli University, TURKEY)
Prof. Dr. Füsun Alver is Head of Department in Journalism at Kocaeli University, Turkey. She completed her doctoral dissertation in Media Arts at Istanbul University and her post-doctoral studies at University of Vienna. She was visiting scholar in Communication and Media Arts Department at Ilmenau Technical University, Germany. Her research interests include theories of communication and journalism, political communication and intercultural communication. Her publications include Alver, F. (2007). Gazeteciliğin Kuramsal Temelleri (Institutional Bases of Journalism). Beta Basım A.Ş. İstanbul. Alver F (2003). Basında Yabancı Tasarımı ve Yabancı Düşmanlığı (Strangers and Xenophobia in media). Der Yayınları. İstanbul.
Vakur Kaya (ABHABER.COM,TURKEY)
Mr. Kaya is founder and editor in chief of ABHABER.COM, EU-Turkey information network, which is an independent, non-profit organisation.
Dr. Hasan Turunc
Hasan Turunc’s thesis, ‘The impact of the European Union on the process of democratisation in Turkey’, was supervised by Professor Chris Rumford. In addition to his doctoral degree, he holds an MA in The Politics of Democracy and a Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching in Higher Education from Royal Holloway, University of London. Hasan taught in the Department from 2004-2008, tutoring various courses including Introduction to IR and IR Theory. He has also held a Part-time Lecturer position at Richmond – The American International University in London. His publications include: ‘Islamicist or Democratic? The AKP’s search for Identity in Turkish Politics’, Journal of Contemporary European Studies, Vol. 15, no. 1 (April 2007), pp. 79-91; (with Gul Berna Ozcan) ‘The Politics of Administrative Decentralization in Turkey Since 1980′ in Handbook of Administrative Reform: An International Perspective, eds Jerri Killian and Niklas Eklund (Auerbach Publications, 2008), pp. 177-196; and a book review of Kerim Yildiz’s The Kurds in Turkey: EU accession and human rights (Pluto Press, 2006) in International Affairs, Vol 82, no. 6 (November 2006). His conference presentations include UACES Student forum 6th Annual Conference, Oxford University, 2005; First Global International Studies Conference, Istanbul 2005.
Prof. Ferdinand von Prondzynski (Dublin City University, IRELAND)
Prof. von Prondzynski is a lawyer by training, and has been President of Dublin City University since 2000. Before taking up his appointment, he was Professor of Law and Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Hull, England (1991-2000). Previously he was also Lecturer in Industrial Relations at Trinity College Dublin (1980 – 1990). He has also been a Director of the British-American Business Council.
Dr. Balkan Devlen (Izmir University of Economics, TURKEY)
Balkan Devlen is an Assistant Professor in the Department of International Relations and European Union in Izmir University of Economics, Turkey. He got his PhD from University of Missouri – Columbia in 2007. His research interests are in the intersection of IR theory, foreign policy, and international security.
Stacy Maruskin (International Strategic Research Organization (ISRO/USAK), Turkey)
Stacy Maruskin is a researcher at the International Strategic Research Organization (ISRO/USAK). Her interests are Turkish foreign policy, Turkey – United States relations and Middle Eastern Studies. She is a contributor to the Journal of Turkish Weekly and is the managing editor for news and book reviews for JTW.
Dr. Taner Akcam (Clark University, USA)
Dr. Akcam, Associate Professor of History at Clark University in Worcester, MA, is Kaloosdian/Mugar Chair in Armenian Genocide Studies at the university’s Strassler Center. Akcam’s extensive body of research has emphasized a critical examination of Turkish nationalism and the Armenian genocide. Among his many studies and journal articles, two books are particularly well-known to English-speaking audiences, namely From Empire to Republic: Turkish Nationalism and the Armenian Genocide (London and New York: Zed Books, 2004) and A Shameful Act: the Armenian Genocide and Turkish Responsibility (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2006).
