Çetin Çelik is Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Koç University and affliated with Koç University Migration research Center (MireKoç). He holds a PhD in Sociology from University of Bremen. His fields of interests are mainly the sociology of migration and education. Çelik’s current works examine how institutions, particularly educational institutions, respond to increasingly diversifying populations by massive immigration. He is also investigating the formation of ethnic and symbolic boundaries between majority societies and immigrants and refugees in countries such as Turkey, Germany and the United States. His Fulbright-funded research at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs focuses on destigmatisation strategies by Syrian refugees in the United States.
Maissam Nimer is a sociologist working in the fields of migration, education, language, and social and gender inequalities. She obtained a PhD in sociology at Paris Saclay University in July 2016. In her thesis, she looked at the mechanisms of social and cultural selection that explain the inequality of access to higher education in Lebanon. Nimer’s current work at Koç University, Istanbul, deals with the integration of Syrian refugee youth in Turkey. She is the recipient of a one-year Koç University Seed Grant and a Mercator IPC fellow at Sabanci University exploring the role of language instruction in integration of Syrian refugees in Turkey. She is also a committee member of the “Axe Migrations et Mobilités” at the French Institute for Anatolian Studies, Istanbul (AMiMo, IFEA). Nimer teaches courses on the sociology of education at Galatasaray University in Turkey. She holds an MSc from the London School of Economics and BS from the American University of Beirut.
Fatih Aktas is currently a faculty member in the College of Education at Yeditepe University (Istanbul, Turkey). His main research interests include comparative and international education policy analysis, creativity and innovation in education, globalization and policy transfer in education, internationalization of higher education and sustainable development. He received his Ph.D. degree in Comparative and International Education from Lehigh University (USA).
Tuğçe Özdemir is a PhD student at the Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Basel. Her research explores the intersection of cultural identities and social class in the field of education with a special focus on Alevi community in Turkey and Switzerland comparatively. Her fields of interests are mainly sociology of education, migration and social inequalities from the perspective of cultural class analysis with the influence of Bourdieu. She received her master degree in Comparative Studies in History and Society at Koç University in 2018, with a thesis exploring the middle class strategies in the field of Turkish education system. Previously, she earned a B.A. degree in sociology at Istanbul Bilgi University.
Didem Sağlam
Didem Sağlam is a graduate of Middle East Technical University Sociology Department with BA degree. Currently, she is pursuing her MA degree in sociology at Boğaziçi University. In MA thesis, she is studying juvenile justice system in Turkey through focusing child imprisonment. Main research interests are criminal justice system, prison studies, youth studies and anthropology of childhood. She also attended TUBITAK (The Scientific and Research Council of Turkey) research project titled as “The Effects of Social Class on Academic Achievement: Family – School Relations” as a researcher.
Begüm Sonbahar Üregel
Begüm Sonbahar Üregel is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Sociology at Koç University. Her main research interests are education, parenting and migration. More specifically, she works on the neoliberal transformation of education and changing parental perceptions of education, and the problems that migrant children face in school. She earned a B.A. degree in International Relations at Istanbul Bilgi University and an M.A. degree in International Political Economy at the same university. She worked in several projects and researches about internal and external migration, education, vulnerable groups and child labor.
Birce Altıok is a Coordinator at the Migration Research Center at Koç University (MiReKoc) and she received her Ph.D. in the Department of International Relations at Koç University. She received her MA in Human Rights Studies from Columbia University (2011) and BS in Global and International Affairs from Binghamton (SUNY) and Boğaziçi University (2010). She finished her dissertation at Koç University on refugee activism with a special focus on state-civil society relations. She has publications on foreign policy, social cohesion and civil society. Her research interests include forced migration, state policies and inclusion.
Eleni Pothou
Eleni Pothou is a Ph.D. student in Sociology at Koç University. She is interested in the formation of identity and collective memory of minorities with a specific focus on the religious minorities in Turkey. She is also interested in youth studies and education policy and more specifically in the ways the young generation of minorities exists and performs in the education system. She holds a M.A. in Media and Communication Systems from Istanbul Bilgi University and a B.A. in Greek Philology with a major in Linguistics from Athens University.