Prof. Dr. Özgür Ünal Eriş

Chairholder

Jean Monnet Chair on EU Awareness, Relations and Cooperation

Prof. Dr. Özgür Ünal-Eriş acts as the Chair holder of the Jean Monnet Chair. She received her BA from Political Science and International Relations Department in Boğaziçi University, her postgraduate degree in European Studies in University of Exeter’s Centre of European Studies in United Kingdom and her PhD from the Department of Government in University of Essex in the UK. She taught at Bahçeşehir University Department of EU Studies between 2001-2015. Since 2015, she has been teaching full time at Department of Political Science and International Relations in İstanbul 29 Mayıs University. She specializes on illegal migration, Türkiye-EU relations and impact of EU on democratisation of Türkiye. Her recent publications include Revisiting Secularism in Theory and Practice from Springer Publishing and Political Economy of Muslim Countries from Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Ünal-Eriş has also embarked upon several training and educational seminars dedicated to create awareness about the EU within the public. Her course “Freedom, Security and Justice” was a Jean Monnet module between 2012-2015. She holds the title of Jean Monnet Chair between September 2020-2023.

Prof. Dr. Merve Kütük- Kuriş

Chair Member

Assist. Prof. Merve Kütük-Kuriş acts as a senior expert in Jean Monnet Chair. She has a BA degree in Political Science and Sociology from Istanbul Bilgi University, a M.Phil. degree in Political Theory from the University of Oxford and a PhD in Politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. She received her assistant professorship status in 2021, and taught undergraduate and graduate courses on politics, gender, social movements and Islam. Her latest ethnographic study of transformations of gender relations in contemporary Türkiye received the 2018 Şirin Tekeli Research Award by Sabancı University – Gender and Women’s Studies Center of Excellence. Kütük-Kuriş has published in edited collections and peer-reviewed journals, including Women’s Studies International Forum, Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies, and Religions. She is currently completing her first monograph Refashioning Muslims: Women Between the New Conservatism and Neoliberalism in Istanbul under contract with the Edinburgh University Press.

Kübra Şahin

Chair Assistant

Research Asistant Kübra Şahin acts as a Chair assistant. She received her bachelor degree in Political Science and International Relations from Istanbul 29 Mayıs University in 2019 and received her master degree in International Relations from Marmara University. As of today, she is PHD student in the department of Political Science and International Relations in İstanbul University. She speaks Turkish, English and basic French.