Alan Scott (Winner of the 1st Big Idea Competition)
Mr. Scott is a teacher of mature years living in Istanbul and currently teaching English at Okan University (Istanbul-Turkey). He was born in New Zealand and worked as a high school teacher of English there. He first came to Turkey in 1995, and, apart from two years back in NZ, he has lived in Istanbul since then. He has a strong attachment to this country now through his Turkish wife, Dilek, as well as a great interest in Turkish history and culture. He has three grown up children living in Australia.You can see Mr. Scott’s blog where he publishes his thoughts as a foreigner in Turkey at: http://turkeyfile.blogspot.com/
Dr. C. Akca Atac (Cankaya University, Jean Monnet European Studies Association, TURKEY)
Dr. ATAÇ received her PhD in History from Bilkent University. Among her research interests, there are the theories and rhetoric of empire, neo-Stoicism, historical cosmopolitanism and definitions of normativism. On topics of empire and normativism, she has published both in the international and national referred journals and the newspapers and popular magazines. She spent the summer term as a Visiting Scholar at the UCLA and currently teaches Diplomatic History at Çankaya University, Ankara.
Dr. George Christou (University of Warwick, UK)
Dr.George Christou is an Associate Lecturer in European Politics, Department of Politics and international Studies, University of Warwick, UK, and has previously held positions as: a Research Associate at the Centre for Public Policy, Northumbria University, UK (2004-5); a Research Associate at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK (2003-4); and as a Lecturer in European Politics at the Department of Government, University of Manchester (2001-3). His main research interests include: the EU’s role in conflict resolution/transformation, with specific interest in Cyprus and more recently, the frozen conflicts in the eastern neighbourhood ; the EU’s policies towards the Eastern Neighbourhood (European Neighbourhood Policy, Eastern Partnership etc); the EU as an actor in Internet Governance and the political economy of European and Global Internet Governance. His main research monographs (books) include: ’The New Electronic Market Place: European Governance Strategies in a Globalising Economy’ (Edward Elgar, 2007); ‘The European Union and Enlargement: The Case of Cyprus’, (Basingstoke: MacMillan-Palgrave, 2004). He has also published in journals such as Governance, Journal of Public Policy, International Spectator and has articles forthcoming in Political Geography (2010), Geopolitics (2009) and Cooperation and Conflict (2010). He is currently working as part of a Warwick team (led by Prof. Stuart Croft) on a three year EU-funded FP7 project on the European Union as a Global-Regional Actor in Peace and Security (EU-GRASP). He is also editing a Special Issue of the journal ‘European Security’ on EU Security Governance.
Ozan Örmeci (Bilkent University- Usak University, TURKEY)
Mr. Örmeci is a PhD candidate in Political Science at Bilkent University (Turkey) and his thesis title is “Portrait of a Turkish Social Democrat: İsmail Cem“. He is currently associate member of Usak University and he has published on the history of leftism in Turkey and Turkish political history from Ittihat Terakki to Justice and Development Party.
Dr. Soner Cagaptay (The Washington Institute, USA)
Dr. Cagaptay is a senior fellow and director of the Turkish Research Program at The Washington Institute. He has written extensively on U.S.-Turkish relations, Turkish domestic politics, and Turkish nationalism, publishing in scholarly journals and major international print media, including Wall Street Journal, Middle East Quarterly, Middle Eastern Studies, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, and Newsweek. He also appears regularly on Fox News, CNN, NPR, Voice of America, al-Jazeera, BBC, CNN-Turk, and al-Hurra.
Dr. Erkan SAKA (Istanbul Bilgi University, TURKEY)
Erkan Saka is a lecturer in Public Relations and Media and Communication Systems departments at Istanbul Bilgi University. He has received his PhD. Degree in 2009 at the Anthropology Department of Rice University (Houston, TX). His research focused on journalistic productions of Turkish senior journalists and columnists in the context of Turkey’s membership negotiations with the EU. His current academic interests also include cybercultural emergences in Turkey.
Prof. Binnaz Toprak (Bahcesehir University, TURKEY)
Prof. Toprak is a professor and currently Chair of the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Bahcesehir University, Istanbul. Her works include the book Islam and Political Development in Turkey, Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1981, and two recent articles, “Islam and Democracy in Turkey,” Turkish Studies, Vol. 6, No.2, June 2005, 167-186, and “Economic Development versus Cultural Transformation: Projects of Modernity in Japan and Turkey,” New Perspectives on Turkey, No. 35, Fall, 2006, 85-128. She has also co-authored books in Turkish with Ali Çarkoğlu, including Türkiye’de Din, Toplum ve Siyaset (Religion, Society and Politics in Turkey), İstanbul: TESEV Yayınları, 2000; and Değişen Türkiye’de Din, Toplum ve Siyaset (Religion, Society and Politics in a Changing Turkey), TESEV Yayınları, 2006, translated into and English and published by TESEV, 2007, under the title Religion, Society and Politics in a Changing Turkey.
Dr. Ali Balci (Sakarya University, TURKEY)
Ali Balcı, Dr., is a Research Assistant at Sakarya University. He graduated from the Department of International Relations at Uludağ University and obtained his MA degree from the Department of International Relations at Sakarya University. He also was at the University of Utah as a visiting scholar in 2007. He has written several articles published in journals such as Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Turkish Studies and Uluslararası İlişkiler [International Relations]. His PhD dissertation is “A Periodization of State Discourse in Republican Turkey: A Foucauldian Approach”.
Dr. Catherine Macmillan (Yeditepe University, TURKEY)
Dr. Cathy Macmillan is an Assistant Prof. at Yeditepe University, Istanbul. Her doctoral dissertation was on “Expanding Fortress Europe? Enlargement and the EU’s Justice and Home Affairs Policies”. Her main area of interest include Turkey-EU relations, European integration and Europeanisation. Her article “The Application of Neofunctionalist Theory to the Enlargement Process: The Case of Turkey” was published by the Journal of Common Market Studies in September 2009.
Dr. Hatice YAZGAN(Ankara University, ATAUM – TURKEY)
Dr. Yazgan has been working on Turkey-EU relations, EU Policy making and some EU policies for nearly 10 years both as an EU expert and academic. She is PhD graduate of Ankara University, Faculty of Political Science, Department of International Relations. She is also a member of the Scientific Research Project team on “Public Opinion and Turkish Foreign Policy” conducted by ATAUM.
Dr. Maria Ruxandra Stoicescu (Geneva, SWITZERLAND)
Dr. Ruxandra Stoicescu is an independent consultant and researcher based in Geneva, Switzerland. Graduated from the Graduate Institute of International Studies and Development. PhD thesis: “Liminality in International Relations. A discursive analysis of three cases: Romania,Turkey, Ukraine”. Radio Segment on World Radio Switzerland, International Relations Uncovered.
Dr. Jenny B. White (Boston University, The US)
Dr. White is associate professor of anthropology at Boston University, former president of the Turkish Studies Association and of the American Anthropological Association Middle East Section, and sits on the board of the Institute of Turkish Studies. She has received numerous grants and fellowships from, among others, the Social Science Research Council, the MacArthur Foundation, the National Science Foundation, and Fulbright-Hays. She is author of Islamist Mobilization in Turkey: A Study in Vernacular Politics (2002) (Winner of 2003 Douglass Prize for best book in Europeanist anthropology); and Money Makes Us Relatives: Women’s Labor in Urban Turkey (second edition, London: Routledge, 2004). She has authored numerous articles on Turkey and lectures internationally on topics ranging from political Islam and civil society to ethnic identity and gender issues. Professor White is currently writing a book on contemporary Turkish nationalism and Islam. She has been following events in Turkey since the mid-1970s. All of her books have been translated into Turkish.
She also has written three historical novels set in nineteenth-century Istanbul, The Sultan’s Seal (2006), The Abyssinian Proof (2008), and The Winter Thief (2010). The Sultan’s Seal has appeared in fifteen languages. The Sultan’s Seal was named one of the top ten first novels of 2006 by Booklist and was shortlisted for the 2006 Ellis Peters Historical Crime Award.
Dr. Alper KALIBER (Yasar University, Izmir- TURKEY)
Dr. Kaliber received his BA and MA in International Relations from Bilkent University, Turkey. He also completed his PhD in Political Science at Bilkent University, submitting a thesis entitled ‘Rearticulation of Turkish Foreign Policy, Its Impacts on National/State Identity and State Society Relations in Turkey: The Cyprus Case’. Dr. Kaliber served as a Visiting Research Fellow at University of Birmingham between December 2003 and June 2004, and has contributed to the teaching of European Security modules at Universities of Sabanci (Turkey) and Birmingham. He has also conducted a research project entitled ‘De-securitizing Foreign Policy Unpacking the Impact of Europeanization: The Cyprus Case’, funded by Compagnia di San Paolo, Torino/Italy, Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, Stockholm/Sweden, and VolkswagenStiftung, Hanover/Germany within the framework of European Common Foreign and Security Policy Studies. He has also taken part in the SHUR project ‘Human Rights in Conflicts: The Role of Civil Society’, funded by the EU 6th Framework Programme. His areas of interest include Critical Security Studies, European security, the Cyprus conflict, Europeanisation, Turkish politics and modernisation.
Agnes Schneeberger (University of Leeds, UK)
Agnes is a Ph.D. Student and Teaching Assistant, Institute of Communications Studies, University of Leeds. Her publications on Turkey include ‘Constructing European Identity Through Mediated Difference: A Content Analysis of Turkey’s EU Accession Process in the British Press’, PLATFORM: Journal of Media and Communication, Vol. 1, (July 2009), pp. 83-102 and a forthcoming book review ‘Turkey’s Accession to the European Union: An Unusual Candidacy’, edited by Constantine Arvanitopoulos, Perspectives on European Politics and Society, Vol. 11, No. 1 (April 2010). She is also Chair of the UACES Student Forum Specialist Study Group ‘Media and Communication in Europe’. Her full Departmental profile is available at: http://ics.leeds.ac.uk/details.cfm?id=74
Dr. Zeynep Devrim Gursel (University of Michigan, USA)
Dr. Zeynep Devrim Gursel is an anthropologist who teaches at the University of Michigan. Originally trained in literature, she received her PhD in Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley. She researches how things become imagineable both for individuals and groups, and how forms in which the past and today are narrated, are shaped by, and in turn shape expectations of the future. She was introduced to the documentary world when she worked on Damming the Euphrates (Paxton Winters, 2001) in Southeast Turkey. Her documentary Coffee Futures on Turkish public opinion about Turkey’s EU membership was shown at Royal Holloway, University of London in 5th May 2010.
Ayca Tunc (Royal Holloway, University of London, UK)
Ayça is a PhD candidate and visiting teaching staff in Media Arts at Royal Holloway. Ayça’s PhD thesis studies diasporic Turkish Filmmakers in Contemporary Europe with a Particular Emphasis on the Generational Differences Between Turkish-German Filmmakers. She received her BSc in Communications with honours from Ege University (Turkey) in 2002 and then completed her masters degree in the Social Sciences Institute at Ege University in 2005 with a dissertation entitled ‘Independent Cinema: Alternative Tendencies in Turkish Cinema in the 1990s’. She worked as a research assistant in the same institution where she was also a key organiser of several national and international events in addition to many administrative posts such as strategic planner of Ege University Visual Communication Design Department and assistant to faculty coordinator for the Erasmus-Socrates Programme. She also has made many short films, some of which received prizes and shown on national and international film festivals and TV channels.
Dr. Asli Tunç (Istanbul Bilgi University, TURKEY)
Dr. Tunc is an Associate Professor at the School of Communications at Istanbul Bilgi University, Turkey and is currently serving as the Vice-Dean of the School of Communications. She received her Ph.D. on mass communications at Temple University in Philadelphia in 2000. She gave various lectures and seminars at universities in the USA, the UK and Greece on the freedom of expression and the media’s changing role in Turkey and around the world. She has numerous publications on the issues of democracy and media and social impacts of new media technologies in Turkey. She is also on the Editorial Board of International Journal of Comic Art, a scholarly publication of research on all aspects of comic art since 2001 and a contributor to a blog for The Comics Journal’s website at tcj.com. She is currently working on a book with a colleague on the impact of blogging on the future of journalism.
Dr. Bezen Balamir Coskun (Zirve University, TURKEY)
Dr. Balamir Coskun is an assistant professor at Zirve University, Turkey. She is also part of the research team at Zirve University Middle East Strategic Research Center. Dr. Coskun holds a MSc degree from Aalborg University, Denmark and has conducted PhD research at Loughborough University, UK. Coskun has several articles, book chapters and research papers. Her article entitled Analysing Desecuritisations: Problems and Prospects in Israeli-Palestinian Reconciliation has won 2007 Routledge Global Change, Peace & Security Essay Competition. She is also co-editor of Neighborhood Challenge: the European Union and its Neighbors published in 2009 and editor of Zirve University Middle Eastern Strategic Research Analysis Series.
Dr. Amy Mills (University of South Carolina, USA)
Dr. Mills completed her degree in Religious Studies at the University of Rochester in 1994. She spent her junior year abroad studying at the American University in Cairo between 1992-1993. This experience inspired her to continue learning about the Middle East, and she completed her MA in Middle East Studies at the University of Texas at Austin in 1998. Her thesis was about public health and public space and the Greater Wastewater system in Cairo. While in graduate school, she developed an interest in Istanbul and began studying Turkish. Dr. Mills completed her Ph.D. in Geography at the University of Texas at Austin in 2004. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Kentucky before joining the faculty at the University of South Carolina in 2005. Her research has been funded by various institutions, including Fulbright Hays and the Institute of Turkish Studies.
Dr. Roy Karadag (Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, GERMANY)
Dr. Karadag is currently a Post-Doctoral Scholar at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne. His doctoral project on “Political Capitalisms: Power, Elites and the Economy in Turkey and the Philippines” has been completed in November 2009. His research interests include Comparative Politics, Historical Sociology, Theories of the State and State Formation, Middle East Studies, and Political Islam. His publications include two book chapters in German (2006) mit Oliver Schlumberger: Demokratisierung und Transitionsforschung. In: Barrios, Harald/Christoph Stefes (Hrsg.): Einführung in die Comparative Politics. München: Oldenbourg, 227-250. (Lehr- und Handbücher der Politikwissenschaft); and (2007): Jenseits von Kultur und Ökonomie: Rivalisierende Erklärungsansätze zum Klientelismus und ihre Relevanz für die arabische Welt. In: Albrecht, Holger (Hrsg.): Politik, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft im Vorderen Orient. Baden-Baden: Nomos, 243-262.
Mustafa Sezer Ozcan (University of Bielefeld, GERMANY)
Sezer is a doctoral student in Political Science at the University of Bielefeld. He completed his masters on Turkey’s Europeanization case at the Catholic University of Portugal (Lisbon) and holds a BSc from Uludag University (Turkey).Sezer’s research interests include energy security, Europeanization and Copenhagen school of securitization.
Can Buyukbay (University of Zurich, SWITZERLAND)
Can is a PhD candidate and Teaching Assistant in the Department of Political Science at University of Zurich. Graduated from the renowned high school Istanbul Erkek Lisesi, he obtained his BA in political science from the University of Cologne and METU in Ankara. He holds a Master’s degree in political science from University of Bern. His research interests include Occidentalism, Euroscepticism and European Integration.
Rosa Öktem (Human Rights Foundation of Turkey, TURKEY)
Rosa Öktem holds a dual degree from the universities of Cologne and Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and an LL.M. in Human Rights Law from Queen’s University of Belfast. After her studies she worked at the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia and the European Parliament before joining the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (Türkiye Insan Haklari Vakfi) in 2008. Since June 2010 she is also a council member of the Turkish Green Party (Yesiller Partisi).
Dr. Armağan Emre Çakır (Marmara University, TURKEY)
Dr. Armağan Emre Çakır is assistant professor at the European Union Institute of Marmara University, Istanbul. He is the chairperson of the Department of Politics and International Relations of the European Union. His research focuses on theories of European integration, and EU–Turkey relations.
Dr. Basak Alpan (Middle East Technical University, TURKEY)
Dr. Basak Alpan is a lecturer in Middle East Technical University (METU) at the Department of Political Science and Public Administration. She is also a leading member of the Center for European Studies at METU. She holds PhD from the University of Birmingham (UK). Her publications include Alpan, B. (2007)“Intellectual and Political ‘Europe’: Rupture or Continuity in Central Europe?” in Central European History and the European Union : the meaning of Europe, edited by Stanislav J Kirschbaum, Basingstoke; New York, Palgrave Macmillan.
Dr Alexander Bürgin (Izmir University of Economics, TURKEY)
Dr Alexander Bürgin is Assistant Professor at the “Department of International Relations and EU” at Izmir University of Economics. His research interests are: European integration theories, EU-Turkey relations and migration/integration policies of EU countries.
Prof. Roland Benedikter (UCSB and Stanford University, USA)
Prof. Roland Benedikter, born 1965, serves as European Foundation Research Professor of Political Sociology (with specialization in Contextual Political Analysis) in residence at the Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies of the University of California at Santa Barbara, and as Visiting Scholar / Research Affiliate 2009-13 at the Europe Center, Stanford University, USA. He is a Full Academic Fellow of the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies Arlington, VA, Board Member of the Institute for Cultural Intelligence Washington DC, and has been awarded multiple scientific acknowledgements. His research, teaching, supervising and tutoring engagements since the 1990s include universities and think tanks in the USA, the UK, Australia, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Turkey, Bulgaria, Kosovo and Peru. From 1995-2003, he has also been active in applied European Cultural and Minority Politics. Authorized Websites: http://europe.stanford.edu/people/rolandbenedikter/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_Benedikter. E-mail: rben[at]stanford.edu and rbenedikter[at]orfaleacenterucsb.edu.
Dr. Jeffrey C. DIXON (The College of the Holy Cross, USA)
Dr. Jeffrey C. Dixon is an Assistant Professor at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA. He received his PhD in Sociology from Indiana University in 2006 and worked as an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Koç University in Istanbul for three years. His research has been published in Social Forces, Public Opinion Quarterly, The British Journal of Sociology, and International Migration Review, among other journals. In addition to doing research on Turkey and the European Union, he also has research interests in political sociology more broadly, race/ethnicity and social stratification. At the College of the Holy Cross, he teaches seminars on Turkey and the EU, along with research methods, social stratification, and introductory sociology courses.
Dr. Şakir DİNÇŞAHİN (Yeditepe University, Istanbul, Turkey)
Dr. Şakir Dinçşahin is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Yeditepe University (İstanbul, Turkey), where he is teaching Turkish Politics, Political Thought, and Research Methodology. He recently concluded his doctoral dissertation on Turkish political thought under the supervision of Professor Feroz Ahmad. He holds a master’s degree in international economics from Yeditepe University and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Boğaziçi University. His works on nationalism, populism and intellectual history of Turkey were published in Nations and Nationalism, Government and Opposition (forthcoming), Communication Studies and Bilgi ve Bellek. [e-mail: sdincsahin@yeditepe.edu.tr]
Dr. Adam Szymański (University of Warsaw/PISM, POLAND)
Dr. Adam Szymański is a political scientist, assistant professor in the Institute of Political Science, University of Warsaw, in 2004-2011 also analyst in the Polish Institute of International Affairs (PISM). Scholarship holder of the Program Start 2007 of the Foundation of the Polish Science and the project Modern University (2010) as well as at universities in Bonn, Vienna, Berlin (FU), Ankara (METU) and Istanbul (Istanbul University, Koç University). Expert in the enlargement of the European Union, political system and foreign policy of Turkey – first of all relations with the EU. Author of a number of publications: books (e.g. Constitutional System of Turkey, Warsaw 2006; Between Islam and Kemalism. Problem of Democracy in Turkey, Warsaw 2008; Turkey and Europe. Challenges and Chances, Warsaw 2011, ed.), articles, analyses and reports on the European integration, political systems of selected states as well as international relations.
Dr. Beken Saatçioğlu (Boğaziçi University, TURKEY)
Dr. Saatçioğlu has MA and PhD degrees on International Relations and Comparative Politics at University of Virginia (2009). She also completed her Postdoc in KFG Research College’s “The Transformative Power of Europe” project at Free University of Berlin (2010).
Dr. Hakkı Taş (Altın Koza University, TURKEY) – Winner of the Second Big Idea Competition
Dr. Hakkı Taş teaches at the Department of Political Science at Altın Koza University, Ankara. He was a visiting asistant in research at Yale University in 2007 and received his PhD in Political Science from Bilkent University in 2011. His main research interests are civil-military relations, hegemony and resistance, and modern Turkish politics. He contributed to the Encyclopedia of Religion and Violence and also got published in PS: Political Science and Politics, Muslim Public Affairs Journal, and Political Sphere.
